In an earlier blog post on potatoes I quoted a mad little poem about the vegetable. Here’s a longer poetic tribute to the spud, which lists some of the traditional ways of serving potatoes in Anglo-American cookery. The illustration (above) is by the author’s sister, Grace Gebbie Drayton (formerly Wiederseim), the creator of the famous Campbell’s Soup Kids.
THE TEA
Mrs. I. Wrish Potato will be pleased to see
Her friends at a sociable afternoon tea,
From four until six, come one, come all
Row twenty-five, by the high garden wall.
This invitation, written neatly,
’Roused the potato world completely.
The clock struck four, as each fair guest
Appeared at the function, neatly dressed.
Miss Julienne, so slim, and tall
Came in the French-Fry’s carry-all,
While Mistress Potato au Gratin
Was so warm she had to use a fan.
The Misses Sautéé were dainty and trim
In their new summer hats, with parsley-decked rim
They flirted in quite a Parisienne way
With Young Baked Potato, so stylish and gay.
Soon old multimillionaire Boileau Potate
Arrived in a motor, afraid he’d be late:
His daughter Miss Lyonnaise came with him too,
Saying, “See you’re not late, so why get in a stew?”
Raised their hands and their eyes,
When Gay Mashed Potato, for a surprise,
Danced a jig (quite risquee)
With Miss B. Tato Kake,
The company laughed till their sides 'gan to ache.
Oh, ’twas quite a success, said the guests, great and
small,
That afternoon tea, by the high garden wall.
(Margaret Gebbie Hays (1874-1925). Vegetable Verselets for Humorous Vegetarians, by Margaret G. Hays; With Illustrations by Grace G. Wiederseim. Philadelphia and London, J.B. Lippincott Company, 1911)
https://archive.org/stream/vegetableversele00hays#page/n7/mode/2up
I decided it’d be fun to find the recipes referred to. Some of them are still current stand-bys, some have gone out of fashion over the last century. I’ve tried to give a classic version of each plus at least one more modern one.
“Miss Julienne, so slim, and tall
Came in the French-Fry’s carry-all”
“JULIENNE... sliced then cut into strips the length of a matchstick about 4-5cm (1 1/2 - 2in). With root vegetables, this can be done on a mandolin slicer.” (Jane Grigson. Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. Harmondsworth, England, Penguin, 1980, p.547-548). The term’s a culinary buzz word these days—in fact, it’s become a verb: we “julienne” everything. Jane Grigson suggests that “allumettes” should be used to apply to potatoes rather than “julienne”: “ALLUMETTES, PAILLES, meaning matchsticks or straws, usually refer to potatoes. Trim the potatoes to neat bricks, then cut them into slices the thickness of a matchstick, and cut the slices into even lengths of 4-5cm (1 1/2 - 2in).” (Ibid, p.548). However, the poem indicates clearly that by the beginning of the 20th century the term “julienne” was also used for spuds.
Incidentally, a “carry-all” or carryall, is not a tote bag! It was a 19th-century American carriage: “a light, four-wheeled vehicle, usually drawn by a single horse and with seats for four or more passengers. The word is derived by folk etymology from the French cariole.” (“Carryall”, Wikipedia)
A lot has been written about the history of the French fry or chip, and I’m not going to get into the rival claims for its origin. The online article by Martin Earl, on Thermoblog, “Homemade French Fries: Background and History” isn’t bad as an introduction. He mentions Escoffier, so here are the great man’s three versions of what we call chips or French fries. The first is the julienne recipe: you can see he uses two of the terms mentioned by Jane Grigson: “pailles” (meaning straws: it’s a nominal adjective here, in the title), and then “julienne” in the text:
2219—POMMES DE TERRE PAILLES
Cut the potatoes into a long, thin julienne; wash them and thoroughly dry them on a piece of linen.
Put them into hot fat; and, at the end of a few minutes, drain them in a frying-basket. Just before serving them, plunge them afresh into smoking fat, that they may be very crisp; drain them on a piece of linen, and salt them moderately.
******
2220—POMMES DE TERRE PONT-NEUF
Trim the potatoes square, and cut them into rods of half-inch sides. Plunge them into hot fat, and leave them there until they are crisp outside and creamy in.
This preparation represents the generic type of fried potatoes.
