The Secret to the World's Best Potato Salad

If you have ever wondered how to get the richest, creamiest-tasting dressing for potato salad, look no further. Allrecipes' ever-popular World's Best Potato Salad contains a special ingredient that may surprise you, but ensures a winning batch every time you make it.

The recipe calls for evaporated milk, which you don't typically see in potato salad ingredient lists. It is cooked briefly with eggs, sugar, cornstarch, and vinegar to make a thick, smooth base, and then mixed with butter and mayonnaise. 

Why It Works

Evaporated milk makes sense because it has a similar consistency to cream and also works as an enriching agent. It is a type of condensed milk that has had 60 percent of its water removed, resulting in a thicker, creamier milk with a subtle caramelized flavor and color. It has a higher nutrient concentration due to the evaporation process. 

What is key about evaporated milk is that it can withstand high temperatures and boiling without curdling. And even when the vinegar is poured in, despite breaking ever so slightly, as soon as it gets whisked together, the whole mixture becomes creamy again almost immediately. Regular milk or cream would not do that; it would break and become lumpy upon contact with vinegar or if brought to a full boil.

Evaporated milk is a smart choice for adding creaminess to cooked dishes, such as thick sauces (like potato salad dressing or homemade macaroni-and-cheese sauce), puddings, and slow cooker recipes. You can substitute it for milk, cream, or half-and-half without needing to coddle it quite so much over a burner. It's great in baked goods, too. It is a handy, versatile, and shelf-stable ingredient to keep on hand, so be sure to grab a can next time you're at the grocery store. It's also cheaper than fresh milk, which is a win these days.

What Others Are Saying About World's Best Potato Salad

The dressing for World's Best Potato Salad is delicious. Commenters have lots of great things to say. One described it as “the best sauce ever” and loves the fact that it “does not absorb all into the salad making it dry, it stays nice and creamy.” Another reviewer, who describes herself as “not a huge fan of potato salad,” says, “It is the best… [with] just the right ingredients.”

Commenters also describe how they play around with it, sometimes reducing the sugar and upping the cornstarch, adding paprika and celery seeds for depth, or trying (gentler) apple cider vinegar. They describe using it for recipes beyond potato salad, including pasta salads and coleslaw. Give it a try and see what you think.