Old Fashioned German Potato Salad has perfectly crispy bacon, red onion, and is dressed with a dijon vinegar dressing. Bonus: it can be served either hot or cold! You’re going to love it!
Potato salad is an essential component to any family bbq. As kids, we never really understood what was supposed to be so alluring about potato salad. Cold potatoes coated in mayo? No thank you. We should have known better when the adults never made us add it to our plate, yet always went back for seconds themselves. By the time we finally got around to trying it for the first time, we had already wasted far too many potato salad eating years! Oh well, we are certainly making up for lost time now! However, our true love of potato salad didn’t start with that mayonnaise-loaded stuff we grew up with, but with German potato salad. German potato salad typically refers to Southern German style, and we are all about it. Forgo the mayo and enjoy this dijon vinegar dressing-based potato salad!
German Potato Salad vs: American Potato Salad:
In a Southern German Potato Salad, the dressing is made from bacon drippings and vinegar. In an American Potato Salad, the dressing is largely mayonnaise based. They are both equally delicious!
What is German Potato Salad called in German?
Kartoffelsalat is the name of German Potato Salad in the German language.
Potato Options:
You can use a wide variety of potatoes for this recipe as long as it has a thin skin that is pleasant to eat. Popular options besides the listed red potatoes include Yukon Gold, Yellow, Fingerling and New/Baby) potatoes.
Serving Options:
German Potato Salad can be served either warm or cold. It’s a matter of personal preference, and it is delicious either way.
Storage Instructions:
When chilling, you can simply cover the bowl in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge. For longer term storage, this salad should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. Since it can be enjoyed cold, no reheating is required.
If you like this recipe, you may be interested in these other delicious German inspired recipes:
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Excellent – followed recipe recipe exactly. But with all the dicing, prep time was significantly longer than 10 minutes – but worth it.
NanaJoan, my mom makes hers almost same, uses the canned potatoes for years now.Always turns out excellent!
Fabulous! Made it for our part-German family who all love it, thank you.
My fathers grandparents came from Germany. My father got his German potato salad recipe from them. He made it with apple cidar vinegar. I wished that i would have gotten the recipe from him.
Great recipe. Tasty and authentic.
Made this yesterday for a 4th of July BBQ and it was a hit! I doubled the recipe and there was nothing left …… it’s THAT good! Everyone absolutely loved it.
So everything about this recipe made sense to my brain and my tastebuds… except the sugar! That sauce is so sweet! Maybe it’s just me, but I would have done maybe two tsp, not two tbsp of sugar. I tried to balance by adjusting with additional mustard, some Worcestershire sauce, and lemon juice, but it’s still not my cup of tea. I’ll make it again, but I think the proportions need some tweaking for a more savory end product.
I made this for a work potluck, and even with a double batch, there was but a scoop left to take home. It’s SO GOOD!
thank you!
This is almost exactly the way my mother and grandmother made it and I have made it most of my life except we didn’t put the olive oil and mustard in it and we always ate it hot I love German potato salad. I don’t understand the olive oil why would you need to add oil to it but La mustard might be good, I will try it next time.
Spot on, just like grandma used to make. Thanks!
I made this for a party, and overheard three people say the potato salad is sooooo good.
I made it twice already and I love it