plllog, I would definitely use them. I only use boiling/waxy potatoes for potato salad. However, I just did a quick online check...lots of recipes out there for Baked Potato Salad. A couple good sources for it might be either Genius Kitchen or Alec Guarnaschelli's version.

Russets are fine for potato salad, but since they're already baked I think they'd reincarnate better as hash browns or twice-baked potatoes. I like my potato salad with fresh warm potatoes :)

Thank-you both! I like GWCF opinions on the eating, but I generally like the recipes I've gotten from Genius Kitchen, and AG is the cook's cook. I'll check them out, though I think PM has the right of it. Warm fresh potatoes make for good potato salad, and why do it if it's not going to be good. They'll keep another day or two, and there's some turkey, gravy and green beans. I see a casserole in the offing. Snore.

It's true warm potatoes are best. Mine get a good dose of white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar while still hot or warm. Just adds a bit more zip to potato salad.

party_music's suggestions for hash browns (or ranch potatoes) is good.

How about a German potato salad? Slice the baked potatoes and add them to the hot dressing to heat through.

I love twice baked potatoes. I’d go for that option :-)

Yeah, it was the warm potatoes and acid that I couldn't figure out how to get around. I don't really have takers for other potato dishes, even if I could run around the kitchen more. I just had a yen for potato salad, probably because it's soup weather. :) Thanks for the suggestions.

I think AG's recipe was not made with russets, it was made with small Yukon Golds, a different texture than the baking style russets.

I agree with the hash browns/twice baked versions, I just don't think they are going to make the best potato salad. It'll be OK, of course, and if you're hungry for potato salad, well, you'd probably eat it. I just don't think it's the best use for those particular potatoes.

Annie

if the russets are slightly underdone, they make an okay potato salad. since these are full on baked, you might not like the texture. you could just make potato soup, adding bacon bits, carrots, celery, cream cheese and chicken stock/broth and milk/cream/butter

See! This is why I posted. I don't do potatoes. I know how to make them, but not how to go off script. I knew it was a long shot--I'm sure there's a good reason why I don't use russets to make potato salad. I was hoping y'all would say, "Oh, I have a great baked russet potato salad recipe. Here's what you do...." Barring that, I'm not going to worry about the danged potatoes. I don't want bad texture meh potato salad. If I'm still craving potato salad I can order it from a place that makes the really good potato salad and be nice to my healing toe.

Thanks for all the ideas and opinions. They're very informative.

Craving potato salad is different! Forget the already baked ones and nuke a potato, cool slightly in cold water (makes the skin slip/peel away easily), then make PS for one. :)

If they are not too too soft, I would toss them in a vinaigrette dressing. It's my favorite kind of potato salad and for me it doesn't matter which kind of potato gets used for it.

If they are too soft then make them twice baked. Very easy to make.

I would go with the twice baked option. If russets are cooked well enough to be edible as a baked potato, then they will be too soft for potato salad (even a hot potato salad). I wouldn't even use them for hash browns as the grating would just turn them into mush - hash browns are typically made with grated raw potatoes.

But twice baked potatoes need a very well cooked and fluffy consistency, very much what you look for with mashed potatoes. Which is kind of what twice baked are, except with more additions :-)

I bake potatoes to use just for twice baked. Three 1 lb potatoes cut into six halves. We use two that night and I freeze the other four for later.

ETA: Usually potatoes don't freeze well, but with the butter, sour cream, and cheese, they are great.

Stuffed Baked Potatoes 6 servings

3 large baking potatoes, 1 lb EACH

1 1/2 vegetable oil, optional

1/2 cup sliced green onions

1/2 cup butter, divided

1/2 cup light cream (I use heavy)

1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon white pepper (I use black)

1 cup (4 oz) shredded cheddar cheese

Paprika, if wanted

Rub potatoes with oil, if desired: pierce with a fork. Bake at 400* for 1 hour and 20 minutes or until tender. Allow potatoes to cool to the touch. Cut potatoes in half lengthwise; scoop out pulp, leaving a thin shell.Place pulp in large bowl.

