Potato salad is a staple at any barbecue, but there are two ingredients that will make it taste infinitely better12:11, 07 Jul 2026Potato salad is a staple for any summer picnic or barbecue, making a perfect side dish to lighten up any spread. If you’re in a rush, you may opt for buying a potato salad from the supermarket rather than making it from scratch.‌However, a potential downside to shop-bought potato salad is that it can be drowned in mayonnaise, making it overwhelmingly creamy. An excessive amount of mayonnaise can impact the texture and weaken any flavour it may have.‌If you’ve been up against the same texture and flavour issue, recipe developer and author Melissa Knific shared the two-ingredient upgrade she adds to any and every shop-bought potato salad.‌She explained for Simply Recipes: “Store-bought food has come a long way—and that goes for potato salad. However, I always like to add my own touch to perk up the flavour."While premade potato salad tastes much better than it did when I was a kid, it still needs a little zhuzhing. I find that if left as-is, it can taste a little flat, be overly dressed, and lack texture.”‌Melissa’s first port of call is adding bacon, but not just the meat, but also the reserved bacon fat. She described bacon as making any dish “sing”, which is exactly what you want when you have a mellow-tasting salad.Specifically, Melissa chooses smoked bacon for its ability to “mirror the grilled items that are often served with potato salad”.Cook the bacon until it has reached “peak crispiness", as you’ll want “flavour and texture”. Then chop the bacon strips into small pieces.‌When it comes to the bacon grease, reserve it and stir a small amount into the potato salad as well. Melissa’s second ingredient upgrade is vinegar.Adding a splash of either white, sherry or cider vinegar to a potato salad can go “a long way”, especially if you’ve bought a pre-prepared potato salad from the supermarket.Article continues belowMelissa said: “It adds life to a product that has spent days sitting on a supermarket shelf, and it helps balance the rich and often overly creamy side.”To balance out the creaminess of a potato salad, start by stirring in one teaspoon of your chosen vinegar, adding more if needed. If you don’t have vinegar to hand, you can always use a squeeze of lemon juice instead.