My husband first introduced me to German Potato Salad and it was love at first bite. I had been raised on a more traditional potato salad, and was skeptical about any potato salad that wasn’t my mom’s or Granny’s recipe; tradition has a heavy hand.
My husband, however, had spent time outside of the U.S. when he was growing up so his palate and acceptance of other types of foods was much broader than mine. I like to think that now, however, I can match him mouthful for mouthful…in acceptance of a wide variety of foods…not actual quantities consumed.
I’d be ginormous and bedridden if I tried to keep up with him on quantities consumed. John is a foot taller than me……………….yeah, we look fairly ridiculous together. You’d never look at us and say, “Oh, what a cute couple.” Actually, I’m not exactly sure what people say when they look at us.
Laugh, probably.
Back to the potato salad. German potato salad is often served warm or at room temperature. No problem, there is no mayo or eggs. The potatoes are cooked whole, then sliced. The potatoes are then added to a vinegary, bacony sauce and warmed in a pan. It is a simple potato salad, but full of flavor.
Often the recipes for German Potato Salad call for flour to thicken the dressing, but I like the dressing best without the flour. The potatoes themselves seem to offer enough thickening power once they are mixed with the dressing. I hope that you enjoy this salad. And find it in your heart to forgive me over not using flour. Gosh, I really know how to shake things up, don’t I? Such a rebel.
German Potato Salad
Ingredients
- 3 pounds small red potatoes (about 5 or 6 potatoes)
- 1 large onion, medium diced
- 8 slices bacon, fried crisp and crumbled (or chopped first and then fried crisp) fried crisp and crumbled (or chopped first and then fried crisp)
- 2/3 cup white vinegar
- 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 teaspoon celery salt
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- chopped fresh parsley for garnishing (optional)
Instructions
- Cook potatoes, whole and unpeeled, in water just until tender when pierced with fork. Drain, then set aside until cool enough to handle. Potatoes can be cooked a day ahead and refrigerated until ready to make the salad.
- Slice unpeeled potatoes into slices that are a little over 1/4″ thick.
- In a large frying pan, fry bacon until crisp. Remove bacon from pan and drain on paper towels. Reserve 2-3 tablespoons bacon fat in the pan. Discard remainder of fat.
- Over medium heat, cook onion in bacon fat until translucent.
- Stir in the vinegar, sugar, water, salt, celery salt, mustard powder, and black pepper. Stir to combine.
- Add potatoes to mixtures and toss to distribute ingredients evenly. Heat over medium heat, stirring as needed, until potatoes are warmed throughout. Serve while warm. Can also be served at room temperature.
You are too funny! My in-laws love German potato salad…and I’m going to make your version next time they visit. It looks perfect~
The photo of you two posing . . . classic! I love it. This salad sounds amazing! As soon as I heard “bacon flavor” I was hooked. Potatoes and bacon go so well together. Your blog is so much fun to visit! Great recipes . . . and I always laugh. It’s perfect!
Lizzy–the hubsmeister gave me two thumbs up and a lot of moaning noises while he was eating this salad, so I’m thinking it definitely passed the test.
Carol–I agree with you about bacon and potatoes, definitely made for each other.
Hi, Terri,
I work for the National Cooperative Grocers Association, which is a business services cooperative representing 122 co-op food retailers in the U.S. One of our programs is a consumer sales flyer, called Co+op Deals. It’s a grocery circular for natural foods cooperatives (you can take a look at the current flyer here: http://themix.coop/?q=specials). Besides sale products, we also include consumer recipes, food facts and seasonal features that are available at co-op delis.
One of the recipe features in the May 2012 flyer is a German-style potato salad. Since we have a limited budget for photography, part of my job involves searching stock photo sites and food blogs for appealing food photos that at least resemble the dishes featured in the flyer.
That is how I came across your blog and this photo.
I think the photo is really appealing, so it’d be great for us to use to illustrate our recipe, if you’d be willing to allow it. We would be able to offer you some modest compensation for the use of the photo as well.
This would be a one-time use in the printed publication, which is also typically posted as a PDF file on our member stores’ websites. Is this something you might consider? If so, I’d need a jpeg of the photo at 300 dpi or better and preferably around 6” wide, and we would be able to offer you a fee similar to what we generally pay for stock photos.
Please let me know if this is something you’d be willing to do; my deadline for having copy and images to graphics is this Friday, so I would appreciate hearing from you soon! You can contact me at jeanne.lakso@ncga.coop.
Thanks for your consideration, and best wishes,
Jeanne Lakso
National Cooperative Grocers Association