Saute onions in 1/4 cup butter until tender. Add to potato pulp along with cream, sour cream, salt, and pepper. Beat (mash) until smooth. Fold in cheese. Stuff potato shells and place in 9"x13" pan. Melt remaining butter and drizzle over the potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika if wanted.

Bake at 350* for 20 to 30 minutes or until heated through. Potatoes may be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen. If refrigerated, allow extra time to heat.

I usually thaw overnight in frig.

Pillog, really sorry about the toe. How on earth did that happen? Whenever I read your comments I always feel you are a pro cook, so I know your taters will be good no matter what. Give them a whirl. Maybe you'll come up with something entirely new and yummy.

LOL, PM!! That presupposes I have a potato! Even when I buy potatoes, they tend to go bad before they get used, and I only bought enough for Thanksgiving. Everyone ate more meat and stuffing and less potato than anticipated, which is why I have more than one left.

The twice baked votes have it. Now if someone wants the potatoes to make the twice baked potatoes, that would be fine. Even though the last of the (remarkably perfect) stuffing is gone, I don't have anyone who will eat them! Let alone the motivation to do all that prep.

Sherry, thanks for posting the recipe. It's different from what I know and an interesting read.

DRLou, thank-you for the compliment! I'm nowhere near a pro, but you're right! I could invent something. Maybe a potato, pickle, pepper, sandwich with celery sticks. Or maybe mashed potato salad? I think it's the pickles, peppers, seasoning and mayonnaise I'm craving, i.e., the flavor. The potatoes are just the vehicle. :) Thanks for the inspiration!

The toe is a simple story. Big changes in air pressure disrupt my sleep, and we'd had a storm blow through. I woke up early, bleary eyed, and staggered to the bathroom--unchanged for 17 years. Walked by the bathtub and banged my pinkie toe right into the part of the tub surround that juts out. That's been there unchanged for 17 years. A lot of whimpering and giving orders to press labor who just wanted to socialize no matter how much they wanted their dinner, and I made it through Thanksgiving. Since then, I've pretty much been feet-upping and allowing the family to go feral. :)

Soup....potato soup....onion and a bit of celery in some butter ...add flour cook a bit....add some chicken broth and some milk....chopped green onion and parsley to garnish....if you are feeling skinny skip the chicken broth and add light cream.

I forgot about a cream of potato soup I make. Make a white sauce and add coarsely mashed baked potato. I like it just like that with lots of pepper, but you can also add bacon bits.

Ding ding ding! as they say! We have a winner.

I often skip the middle meal, but I was a need for protein anyway, so, inspired by Dandyrandylou, I made the sandwich. I'd bought a big country French style, sourdough-ish boule for the third of it that went in the stuffing. Cut a center slice in two and toasted it hard and crunchy as a contrast to the potato. We were doing a jarred mayonnaise test. I haven't had the oomph recently to pasteurize the eggs and all that rigamarole for sandwiches when there's such a choice of chemical free store bought mayonnaise. The current one has excellent flavor but is way too thick, which means it lent itself well to being doctored. I fixed it up with pickle juice, ground celery seed, dill and black pepper. I was worried I'd over do the mustard in a tablespoon of mayo, so I just used prepared mustard on the other side of the sandwich. I pooped out at that point and skipped the celery side.

Toast, doctored mayo, yellow mustard, sliced baked potato, orange bell pepper, dill pickle chips and Applegate Farms sliced smoked turkey breast. Really good. Really hit the spot looking for that pickly potatoey crunchy mustardy taste.

I might try the mashed potato, potato salad flavored potato salad with what's left.

Tried a recipe for sweet potato and Yukon potato soup with thyme, but it's poor. Any suggestions on how to save it? TIA

Turmeric. I can't completely imagine your soup without the recipe, but when I used to just throw whatever I had into the pot to make soup and the flavor just wasn't quite right, I'd put in a lot of turmeric--one teaspoon at a time, but often a few in total. Too much gets weird, so give it time to settle and blend between each. I called it my "yummifier". Also, potatoes like that can stand up to black pepper, so you could add a bunch. I don't know what's in your soup, but if there are no lumps, you might add something cruciferous and on the bitter side to play of the sweetness of the tubers, like lightly steamed broccoli floret pieces or torn up kale.

I am wincing thinking about your toe. Ow ow ow.

