Hot German Potato Salad

The Germans, like most of Europe, didn't accept the potato as human foodstuffs until a couple of hundred years ago, even though it had found its way to the continent through Spanish conquests of the New World a couple of centuries before that.  It took a lot of cross-breeding and experimentation to get the potato as we know it today before it became accepted as human food and apparently, Frederick the Great was largely responsible for its adoption. When cool, wet summers destroyed wheat crops in the mid-eighteenth century, Fred saw the lowly tuber as a means to feed his army and in 1754 issued a proclamation that farmers were to begin to plant and harvest potatoes for human consumption.  

Sometime thereafter, potatoes cooked in lard with onions and a form of German bacon known as "speck," dressed in a vinegar-based sauce and served warm, took hold.  German settlers brought this recipe with them to America and it soon was adopted by other immigrants. The dish became known as German Potato Salad.  Of course, in Germany, it isn't called German Potato Salad any more than French Onion Soup is called French Onion Soup in France.  It's just Potato Salad, or Kartoffelsalat, in the native tongue.  In southern Germany, the dish is called Schwäbische Kartoffelsalat and doesn't include bacon.

There are as you might expect, any number of variations on the Internet, including the addition of boiled eggs, celery, chopped pickles and use of pancetta instead of American-style bacon.  All of that is well and good, but I think the basic American version of this recipe is best. 

This is as near to my mother's recipe as I can remember and will have to do until or unless I can find her hand-written recipe card, which I'm sure I've seen.  I still remember the first time I had this dish, all of perhaps ten or eleven years old.  I thought the vinegary-sweet tang of fried potatoes with bacon and onion was fabulous and I would often request she make it for many meals thereafter.

Her recipe used new or red potatoes, but any waxy potato, like Yukon Golds, would work. Russet potatoes, on the other hand, are too starchy and will yield a more mashed potato consistency to the dish. 

Ingredients
2 lbs red potatoes, washed and cut into bite size pieces
3-4 tbsp salt for the boiling water
6-8 slices of bacon, cut into lardons
1 medium red onion, diced
2 tsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 tbsp powdered English mustard (like, Coleman's)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp celery seed
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp dried parsley
1/2 tsp black pepper

The Recipe
Put the potatoes in a large pot with cold, salted water and bring to a boil. Simmer 20-25 minutes until the potatoes are fork tender. Drain through a colander and allow them to steam dry.

In the same pot over medium high heat, sauté the bacon until limp, 3-5 minutes.  Add the onions and sauté until translucent, another 3-5 minutes.

Add the potatoes to the pot and sauté them until they begin to pick up some golden brown color, about 20 minutes.  Stir frequently.  At the end, add the minced garlic and sauté a couple of minutes, then remove everything to a platter.

De-glaze the pot with the chicken stock, scraping up any crusty brown bits in the bottom of the pot and allow the liquid to reduce to about a tablespoon.

Melt the butter in the pot, add the flour and powdered mustard until well combined, then whisk in the cider vinegar.  Whisk continuously while the sauce thickens and allow it to bubble for a minute.

Add the sugar, celery seed, black pepper and parsley and stir to combine.  Then, return the potatoes, onions and bacon to the pot and stir to ensure all is coated in the sauce.  Allow the mixture to fully heat through before serving.