******
2221—POMMES DE TERRE SOUFFLEES
Trim the potatoes square, and carefully cut them into slices one-eighth inch thick. Wash them in cold water; thoroughly dry them, and put them into moderately hot fat. As soon as the potatoes are in it, gradually heat the fat until they are cooked—which they are known to be when they rise to the surface of the frying fat.
Drain them in the frying-basket, and at once immerse them in fresh and hotter fat. This final immersion effects the puffing, which results from the sudden contact with intense heat.
Leave the potatoes to dry; drain them on a stretched piece of linen; salt them moderately, and dish them.
Source: Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935). A Guide to Modern Cookery. London, W. Heinemann, 1907
https://archive.org/details/cu31924000610117/page/n12
If you’re wondering why “Pont Neuf”, read the article by Martin Earl mentioned above: he sees the second recipe as the direct ancestor of the modern French fry. However, although in the third recipe Escoffier seems to cut the potatoes into slices rather than chips, in fact its method is closest to what the pundits of today recommend doing with chips or French fries. Certainly the double-frying method has now become the standard recommendation.
By 1955, when Robin McDouall published his Collins Pocket Guide to Good Cooking (reissued ten years later as Robin McDouall’s Cookery Book for the Greedy), the twice-fried tradition for chips was well established. The procedure is exactly the same as Gégé’s was when I was in Paris in 1973, except that for the “hot deep fat” he used Végétaline. Gégé’s were the best chips I’ve ever had—though having since realised that this fat was actually hydrogenated coconut oil (the Australian “copha” or the New Zealand “Kremelta”), I now wouldn’t touch the muck. (See the earlier blog article, Dreaming of a White Christmas, for the horrid truth about copha.) Here’s Robin McDouall’s recipe:
Fried Potatoes
Cut some large potatoes lengthways into slices half an inch thick. Then cut these again lengthways half an inch thick. Dry them. Put them in a frying basket—not too many at a time—and fry them in hot deep fat for about three minutes. Take them out and drain them on paper. Increase the heat of the fat. Fry the potatoes again until they are golden brown. Dry again. Season with salt and pepper.
Source: Robin McDouall. Robin McDouall’s Cookery Book for the Greedy. Harmondsworth, England, Penguin Books in association with Michael Joseph, 1965
If you want fuller instructions—Robin McDouall was firmly in the Escoffier tradition not only in his content but also in his assumption that you had all the basics under your belt—here’s a modern recipe for English chips by the TV cooks the Hairy Bikers. Actually, it probably goes too far in spelling everything out—but it’s not the most verbose version available, by any means! (The malt vinegar isn’t mandatory—as usual the Hairy Bikers were stressing the down-home approach. Whether anybody at home in Britain ever rushed out and bought a ruddy great chip fryer and/or a thermometer in the wake of the telly programme and tried the recipe, as opposed to going down the chippy, is unknown.)
The Best Chips You Have Ever Tasted
“The secret of good chips is to cook them twice at two different temperatures, so you will need a deep pan and a thermometer for this recipe.”
* 4 large potatoes, preferably Maris Piper
* sunflower oil, for deep frying
To serve: * flaked sea salt * malt vinegar
1. Peel the potatoes and cut lengthways into roughly 1cm/1/2in slices. Cut each slice into fairly thick chips and rinse in a colander under plenty of cold water to remove excess starch. (If you have time, it's worth letting the chips soak in a bowl of cold water for several hours, or overnight.) Pat dry with kitchen paper.
2. Heat a deep, heavy-bottomed saucepan half-full of the sunflower oil to 130C. It's important to use a cooking thermometer and check the temperature regularly. Alternatively, use an electric deep-fat fryer heated to 130C. (CAUTION: hot oil can be dangerous. Do not leave unattended.)
3. Using a large, metal, slotted spoon, gently lower half the chips into the hot oil and stir carefully. Fry for ten minutes, or until cooked through but not browned.
4. Remove the chips from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain on plenty of kitchen paper. Repeat the process with the remaining chips. (The chips can be left for several hours at this stage.)
5. When ready to serve, reheat the oil to 190C. With a slotted spoon, lower all the par-cooked chips gently into the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes, or until crisp and golden-brown. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper.
