The mayonnaise fever that swept Sweden: a history of potato salad

The creamy potato salad, a quintessential summer dish in Sweden, has a history far richer than its simple appearance suggests. While today it's often a creamy concoction featuring mayonnaise, sour cream, capers, and chives, its journey to this form has been a long one.

Early precursors to potato salad can be traced back to 1621 in Austria, where an abbot documented a recipe involving sliced boiled potatoes mixed with oil, vinegar, pepper, and salt. The creamy variant, however, emerged much later. In the 1860s, French-Belgian chef Lucien Olivier, working at the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow, created a secret salad dressing using egg yolks, mustard, vinegar, and olive oil. This dressing was mixed with potatoes and other ingredients, forming what is considered the oldest well-documented mayonnaise-based potato salad recipe, though it wasn't revealed until 1894, after his death.

In Sweden, oil-based potato salads were still common during that era, with one sold at the Stockholm Exhibition in 1897. The first Swedish recipe resembling today's creamy version appeared in the Idun cookbook in 1911, containing egg yolk, cooking oil, and cream, often with beetroot and capers. A wartime austerity version from 1942 even thickened boiled potatoes with milk and flour, highlighting the dish's established popularity.

The post-war era of the 1950s saw a resurgence of richer ingredients. Companies like Rydbergs, which began producing mayonnaise in 1937, and other competitors fueled a "mayonnaise fever." Potato salad became a staple on the revived smörgåsbord, frequently served alongside roast beef. By the 1970s, pre-packaged potato salads entered the market, increasing the dish's accessibility but often leading to a decline in quality due to the use of thickeners and egg powder instead of real ingredients.

The author emphasizes that homemade versions, whether oil-based, mayonnaise-based, or herb-rich, easily surpass these industrial imitations, offering a superior taste and texture.