German Potato Salad

Variations

• Northern German style: Add mayonnaise for a creamy version.
• Vegetarian: Skip the bacon and use smoked paprika for depth.
• With pickles: Chop in gherkins for extra tang.
• Herby: Add dill and parsley.

Tips

• Use waxy potatoes — floury ones fall apart.
• Pour the dressing over warm potatoes so it soaks in and stays moist.
• Serve it lukewarm, the traditional way — it loses flavor cold.
• Vinegar and mustard bring the tang; bacon fat brings the depth.
• Why warm works, and why the other version in this recipe needs the opposite. A hot potato's starch is swollen and its cell walls are still permeable, so a thin vinaigrette wicks inward instead of sitting on the surface — and there is no emulsion here to break. The northern version above is a different rule entirely: mayonnaise put onto warm potato softens its fat and thins with condensing steam, which is exactly what Olivier Salad is built around. One recipe, two dressings, opposite temperatures.
• Waxy is not a preference here, it is the whole construction. Floury potatoes are what Lohikeitto wants precisely because "their crumbling edges thicken the broth"; a salad needs the corners to survive being turned in a dressing. It is the same choice Mashed Potatoes makes in the opposite direction.
• Dress it and eat it, do not make it ahead. Mustard's pungency is made when the seed meets water and destroyed by heat (Dak-hanmari turns on that), so a warm dressing is already losing its nose-heat while it stands.
• Lukewarm is a seasoning decision. Cold suppresses salt and sweetness and sets the bacon fat, so a fridge-cold version needs more vinegar and more salt to read the same (serving temperature).