German Potato Salad
Authentic recipe that will make your mouth water thinking about it.
- large deep skillet
- large pot
- 3 cups potatoes, diced
- 4 slices bacon
- 1 small onion (cut into long thin slices)
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons water
- 1/2 tablespoon sugar (I prefer no sugar, but this is a sweeten to your own taste. )
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Add diced potatoes in a large pot and cover with water; bring water to a boil. Cook until potatoes are soft and you can easily pierce them with a fork, around 10 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.
As potatoes are cooking place bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Fry bacon until it is browned and crisp, about 10 minutes, turn as needed. Remove bacon and place on a plate lined with paper towels. Once cooled, crumble the bacon. Leave bacon grease in the skillet.
Place long thin slices of onion into the bacon grease over medium heat and cook until browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Add vinegar, sugar, water, salt, and pepper to the pan and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, add potatoes and half of the crumbled bacon. Stir and cook until heated throughout.
Move potato salad to a serving dish, and the rest of the crumbled bacon and sprinkle with fresh parsley.
I was introduced to German Potato Salad in my early adult life. I was working in Chicago and my friend invited me to have dinner at his grandmother’s house who delighted us with her German accent and cuisine. Served with brats and peppers, and german potato salad. I couldn’t get enough of it. It’s hard to beat the good hearty flavors of Bavarian food washed down by hearty beer.
I love this recipe mostly because I’ve had german potato salad for years and I imagined that it would be more difficult to have such an explosion of flavor. On a whim, I decided to research how to make it and was blown away by its simplicity.
Some alterations that I have over other recipes is I prefer caramelized thin sliced onions instead of diced onions. I’m sure it tastes the same but those tangles of onion just bring it home for me.
Most recipes I found add a lot more sugar. I’m not a fan of making this sweet but add more if you do. I like the vinegar to have a little bite to it. Less is better in my own opinion.
The amount of bacon grease will obviously vary so I would suggest enough a couple of large tablespoons at least. The first couple of times I made this I went all in on the bacon and it was delicious but I’m sure, not good for the arteries.