German Potato Salad


* (1) 3lb bag of little (salad) red potatoes
* (1) medium white onion (not yellow)
* 1 lb. pound of bacon
* 1 cup of water
* 1 cup of white vinegar
* 2/3 cup of regular sugar
* Salt and pepper
* 3 table spoons corn starch


Boil up the potatoes. To check if they are done, stick a sharp thin knife into the potato while it is boiling. Timing it doesn't work, you need a firm but softened potato and the only way to do that is by sticking them when tender, take them and run them under cold water to stop the cooking process. Let them sit for an hour to cool.

Fry the bacon. Best is to take a partially frozen amount of bacon and dice it up into pieces and throw the pieces into a frying pan and fry it up.
Partially frozen cuts up much easier. Fry until the bacon grease bubbles or suds's up. When cooked, spoon the bacon bits out of the grease and place on a paper towel and let drain. Drain the grease from pan but do not wipe out the frying pan. The residue grease is part of the secret for the taste

Cut up the onion into small pieces. You can use the entire white onion or use only half....whatever you like. ADD to the potatoes, onions and bacon and mix this together while it is dry

Sauce: Place the water, vinegar and sugar into the frying pan you just fried the bacon in and bring to a boil. Stir and mix the sugar in so that the fluid becomes clear. Once the sugar has blended and boiled, turn the mix off. Mix up the corn starch with/in COLD water in a coffee sized cup. Mix it with a fork, it works better and mix until all dissolved (looks like milk). Pour the mixed corn starch liquid into the water, vinegar sugar mixture. It will thicken quickly, but stir it for a minute until it all blends. For a more tangy taste, use a little more vinegar.

Pour the sauce onto the potatoes and mix it up well with a large spoon. It may look too wet/saucy but it will get sucked up by the potatoes. Salt and pepper to your taste, but I use around 1 teaspoon spoon of salt and a half teaspoon spoon of pepper.

It is best to make this ahead of time (let sit and chill a few hours at least) as the sauce melds into the potatoes better and that takes some of the starchy flavor out of the potato too.