Chef Klaus
Ahle Wurst
North Hesse's old sausage is cured, not cooked: coarse pork, pepper, garlic, and cold weeks in a chamber until the slice turns firm enough for rye and cider.
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Hessischer Kartoffelsalat
Created by
The Hessian picnic salad that refuses mayonnaise: hot broth first, vinegar sharp behind it, and oil only after the potato slices have opened enough to take the dressing.
Salads
German
Potluck
Picnic
Make Ahead
25 min
Active Time
25 min cook•1 hr 20 min total
Yield6 servings
Hessischer Kartoffelsalat belongs to Hesse's everyday table: beside Frankfurter Würstchen on a quiet evening, beside Schnitzel on Sunday, in a covered bowl carried to a picnic or a Vereinsfest, the club gathering where everyone brings something that has to travel well. It also turns up on Christmas Eve in the old potato-salad-and-sausage way, because a good salad from the stored potato sack is exactly what the larder is for.
The regions split hard on potato salad. In the north, you'll find cold versions bound with mayonnaise or cream. Swabia lets the broth run wetter and almost slippery. Hesse stands with the warm broth, vinegar, mustard, and oil line, sharpened nicely if you use Apfelessig, apple vinegar, from apple-wine country. Im Norden anders, im Süden anders. Das ist kein Bierzelt.
The rule is simple and most people still miss it: hot potatoes get hot broth first. The warm slices are open and thirsty; pour the broth over them then, and they drink in the salt, vinegar, onion, and mustard. Let them cool first, or coat them with oil first, and you've made waxed little coins that taste of dressing only on the outside.
A little leftover broth from bones, vegetables, or yesterday's chicken is not scrap here. Weggeworfen wird nichts, nothing gets thrown away. That broth is the body of the salad, and the oil only comes later for gloss. Das braucht seine Zeit, but not much. You wait because the potatoes are doing work.
The potato had been grown in German lands before Frederick II of Prussia's 1756 Kartoffelbefehl, but that order marks the state campaign that helped push it from field curiosity toward staple crop. By the time Henriette Davidis published her Praktisches Kochbuch in 1845, potato salad was already ordinary household cooking, not feast work. Hesse's broth, vinegar, and oil version sits on the south-western side of the German potato-salad divide; northern tables often bind cold potatoes with mayonnaise or cream, while Swabia makes the broth dressing wetter.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
waxy potatoes (festkochend)
Quantity
1kg
similar in size
salt for the cooking water
Quantity
1 tablespoon
strong beef or vegetable broth
Quantity
250ml
hot
extra hot broth (optional)
Quantity
2 to 4 tablespoons
yellow onion
Quantity
1 small
very finely diced
Apfelessig or white wine vinegar
Quantity
4 tablespoons
medium German mustard
Quantity
1 teaspoon
sugar
Quantity
1 teaspoon
fine salt
Quantity
1 teaspoon, plus more to finish
freshly ground black pepper
Quantity
to taste
neutral rapeseed or sunflower oil
Quantity
4 tablespoons
chives
Quantity
2 tablespoons
snipped
flat-leaf parsley
Quantity
2 tablespoons
finely chopped
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| waxy potatoes (festkochend)similar in size | 1kg |
| salt for the cooking water | 1 tablespoon |
| strong beef or vegetable brothhot | 250ml |
| extra hot broth (optional) | 2 to 4 tablespoons |
| yellow onionvery finely diced | 1 small |
| Apfelessig or white wine vinegar | 4 tablespoons |
| medium German mustard | 1 teaspoon |
| sugar | 1 teaspoon |
| fine salt | 1 teaspoon, plus more to finish |
| freshly ground black pepper | to taste |
| neutral rapeseed or sunflower oil | 4 tablespoons |
| chivessnipped | 2 tablespoons |
| flat-leaf parsleyfinely chopped | 2 tablespoons |
Equipment Needed
- •Large pot for boiling potatoes
- •Small saucepan for the broth dressing
- •Sharp paring knife
- •Wide shallow mixing bowl
- •Flexible spatula or wide serving spoon
Instructions
- 1
Cook the potatoes
Put the potatoes, still in their skins, in a pot of cold water with the tablespoon of salt and bring them up gently. Simmer, don't thrash them at a boil, until a small knife slides in cleanly, about 20 to 25 minutes depending on size. The skins hold the starch and flavour in; crack them with hard boiling and the potatoes drink water before they ever see the dressing.
