Warm German Potato Salad Recipe
From:
The Big Book of Barbecue Sides
, by
Rick Browne
Email
Makes:
6 to 8 servings
The tanginess of mustard and vinegar is softened by sugar and beer, making a sweet-tart flavor that is wonderful with thick slices of ham, grilled sausages like bratwurst, or smoked pork chops.
Game plan: This salad is even better the second day. Rewarm before serving.
This recipe was featured as part of our Oktoberfest Food photo gallery.
INGREDIENTS
- 1/2 pound sliced bacon
- 3 pounds waxy potatoes, such as thin-skinned red or white
- 1/2 cup finely chopped red onion
- 1/3 cup chopped fresh herbs, such as basil, parsley, chives, and rosemary
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
- 3 tablespoons vinegar
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 cup beer
- 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- Salt and pepper
- 3 large eggs, hard-cooked, peeled, and sliced
INSTRUCTIONS
- Cook the bacon until it’s crisp and drain on paper towels. Chop the pieces coarsely, place in a medium bowl, and set aside.
- In a large pot, cook the potatoes in lightly salted water until tender but not mushy. Drain, cool slightly, and slice (unpeeled) into thick rounds. Return to the empty pot.
- While the potatoes are still warm, gently mix in the reserved bacon, onions, and herbs. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix up the mustard sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients. Add the potato-bacon-herb mixture while gently stirring.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper, garnish with the eggs, and serve warm.
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Why the flour? when is it cooked? I made it with cooking anything and used less beer and no butter but some olive oil
My Austrian grandmother made hers with oil, vinegar, minced onion, parsley, salt, and pepper. Her secret was to boil and skin the potatoes the day before, mix them with the onion and oil, and let this sit overnight. On the next day she'd add the remaining ingredients, mix gently, and serve it at room temp. I add crispy crumbled bacon to mine at the end (she was a longtime vegetarian) and sometimes chives. It always turns out wonderfully.
The trick to a German Potato Salad is to use even sized potatoes cooked in their skins. Then scrape them while they are warm as the skins come off easily then. I only use oil and vinegar and broth for my dressing - a typical Schwabian Potato Salad.
http://www.tasty-german-recipe.com/ge...
My German grandmother's recipe: boil potatoes in skins; peel when still warm, cut into large chunks. Add chopped onion, salt, pepper, oil, cider vinegar, parsley, mix together. Serve while still warm. We like it tangy, so there is a good kick of vinegar. Line a platter with iceberg lettuce leaves, cut a couple of tomatoes into quarters, arrange all nicely. Yum.
My Prussian grandmother made warm potato salad on this wise: 5# small red potatoes, boiled until tender, drained and left out overnight. Peeled and sliced into rounds, and layered with five stalks of celery diced and three bunches of spring onions, sliced (leaving about three inches of green at the ends), and one pound of bacon, fried crisp, crumbled; bacon drippings reserved in the pan. Layer potatoes, celery, bacon and onions. To the very warm bacon drippings add one pint white vinegar mixed well with two cups sugar, one tsp salt, one tsp pepper. Deglaze pan of hot bacon drippings wih this mixture, and allow to cook until a roiling bubbling is reached, mix a little flour to thicken, continue to cook over medium heat until the mixture is very thick and hot - adjust vinegar/sugar to taste while still cooking, and when the proper tart-sweet mix is reached, pour over the potatoes. Serve immediately.
I made this last night to pair with some grilled sausages, and it turned out great. I was little leery of it based on the comments so far, but I was pleasantly surprised. I used melted butter and "raw" flour for the dressing, which is fine because there's so little of it. I also gave the onions a little spin in the bacon grease to soften 'em up.
Before I added the hot potatoes and stuff, the dressing tasted a little bland so I added about an extra teaspoon of dijon mustard. Skipped the hard cooked eggs, but it was delicious. Plenty of leftovers for lunch today!
I make German salad all the time for get togethers. I use all the above except the beer and will try that the next time. I cook the bacon and onion together and then use 2 or 3 table spoons of the grease for the gravy (flour, salt, vinegar, and now the beer. I add this mixture to my other mixture. It's a must at our German get togethers!!!!
For my german/Austrian potato salad, I dress it with a little beer (GERMAN BEER!) A Rauchbier is good for smokeyness, and a dressing of tyme, chives, parseley, shallots, apple cider vinegar and pumpkin oil.
Never used butter, flour or eggs. The red onion is important, though! Never needed bacon with the rauchbier.
I agree with making the sauce first independent of the potatoes. I also cut the potatoes ahead of time and cook them cut. I would also choose to not waste the flavor of the bacon gease and instead saute the red onion and possibly add some diced red pepper for increased color and flavor. Also, instead of making some sort of roux thickened dressing as the recipe suggests why not an vinegar oil and egg based emulsion and cutting back on the beer.
I’m not sure about the butter and flour in the middle of this recipe. Do you make a roux before adding the items for the mustard sauce, or are the flour and butter “raw”?
The trick to good potato salad is to make the dressing first. Undercook the potatoes, quickly drain and slice them, and before they get a chance to cool down-imediately mix in the dressing.
My current fav has lemon zest & juice, white balsamic, sugar, salt, red pepper flakes, lots of chopped fresh flat parsely, some finely chopped raw onion, and quite a bit of extra virgin.
It's always a hit, hot or cold.
After reading the recipe featured above though, I may try to add a bit of pancetta or whatever next time...
itmeansgod, where the potatoes still very warm? The potatoes have to warm (in any German style potato salad) in order to absorb the liquid.
After reading the above comment, we realized that the vinegar had been omitted from the recipe. We contacted the publisher and found the correct amount--3 tablespoons. We recommend cider vinegar.
This did not turn out well at all. I had to add so much seasoning after it was "finished" that everything that I'd done beforehand seemed largely irrelevant. Use wet mustard instead of dry, be careful of the beer you choose (a heavy lager is probably best), be generous with the salt and pepper, and add a decent amount of cider or malt vinegar to the potatoes (along with a few pinches of flour) when you're mixing in the bacon, onions and herbs (I've never seen a recipe for german potato salad without vinegar, and frankly I'm not really sure what sort of taste they were going for.) and then leave it for a day, and it turns out ok. I think it would probably be best if the potatoes were actually cooked with some of the seasoning, instead of their being mixed in (maybe glazed with the vinegar). As is, it's terrible.