Chris and I went out to dinner last night with a couple of friends; since they had a car, we went to a German restaurant that was about a 30 minute drive away.

We all got different main dishes, but when the food came, along with our entrées came a large platter of potato salad. It was big enough that it could have easily been shared by the four of us, except it was only listed on the menu as a side dish for one of the entrées. They do like their potato salad here.

Actually, there were two things that were noteworthy about this particular potato salad. First, it was rather rich and creamy. It tasted like it was related more to potatoes au gratin than just strictly potato salad, with perhaps a bit of cheese thrown in. The standard potato salad that lurks underneath every green salad we are served in Tübingen never tastes like that, mores the pity.

Secondly, yesterday’s variation was served warm. I commented to our friends that before we moved to Germany, my mental stereotype of potato salad here was that it was always served warm. However, I was quickly disabused of this notion, since the typical type we get under all the green salads in Tübingen is always served cold.

One of our dinner companions, who in German but grew up in a different part of Germany, commented that there are probably as many variations on potato salad in Germany as there are regions of Germany, and some, but not all of these different variations here are served warm.

He went on to comment that for him, regardless of what else goes into it (bacon, onions, peppers, etc.), potato salad is properly made with vinegar. The dish made with mayonnaise? That’s not potato salad. At least not in Germany.

Well, at least not as far as he was concerned.  The stuff we had last night, though, didn’t seem to have vinegar as the major part of the dressing, though. But of course,  it definitely didn’t have mayo, either.

Anyway, I took a quick look on the Internet to try to sort this all out. On this website called “Recipes from a German Grandmother”, there is a brief history of potato salads in the U.S. and how the warm variation was first introduced by German immigrants who always served it warm with a vinegar dressed. Hence this variation in the U.S. came to be called a “German potato salad”. That same site has many recipes for variations on German potato salads, all of which do seem to be made with a vinegar-based dressing, both the warm ones and cold ones. As our friend had thought, but none were listed as being made with mayo. FWIW, none seemingly matched what we had last night, though, either.

But then again, maybe there was some vinegar used in last night’s potato salad dish in a hidden. way. Interestingly enough, my grandmother made great a potato salad which she served cold.  I recall talking with her once about it when I wanted to get the recipe, and she advised that the trick was to peel the boiled potatoes immediately after removing them from the water, cut them up while still super hot, and immediately douse them with some vinegar. That was her secret ingredient.

After that, you could take your leisure to add chopped onion, salt, pepper, and chopped hard-boiled eggs to the potatoes. You then finished the potato salad off by enveloping everything in mayonnaise.

Now, my grandmother was right, the vinegar did add a certain extra something to the mix, even though the dressing was ultimately mayonnaise based. However, when I explained this to our friend last night,  even though vinegar did play a prime role in the potato salad, I could tell he wasn’t entirely convinced that this would be considered proper potato salad here in Germany.

Well, my grandmother wasn’t German, she was Italian-American. I guess her recipe would today be called a “fusion” idea about potato salad. She was just ahead of her time. 😉