Many recipes for traditional deli-style potato salad call for diced potatoes, boiled in salted water. But baking the potatoes instead allows them to dry out, making them better able to absorb the briny flavors of the pickle relish.

Steps

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Wash and dry the potatoes and poke each several times with a fork. Place them in the oven, right on the rack, and bake. After about 35 minutes, use a fork to check for doneness. (You don’t want them soft, like a baked potato you’d serve with butter and sour cream; you want them to be able to hold their shape when cubed.) If they’re done enough, remove from the oven; otherwise give any that need additional time 5 or 10 more minutes and check again.
2. When the baked potatoes are just cool enough to handle, cut them into cubes. (If you’d prefer to remove the skins, go ahead and do it at this stage; they should slip off pretty easily.) Add the cubes to a large bowl with the pickle relish and stir well.
3. In a separate medium bowl, blend the mayonnaise, mustard, salt, and pepper.
4. When the potatoes have cooled to room temperature, stir in the mayonnaise mixture. Add the celery and onion and mix well.
5. Coarsely chop the eggs, and stir just until they’re mixed in. Refrigerate until ready to serve. If you wish, sprinkle paprika over the salad just before serving.