Hot Potato Salad with Bacon and Champagne Vinegar

How Champagne Vinegar is Made

Reims vinegar comes from the town of the same name, which is in the center of the region that produces the grapes for making champagne. To understand how this vinegar is made, you need to know a little about how champagne itself is made.

Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay grapes all enter into the mix of grapes that are used to elaborate champagne. The wine is fermented twice; the second fermentation takes place in the bottle and produces the fizz that champagne is famous for. At the end of the second fermentation the sediments are removed in an elaborate process that involves tilting the bottles so their necks are pointing downward and gradually turning them.

After a time, all of the sediments will have gathered in the neck of the champagne bottle, which is then quickly frozen. The champagne is uncorked and the frozen plug of sediment is expelled along with a small of amount of wine. It is is this bit of the champagne that is used to make Reims vinegar.

Through the action of a bacteria, the champagne is transformed into vinegar, which is filtered and then aged for a year in oak barrels. Finally the vinegar is bottled and marketed. Four years have passed since the time the grape was picked from the vine!

Enjoying Champagne Vinegar

Champagne vinegar can be used in any recipe calling for vinegar where you would like to add only a mildly acidic taste, which natrually enough recalls the flavor of champagne. It is not a strong vinegar and marries well with many foods. French chefs use champagne vinegar to draw out flavors from other foods. Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• A vinaigrette prepared with truffle oil and champagne vinegar makes for an elegant salad dressing.
• Mix it with olive oil and herbs for a wonderful chicken marinade.
• Add it to tomato sauces. You'll be surprised by the dimension of flavor it adds.
• Use it in the in beurre blanc sauce, hollandaise sauce and bernaise sauce.

These days you don't have to travel all the way to France to have Reims vinegar on your pantry shelf. You can probably find it in a gourmet food store and you can always order it here.

Hot Potato Salad with Bacon and Champagne Vinegar

This hot potato salad is similar to German potato salad, but by including salad greens and using champagne vinegar for the dressing, it becomes a popular speciality of the Champagne region. Most home cooks in Champagne-Ardenne (the official name of the region where champagne grapes are grown) have their own version for hot potato salad, and many recommend using pissenlit or dandelion greens for the greens.

I recently made it with arugula, which you may be able to find more easily, and the results where fabulous. You really should use champagne vinegar to make this hot potato salad to get the authentic taste, but I won't tell if you substitute another high quality white wine vinegar.

Salade au Lard
Hot Potato Salad with Bacon

• 1 pound potatoes
• 8 ounces meaty bacon, cut in small strips
• 4 cups dandelion greens (arugula or escarole will work as well)
• 1/3 cup champagne vinegar
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• salt and pepper

Boil the potatoes in their skin until tender, but not falling apart.

Meanwhile cook the bacon until it has given up almost all of its fat - crispy, but not overcooked. Mix the vinegar, olive oil, sugar and salt and pepper to make a dressing.

Drain the potatoes, peel if you wish, and slice them in 1/4 inch rounds. Place the greens in the bottom of the pot you used to cook the potatoes and place the potatoes on top of the greens. Add the bacon and then the dressing. Stir together.

Serve hot. You can rewarm the potato salad if needed.

Makes 4 servings.