Use waxy potatoes. Floury potatoes have their place in Klöße, dumplings, but here they break into mash before the salad has had a chance. - 2
Heat the dressing
While the potatoes cook, bring the broth, diced onion, vinegar, mustard, sugar, salt, and a good grind of pepper to a bare simmer in a small saucepan, then take it off the heat. Hot broth softens the onion, dissolves the mustard and salt, and carries the seasoning into the potato instead of leaving it on the outside. Use real broth if you've got it. Nicht aus dem Glas, and not powder pretending to be stock.
- 3
Peel and slice hot
Drain the potatoes and peel them as soon as your hands can manage it, using a small knife and a towel. Slice them 5mm thick into a wide bowl. Work while they're hot, because warm starch takes up the broth; cold potato closes down and the dressing sits around it like rain on a roof.
- 4
Pour broth first
Pour two thirds of the hot broth dressing over the potato slices and fold gently with a wide spoon, lifting from underneath so the slices stay mostly whole. Let it stand 10 minutes, then add the rest if the bowl looks dry. The potatoes keep drinking as they sit, so don't panic if it looks loose at first. This is the step that decides the salad.
Broth goes before oil. Oil first coats the potato and blocks the dressing; broth first seasons the slices all the way through. - 5
Add oil and herbs
Fold in the oil only after the broth has mostly disappeared into the potatoes, then add the chives and parsley. Taste now, not earlier, because the potatoes dull salt and vinegar as they absorb. Add a pinch more salt, pepper, or vinegar until it tastes sharp, round, and alive. Würzen, Fett, Salz zum Schluss.
- 6
Rest and serve
Let the salad rest at least 30 minutes before serving, slightly warm or at room temperature, so the dressing settles and the slices turn glossy. If it tightens up, fold in a spoon or two of hot broth to loosen it. For a picnic, chill it after the rest and keep it cold; no mayonnaise doesn't make it indestructible.
Chef Tips
- •Buy potatoes marked festkochend, waxy. They hold their shape after boiling, which is the difference between potato salad and a bowl of dressed mash.
- •Slice the potatoes hot and dress them hot. That is not fussiness; that is absorption. Cold slices will never take the broth properly, no matter how much you stir.
- •Use a strong broth. Weak broth makes weak salad. Beef broth is traditional on many tables, vegetable broth works well if it has body, and either one should taste good before it touches the potatoes.
- •Serve it with Frankfurter Würstchen, Schnitzel, grilled pork, or hard-boiled eggs. The salad is sharp enough to cut fat and plain enough to sit beside almost anything.
- •Add the herbs near the end. Chives and parsley go dull if they sit too long in acid, and Hesse has enough green on the table to know better.
Advance Preparation
- •Make the salad 4 to 24 hours ahead if you like, but dress it while the potatoes are hot. Chill it after the first 30-minute rest, then bring it back toward room temperature before serving.
- •Hold back some herbs for the last minute. The salad can sit overnight, but the green should look like it joined the bowl today.
- •If the salad tightens in the refrigerator, fold in 1 or 2 tablespoons of hot broth before serving. Potato keeps drinking even after you think it's finished.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 245g)
Calories
225 calories
Total Fat
10 g
Saturated Fat
1 g
Trans Fat
0 g
Unsaturated Fat
9 g
Cholesterol
0 mg
Sodium
670 mg
Total Carbohydrates
31 g
Dietary Fiber
4 g
Sugars
3 g
Protein
4 g
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