Recipes

Hot Potato Salad

Recipe No. 436 from the U.S. Army's WWII cookbook — Salads. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Army TM10-412 · Salad

Serves Approximately 32 pounds, 100 servings, five mess kit spoons (5 ounces) each.

Recipe No. 436 from the U.S. Army’s WWII cookbook — Salads. Quantities are exactly as printed, for 100 servings; a scaled-down 8-serving version is in the notes.

Ingredients

  • Potatoes, cooked in skins — 32 pounds
  • Onions, chopped — 1 pound (1 No. 56 dipper)
  • Bacon, diced — 3 pounds
  • Water — 1½ pints (¾ No. 56 dipper)
  • Vinegar — 1½ quarts (1½ No. 56 dippers)
  • Salt — 4 ounces (8 mess kit spoons)

Directions

  1. Peel cooked potatoes; cut crosswise into thin slices. Add chopped onions.
  2. Fry bacon until crisp; remove from fat. Add bacon to potatoes; mix well.
  3. Combine bacon fat, water, vinegar, and salt. Heat to boiling point; pour over potato mixture; mix well.
  4. Place salad in oven and allow to remain 15 minutes before serving.

Notes

SCALED TO 8 SERVINGS (the original is ÷12.5): Potatoes, cooked in skins — 2 lb 9 oz Onions, chopped — 1¼ oz Bacon, diced — 3¾ oz Water — 3¾ tbsp Vinegar — 7⅔ tbsp Salt — about 2 tsp

One pound chopped green peppers and 4 pounds diced celery may be added to potatoes and onions in recipe above.

— TM 10-412, Army Recipes (War Department, 15 August 1944), recipe No. 436, Salads. Army measures: 1 No. 56 dipper = 1 qt; 1 No. 55 dipper = 1¾ qt; 1 mess kit cup = 1½ pints.