Picnic Potato Salad

"This mayonnaise-less potato salad recipe is from a James Beard cookbook. Be sure to pour the bacon drippings over the potatoes while the drippings are still hot so they will be absorbed."
 
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photo by GaylaJ photo by GaylaJ
photo by GaylaJ
Ready In:
30mins
Ingredients:
9
Serves:
4-6
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ingredients

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directions

  • Rub sides and bottom of bowl with a crushed garlic clove.
  • Peel potatoes while hot and place in bowl.
  • Let potatoes stand until cool.
  • In another bowl, slice cucumbers and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
  • Slice cooled potatoes and pour heated bacon fat over them.
  • Combine potatoes with cucumbers and onions and toss lightly.
  • Add oil and vinegar and again toss lightly.
  • Let stand 2 hours before serving.
  • Add more oil and vinegar if needed.

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Reviews

  1. A departure from the typical potato salad, and very good! I couldn't recall ever eating a dish with cucumbers and potatoes before, so I was curious how this would come together. It was a nice, refreshing change, and the bacon drippings were an excellent flavor booster. I used Yukon Gold potatoes and stuck with the white vinegar, even though I was tempted to sub a different kind. This salad would be especially good in the summertime (as I figure Mr. Beard intended), but we had a wintertime picnic in our family room, and it was great with the hot dogs we roasted in the fireplace. :) Thanks for posting the recipe!
     
  2. I am so sorry to have to only give 1 star to this recipe. I made this for our Church annual Labor day picnic. I prepared it on Saturday for Sunday 11 A.M lunch. It was not good. The cold solid bacon drippings created just an awful felling in your mouth. I came home with almost whole bowl. I tried to eat it by myself (DH and kiddos did not want it after trying it), but it was just to much, the third day it became watery and just not good. So despite my moto: don't throw away any food, I had to toss it.
     
  3. YUM! I make one like this that has an equal number of hard boiled egg to potato ratio. I also use green onion and no bacon grease. I have never measured the oil/vinegar, just added about 3 times as much oil as I do vinegar(oh, and I use apple vinegar). One more thing, I prefer this just made, not cold!! It is the BOMB
     
  4. I haven't tried this yet but we are going camping this weekend and we are definitely trying it. So with that being said, I will let you know later. 09-07-09 Okay, we just came back from camping and as I said, I will let you know how it tastes--well, I made this on Saturday. Since I didn't have the recipe directions with me I wasn't quite sure how it went together so here is what I did. Instead of rubbing the garlic on the outside of the pan, I minced it and put it in the salad. The second things was Instead of using just bacon drippings, I crumbled up the bacon that I was cooking and placed it in the salad as well. The third things was that I used green onions instead of a white onion. I will definitely be making this again and again. I think it tastes better with every day that it sets. I also like a bit more salt on mine but I remedy that when I have my personal servings. I will by cubing my cucumers and potatoes just for a different preference. Again the only reason I changed all of this was because I didn't have directions, just ingredients. But it turned out excellent!! Thank you for sharing.
     
  5. Excellent! It's nice to have a potato salad without the mayonnaise. The bacon drippings really pull it together. Thank you for sharing!
     
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Tweaks

  1. I haven't tried this yet but we are going camping this weekend and we are definitely trying it. So with that being said, I will let you know later. 09-07-09 Okay, we just came back from camping and as I said, I will let you know how it tastes--well, I made this on Saturday. Since I didn't have the recipe directions with me I wasn't quite sure how it went together so here is what I did. Instead of rubbing the garlic on the outside of the pan, I minced it and put it in the salad. The second things was Instead of using just bacon drippings, I crumbled up the bacon that I was cooking and placed it in the salad as well. The third things was that I used green onions instead of a white onion. I will definitely be making this again and again. I think it tastes better with every day that it sets. I also like a bit more salt on mine but I remedy that when I have my personal servings. I will by cubing my cucumers and potatoes just for a different preference. Again the only reason I changed all of this was because I didn't have directions, just ingredients. But it turned out excellent!! Thank you for sharing.
     
  2. WOW this is SO good!! I wish I had doubled the batch though. Between my 8 year old granddaughter and her mom and I we about ate most of it before we got it to the supper table! Loved the cucumbers with the potatoes (I used Yukon Gold) and I do admit that I subbed apple cider for the white vinegar. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful recipe!
     

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