What to drink with potato salad

Potato salads can vary so much from recipe to recipe - warm or cold, spicy or mild, crunchy or soft, mustardy or mayonnaisy - that sorting out what to drink with them requires real thought about the ingredients used in your particular batch.

Debbie Moose, author of the recent cookbook "Potato Salad," says the most important consideration is whether the salad is creamy or tart, as well as what other foods will be served alongside it.

To balance creamy flavors, such as mayonnaise, sour cream or yogurt, try a pinot grigio. For tangier oil and vinegar-based salads, a dry rose would go nicely, says Moose.

"For either kind of potato salad, a good beer suits me, too. Belgian ale or hefeweizen," says Moose.

It's also nice to draw inspiration from the ingredients in the salad. For example, Moose's book includes a recipe for grilled potato salad that uses an amber ale in the dressing. "You can drink up the rest of the six-pack you bought for the dressing," she says.

When potato salad gets a starring role at the picnic table - what Moose calls spud suppers - she suggests drinks that convey that this is not your usual deli potato salad. Champagne would be nice, as the acidity and bubbles can cut through a heavy salad.

Moose also likes to serve her fancier versions, such as her dilly shrimp potato salad, with a Bloody Mary.

"Using potato vodka, of course!" she says.

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