Aunt Imme's German potato salad

This is my aunt's German potato salad which I'm recording here for posterity.

I ate this dish several times a year - always at Christmas and Easter - while I was growing up. As an adult I've tried to recreate it several times - with mixed success. I could never get the dressing right. Then six months ago I found out she used the pickle juice!

This would be easier to make in the US than the UK (where we live) because it's hard to get real dill pickles here - and even hard to find really good sweet pickles. Ah well. At least the bacon here is good!

5 lb bag of potatoes
1 lb of bacon
1 jar of sweet (bread & butter) pickles
1 jar of Kosher dill pickles
1 apple

Boil potatoes until they burst - don't overboil. Pour off water. Cut pickles into tiny cubes. Save water from pickles. Fry bacon. Peal potatoes, slice into pieces the size of little finger. Mix pickles into potatoes. Add one-half jar of pickle water. Add one-third of the bacon fat. Taste and add fat and pickle water until it tastes good. Chop apple and add to potatoes. Serve hot or cold.