Cents
CHEMISTS ESTABLISHED 1875 POTATO SALAD No. 2 One-fourth pound of bacon One-half cup of water One small onion Two tablespoons of vinegar One-quarter teaspoon of Larkin White Pepper Put the bacon into the frying pan with the water, cook until the water is evaporated and the bacon is brown and crisp. Remove bacon and cool the fat, adding pepper and vinegar. Pour over the sliced potatoes and onion.
A hot bacon dressing for potato salad, of the German-American type. The original assumes you know how many potatoes to boil, so the quantities below fill that gap.
- The missing potatoesNo quantity is given. The recipe yields only a small amount of dressing (the fat from a quarter pound of bacon, plus two tablespoons of vinegar), which suggests something in the region of 2 lb of waxy potatoes (Yukon Gold, red-skinned, fingerling), boiled in their skins, peeled while warm and sliced about a quarter-inch thick. That would serve four as a side.
- Why the water goes in firstStarting bacon in water is not an error. The water keeps the pan below frying temperature until the fat has rendered out, so the meat crisps evenly instead of scorching at the edges. Once it boils off the bacon browns in its own fat, which is the whole point of the dish.
- "Cool the fat" means warm, not coldLet it stop sizzling before adding the vinegar, or the acid will spit violently. It should still be liquid and hot enough to soften the onion when poured. Bacon fat sets solid at room temperature, so do not let it get that far.
- Dress the potatoes warmWarm potato absorbs the dressing; cold potato sheds it. Slice and dress within a few minutes of draining, and let the salad sit twenty minutes before serving so the vinegar works through.
- Larkin White PepperHouse-brand ground white pepper from the Larkin Company's grocery line. Any white pepper does; white was in any case what the booklet was selling, and it has the incidental advantage of leaving no dark flecks in a pale salad.
- SaltNone is called for, on the assumption that the bacon carries it. Modern bacon varies widely in cure strength, so taste the dressed salad and correct.
- The vinegarTwo tablespoons against the modest amount of fat rendered from a quarter pound of bacon makes a sharp, thin dressing by design. The recipe does not say which vinegar; cider is a plausible period choice, and if it tastes harsh, a half teaspoon of sugar is a common correction in this style of salad.
- The onionOne small onion sliced raw is assertive. Slice it paper-thin, or drop the slices into the hot fat for a minute before dressing the potatoes to take the edge off.
- The bacon itselfThe recipe never says to put it back. Crumble the crisp bacon over the finished salad rather than stirring it in, so it stays crisp.
Hot bacon-and-vinegar dressing on warm sliced potatoes is the German Kartoffelsalat as it settled in the United States, and it remained familiar in areas of heavy German settlement — Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, and western New York — long after mayonnaise-bound potato salad became the national default. The two styles are genuinely different dishes: this one is served warm and is bound by nothing but fat and acid. The named Larkin pepper places the page in the world of premium-driven mail-order grocery selling, where a company's cookery booklet existed to move house-brand spices and extracts; the recipes were real and usable, but the booklet's purpose was to sell the company's own goods.