Nita’s Corn Salad

April McGreger wasn’t in the mood for potato salad. “I was having people over for fried chicken, and I needed a lighter side,” she says. That’s when she remembered her mother Nita’s corn salad. “She used to make it all the time,” says McGreger, a professional preserver who puts up the likes of muscadine marmalade and field pea salsa for her Hillsborough, North Carolina, company, Farmer’s Daughter. “If we were making burgers, we’d have corn salad. Grilled chicken? Eh, let’s do corn salad. She’d even serve it in the winter, with canned or frozen corn.” Years later, the dish was a dinner party hit for McGreger, and it’s been a staple since. “It’s very adaptable,” McGreger says. And although she has a larder full of artisan preserves, her secret ingredient is readily available at any supermarket. “I always watched my mom add a splash of canned pepper juice to the dressing,” McGreger says. “She didn’t write it in the recipe, but she’ll be the first to tell you, ‘Oh, you know, I don’t really follow the recipe.’”