To continue with the grilling season meals, today, we are going to talk Potato Salad. It’s a hit or miss salad for most, but have you ever tried warm potato salad? I add a little something extra to this one, and it made a difference for me!
In my article about accordion potatoes, I had mentioned that potatoes are from Peru, but potato salad is possibly of German origin. The potato salad that we know, made with mayonnaise, eggs, and the like, is closely related to a Russian potato salad known as Oliver Salad. Hot German potato salad is different because its, well, hot. It also contains bacon, and it’s more on the sour side than our Americanized Oliver Salad.
Another fun fact about potatoes. A good friend of ours was telling us that potatoes are great for gardening. They loosen up the soil around them and help with making the earth easier to work the next year. This is all anecdotal, of course, and I have no proof that it’s true, but we’re going to try anyway and we’ll see what happens. And if you’re not using your potatoes for potato salad, then if you’ve accidentally added too much salt to a sauce or soup, you can add a potato to absorb some of it!
Now, let’s get to making some salad!
Hot German Potato Salad
Ingredients:
4-5 waxy potatoes, peeled and diced into ½” squares.
5 strips of bacon
½ small red onion, diced
¼ cup of pickle juice
2 TBSP bacon grease
1 TBSP sugar
1 tsp Kosher salt
½ tsp black pepper
1 TBSP dried parsley
Directions:
- After you’ve diced your potatoes, soak them in water for about 30 minutes. This will keep them from browning, but also help get a small amount of starch out.
- While your potatoes are sitting, you can start frying the bacon. You will want to cook it until crispy but not burnt.
- Once the bacon is done, chop it up and set it aside.
- Dump the potatoes into a pot with the water they were sitting in. Add more water to cover the potatoes, if needed, and sprinkle in a large pinch of salt. Salt will help season the potatoes as they cook.
- They will need about 30 minutes and should not show resistance when pierced with a fork if they’re done.
- Once done, strain them and add them back into the same pot.
- Mix the pickle juice, warm bacon grease, and sugar, then pour over the potatoes.
- Add in the parsley and bacon bits and mix the salad.
- Taste it to see if it needs more salt. If you think the bacon grease added sufficient salt, then just add the pepper. Otherwise, add up to the 1 tsp of kosher salt.
- Now serve to your friends and family and tell them about how their potato salad is inferior because yours has pickle juice and bacon!
