If you’ve ever been to a church picnic, you’ve had this stuff. And really, it does taste pretty good, if you are really into mayo and mustard. I am really into mustard, but mayo, for me, is only to be used as a binder or a very faint distant baseline. Unlike most white Americans, I would rather have my bologna sandwich dry, if the only option for a spread is mayo. And Miracle Whip? Don’t even get me started.

Nonetheless, people love this stuff, and I realize that in this case, I am the cheese, and I stand alone. I feel it is only fair to be non-partisan in the discussion of all things potato salad.

So, here’s the recipe for the yellow fluffy stuff, in my own dear mama’s words.

She says, and I quote:

“Boil 6-8 red potatoes (at least medium to large size). Cool and remove the skins.

Boil 3-4 eggs–hard boil — shell and cool

Dice the potatoes in a large mixing bowl.

Add: 1 small white or yellow onion, diced.
approx. 1 cup of sweet pickle relish (maybe a bit more)
approx. 3/4 cup diced celery
grate the hard boiled eggs into the bowl

Mix approx. 1 1/2 cup good mayo; (I use Hellman’s light)
1/2 cup sour cream –optional
1/2 cup Miracle Whip Salad Dressing
1 Tb. mustard
Mix all of these ingredients together and add to the ingredients in the potato bowl.

You can add more salad dressing if you want it sweeter, or more mayo–whatever you need to make it the consistency you like. I like mine pretty creamy versus dry.”

Note: Mr. Meat and Potatoes’ mama would disagree about grating in the hard boiled egg. She’d slice em and lay em atop the yellow pile o’ taters.

I ask you: how many of you out there who consider yourselves cookers to some degree find that your partners want things HOW MAMA DID IT, regardless of the updated or fancied-up version you might be splendidly presenting in your new daisy capiz bowl?

And, what other recipes fall victim to this blight? I mean, don’t get me wrong. There are some things that, like Texas, you don’t mess with. Mama’s chicken and noodles would be an example.

But it is a testiment to the psychological power of childhood, how we tend to eat our McDonald’s burgers the exact same way we did when we were kids, even if we now like pickles just fine. We’ll still order our burgers without. And if I offer to make mac and cheese with some fontina and gruyere, Mr. Meat and Potatoes might turn up his nose a little and ask if we have any with just cheddar lying around.

If I make homestyle mashed potatoes, with rosemary and pancetta, hand smashed with the skins still in there, he’ll say, “But grandma’s are smooth and creamy. Do we have any like that?” Before he even tries my fancy, updated version.

Do we choose the old standards because of nostalgia? Fear of new things? Are our tastes unwaveringly cemented by the time we’re 10? Or, after all, is the old way JUST BETTER?

I mean, I’m all about vintage, but really? Is it tried and true? Or just tired?