No real clue about the potatoes. I can't think through the imagined ow ow ow.

I have been told that women are more pain tolerant than men. Something about childbirth.

Following.... this thread is yummy. I often bake an extra tater for leftovers.

I love cutting and deep frying leftover baked potatoes. Big fat salty fries. Mmmmm.

Thanks, John. It's healing pretty well. It's fine in Birkenstocks or bare, but can't tolerate anything closed, even cuddly shearling slippers, so I've been sheltering from the rain. The worst was having to walk on uneven ground when the next car died.... :(

Amylou, I've never heard of frying cooked potatoes. That's interesting. Or, I guess I've seen homefries done that way, but they were nasty squishy greaseballs, so yours must be quite different.

I just watched a youtube video of a lady fried cooked potatoes cut into wedges. They looked delicious! She boiled hers first but said that you could also bake them first. They don't take very much time to fry since they are already cooked, just fry until browned.

Well, plllog, I'm so late to this! First, your toe! Ouch-ouch! I've broken the same toe twice this year and heck yeah it hurts! Glad to hear it's mending : ) I keep a couple of crutches I'd found at a yard sale handy and used those... better than attempting to hop. Hope by now your able to walk a bit better on it.

I'm too late on the potatoes, but I'd have gone for twice baked : ) Love hashbrowns, but hate grating! I typically make enough twice baked to pull a couple halves out for lunches or dinner side dishes. Big fan of warm german potatoe salad, but as yours were already cooked and cooled... I'd have probably passed on that idea. Although I do make a warm or cold mashed potato salad we both enjoy in the summer. And if I'm to be totally honest? With a broken toe I'd have re-heated them with butter, and served them that way, sparing any further missteps on an aching toe!

Thanks, 2many, for the good wishes! The toe wasn't crutches worthy, though all that they say about the importance of the pinky toe for balance has proved true. :)

Since it's coming around again, I'll say that even if I knew someone who would eat twice baked potatoes, there weren't enough to make a whole dish. It was three of what they call restaurant sized potatoes, that is, about four inches long and an inch and a quarter in diameter. I.e., small.

I got my potato salad fix--which was really more a pickles and mayonnaise yen--from the sandwich. 2many, you're right about the walking/cooking thing. I was looking for a poor pitiful me I get to eat any odd thing I want to food. :) If I'd really wanted the potatoes as potatoes, I think I would have done same as you and heated them with salted butter. :)

If y'all want to keep on with uses for leftover baked potatoes, be my guest.

Our restaurants around here serve what looks like a 2 pound potato! It's probably not that big, but they are much bigger than anything I buy for home!

ETA: Many years ago, I was gardening barefooted. I kicked a edging rock by mistake, It did not move at all. My second toe turned very interesting shades of purple. I couldn't put any weight on it for a week. The rocks had also been there for quite awhile. Hope your's is doing better.

I ended up having the bone removed from my pinkie toe after I broke it years ago. So I could wear shoes without pain.

With those L/O baked potatoes, I would have made hash browns or put them in a loaded baked potato soup or made twice baked. Can always sneak them in just about any soup like cream of broccoli, pureed for a thickener.

Or just leave them in their foil until they turn the color of my toe and throw them out. :)

The toe is healing nicely, thank-you, and car #1 has finally gone to the dealership. Car #2 is still being fixed. I did get to do a couple of errands after the tow, and now my other ankle is complaining about taking up the balance duties of the opposite pinky. I should cook, but I think I'm playing hooky tomorrow. ;)

I was out eating a romaine-free salad tonight, but did filch some fries from my companion, who never finishes them anyway. They were way too salty, but really good. Better than usual. The too salty was probably the improvement. ;)

2Many, no apologies! That's hysterical. Well the potatoe is hysterical. The quip is smile-worthy. All good. I've often seen a hand of ginger, but that's the first foot of potato I've seen!

Sherry, that rock sounds as immovable as the bathtub!

"Restaurant size" potatoes is what they're called. though, as you say, many restaurants serve larger ones. Two pounds though? Wow. I can't imagine wanting to bring home an uneaten half of a potato the way I would half a chicken serving or half a sandwich. And here I thought one pound potatoes were huge!