Recipe Box:
Old country German potato salad.
More than one German potato salad was sent in by readers. This one, submitted by Rose Mary Zimmermann Muller of Milwaukee, may have been brought from Austria by her grandmother, Antonia Zimmermann, when she immigrated to Milwaukee and settled in the Pigsville neighborhood of Milwaukee in the early 1880s. (Pigsville, named for a pig farm, was located north of what is now I-94 and west of Merrill Park.)
Antonia passed the recipe down to her daughter, Rose, who taught her sister-in-law Fay how to make it after Fay married her brother George.
The salad was “a mainstay prepared by Rose for many weddings and other family feasts,” wrote Muller, who was named after her aunt. “The salad also was prepared by Mom (Fay) for my wedding luncheon for 100 in September 1966 and enjoyed at many other family events, including our family reunions, over the years.”
In 1993 a special Zimmermann family reunion cookbook was printed, featuring this recipe and many other family favorites.
Some of the family was in the food and beverage business. The family picture shared here was taken in front of a meat market on St. Paul Ave. operated by Charlie (Muller’s uncle) and Emmy Zimmermann. The meat market is featured on the back of the city’s Pigsville neighborhood poster.
Rose Zimmermann operated one of four bars located at 37th and Pierce streets. The bar’s location next to passage under the tracks to the Menomonee Valley and its factory employment enabled it to supply lunches for the workers and party space for the families of the neighborhood, Muller said.