Hot Bacon Potato Salad
Instant potatoes, bacon crumbles, and a sharp vinegar dressing built in one pot.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 123
- protein
- 11 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 400 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Lunch
- Canister stove
- Campfire coals
- Liquid fuel
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dehydrated potato slices or dices | 1 1/2 cups | instant flakes work but go to mash |
|---|---|---|
| Precooked bacon crumbles | 1/2 cup | shelf-stable pouch, not refrigerated |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried or dried celery | 2 tbsp | |
| Dill pickle | 1 large, diced | or 2 tbsp dried dill pickle chips |
| Apple cider vinegar | 1/4 cup | in a leakproof dropper bottle |
| Sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Paprika | 1/4 tsp | |
| White pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | a pinch | |
| Oil or bacon fat | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Pour 400 ml of water into the pot and bring it to a boil. Add the potatoes, onion, and celery.
- Simmer until the potatoes are soft, six to ten minutes depending on how thick they were cut. Add water in splashes if the pot goes dry.
- Drain off any standing water, or just cook it down. You want damp potatoes, not soup.
- Stir in the vinegar, sugar, paprika, pepper, salt, and oil. Keep it over low heat for two minutes so the dressing thickens on the potatoes.
- Fold in the bacon and pickle off the heat. Eat it warm.
The original is a skillet dish built on boiled red potatoes and rendered bacon fat, neither of which travels. Dehydrated potato slices rehydrate in the same water they cook in, and shelf-stable bacon crumbles carry the smoke and salt without a cooler. The fat you lose gets replaced with a spoon of oil, which the dressing needs to cling.
The vinegar-and-sugar ratio is the whole point. It is sharper than most people expect, and it should be: dried potatoes are bland and thirsty, and they soak up a dressing that would be too aggressive on fresh ones. Add the vinegar at the end, off a hard boil, so it does not just steam away.
Packing
Potatoes, onion, celery, sugar, and spices go in one bag at home. Vinegar rides in a bottle with a taped cap. Bacon and pickle stay separate so they do not wet the dry mix.
Variations
- Skip the bacon and use a tablespoon of olive oil plus extra paprika for a vegetarian version.
- A packet of mustard cut into the dressing sharpens it further.
- Add a foil pouch of chicken to make it a full dinner.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/hot-german-potato-salad