Skip Regular Potato Salad: Make It Hot, The German Way

German food, in our opinion, often doesn't get enough credit for its unique, delicious spins on recognizable favorites. Sauerbraten, for instance, is a German pot roast that gets its flavor and texture from gingersnaps. Another area where our European friends shine is in the way of potato salad. We've discussed unexpected ingredients to add to potato salad, but serving it hot with traditional accompaniments the German way makes it not only incredibly yummy but also wholly different from other side dishes you've experienced in the past.

One thing you should know is that "German potato salad" is not a monolithic entity. Depending on whether the cook is from the northern or southern part of the country, the dish may be either mayo-based or centered around vinegar, bacon grease, and/or vegetable stock. Some German-American home cooks in the United States even use a combination of both regional favorites. All German potato salads use waxy potatoes, but the other ingredients vary widely: you might see crisp chunks of apple, sharp onion, crumbly egg, or salty slabs of bacon in the mixture. Of course, as mentioned, the potato salad is traditionally served either hot or warm. It's a different spin on the cold potato salads we enjoy in the summer, like the viral deviled egg potato salad, but it's wholesome, savory, and belly-filling in a way everyone can enjoy.

Taking a spin through Reddit, it becomes plainly obvious that there are almost as many versions of "authentic" German potato salad as there are stars in the sky. "I am getting my popcorn for the big potato salad fight!," one Redditor laughed. "[T]here are many types of potato salad in Germany and the regions will defend their version with a passion." On a specifically German subreddit, another commenter spelled things out clearly: "OP, you could have started a civil war here... There are as much [sic] base recipes for potato salad like there are cultural regions in Germany (roughly corresponding with the settlement area of the old Germanic tribes, so [circa] 20). There's not one German cuisine or culture, we're still heavily influenced by our old tribes and micronations (roughly corresponding with the federal states) with major cultural differences."

Luckily, the vast differences in what constitutes German potato salad mean that you can easily get away with riffing on your own plate to make it suit your tastes. A hot potato salad with either a mayo-based or vinaigrette-based dressing is a blank canvas, and you are free to load it up with your choice of toppings and fillers. Feel free to use the German versions as templates, but know that one of the best parts of home cooking is adding your own touch to the classics. With German potato salad, authenticity is in the eye of the beholder, meaning you can't really go wrong.