Everybody knows what a is. It's that bowl of fluffy potato pieces, drenched in mayonnaise and seasoned with herbs and spices, that you'll find at just about any picnic or cookout you'll ever attend. Maybe it'll have some boiled eggs in it.
Maybe it'll have some raw vegetables, like celery, for added crunch. Maybe the person who made it tried to get cute and threw in something like raisins. What really matters — what really makes it a staple — is that it is .
It is a substantial yet refreshing side dish for a warm summer's day, something that nicely contrasts with burgers and hot dogs fresh off the grill. But what if that's not the case? What if there was a potato salad made not with mayonnaise, but with vinegar? What if it was accompanied by little bits of bacon? And what if — heavens to Murgatroyd! — it was served ? That's where German potato salad comes in. Why is German potato salad so different? Technically, both of the main potato salad varieties are German.
When we say "German potato salad", we're talking about South German potato salad. The dish forgoes mayonnaise in favor of a vinaigrette, with accouterments including onions and bacon (including the drippings), and is served warm rather than cold. There were, in fact, a number of different varieties of German potato salad depending on the region, but the closest relative to what Americans know as German potato salad is Bavarian or Austrian potato salad, aka Erdӓpfelsalat.
This was the first sort of potato s.