Potato Salad Chronicle From The 1930s Mid West
Zell Potato Company circa 1938, Courtesy of the New York Public Library
My colleague Michael Twitty did a call out for potato salad recipes. He wrote, “I'm writing a piece about potato salad and I really really need your input. If your family variations are culturally based let me know. If you come from Black folks food lol let me know. If you have a favorite published recipe or version...let me know. #Potatosaladchronicles” Michael here are two from a 1939 New York World’s Fair Cookbook.
Midwest Potato Salad Recipes from the Great Depression Era
Cream Potato Salad Recipe
2 quarts boiled potatoes, sliced fine
Dressing
½ cup vinegar
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter
1 onion, cut fine
1 tablespoon flour
Instructions Melt butter, stir in the flour, add vinegar, sugar, salt and onion and
bring to boiling in an enameled saucepan. Add one cup sweet cream,
whipped stiffly. Pour over the potatoes and mix carefully.
German Potato Salad Recipe
1 quart boiled potatoes, sliced
1 onion, cut fine
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon flour
½ cup sugar
½ cup vinegar
½ cup hot water
¼ pound bacon, sliced and cut fine
Instructions Add onion, salt and pepper to the potatoes. Fry bacon light brown,
stir in the flour, then add hot water, vinegar and sugar; boil up, then
pour hot over potatoes. If sauce is too thick add equal parts of water and
vinegar or take less flour. If preferred, onions may be browned slightly
in bacon fat instead of adding raw to potatoes. (p. 125)
Crosby Gaige, New York World's Fair Cook Book: The American Kitchen (1939), p. 125