6. Tip into a serving dish and sprinkle with salt and vinegar to serve.
Source: “The Hairy Bikers: Mums Know Best”, 2010. BBC Food,
https://www.bbc.com/food/recipes/thebestchipsyouhavee_93121
“While Mistress Potato au Gratin
Was so warm she had to use a fan”
(The scansion of this couplet was driving me nuts, but I finally worked out the emphasis: “While Mis-tress Po-ta-to au Gra-TAN / Was so warm she had to use a FAN.”)
Today dishes “au gratin” are inevitably topped with cheese. Usually breadcrumbs are used as well. Modern definitions all refer to these toppings. This wasn’t the original meaning of “gratin” at all: the French Wikipédia explains that a “gratin” is merely a dish baked in the oven so that it becomes topped with a fairly light, golden crust. The grill or a salamander may be used to increase the browning. (“Gratin”, Wikipédia).
Margaret Gebbie Hays uses “au Gratin” in her poem, but the Americans also called the dish “scalloped potatoes”. This recipe was published only three years after the rhyme. It’s interesting that at this early period the cheese is optional:
Scalloped Potatoes
Butter a baking-dish, pare and slice potatoes in small pieces.
Put into the dish with salt, pepper and a little butter. Fill the dish with milk, sprinkle over the top cracker or bread crumbs, and cheese, if you like it.
Bake in the oven for an hour and a half or two hours.
Source: Lydia Maria Gurney. The Things Mother Used To Make: A Collection of Old Time Recipes, Some Nearly One Hundred Years Old and Never Published Before. New York, Frank A. Arnold, 1914
Over the years the term “au gratin” gradually became synonymous with “cheese-topped.” (You’ll find an example of this misuse of the term later, in the section on baked potatoes.) Most sources claim that the potato dish, Gratin dauphinois, is the type species of the gratin and, again, most of them insist on the cheese. However, some earlier recipes didn’t use cheese in it.
By the mid-1960s we find that cheese seems to have become standard: this next recipe, which does add cheese, claims to be the real thing:
Le gratin dauphinois: Potatoes Baked With Cream
“A golden potato dish to serve with grills and casseroles.”
… “Happily all the authorities on the great regional dishes of France give recipes for it and are agreed on the basic ingredient of thinly sliced potatoes arranged in layers in a thickly buttered garlic rubbed shallow dish and that the gratin should be dotted with butter before being baked in a slow oven until the potatoes are soft and creamy.”
*1 1/4 lb [580-600g] waxy potatoes, peeled * 1 1/2 oz [40g] butter
* 2 oz [50-60g] Gruyere cheese, grated * 1/2 pint [300 ml] single cream
* small clove garlic, crushed (optional)
* salt, pepper and grated nutmeg
Slice the potatoes 1/8-inch [3 to 4mm] thick or less (the mandoline will do this rapidly) and soak in cold water. When required drain and dry the potatoes on a cloth.
Mix the butter and garlic (if used) and use a third to grease a shallow ovenproof dish. Spread half the potatoes over the bottom, and sprinkle with the seasonings and half the cheese. Dot with half the remaining butter. Arrange remaining potato slices evenly on top, sprinkle with seasonings and cheese, and pour the cream over. Dot with remaining butter.
Cook in a pre-heated slow oven (310°F [160 C]), for about 4 hours, until potatoes are creamy and surface golden.
–Serves 4.
Source: Mary Reynolds. French Cooking for Pleasure. London, Hamlyn, 1966
In 1980 Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book has a recipe which uses cheese, but also another without it which, being a food historian as well as a cook, she presents as more authentic. She gives the general instructions for a gratin first, in the one with cheese; then she writes:
Gratin dauphinois
“This is the version given by Edouard de Pomiane, said to be the ‘correct’ thing as it contains neither eggs nor cheese. He adds a teaspoon of flour to the cream to prevent it separating: other chefs have added a little water instead. The top browns on its own, without the assistance of bread-crumbs or grated cheese.”
* 3/4 kg (1 1/2 lb) potatoes, peeled, sliced thinly
* 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
* scant 1/2 litre (3/4 pt) boiling milk
* 200 ml (7 fl. oz) double cream mixed with 1 teaspoon flour
* salt, pepper
Cook for 50 minutes at 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6 then raise the heat to complete the browning.
Source: Jane Grigson. Jane Grigson's Vegetable Book. Harmondsworth, England, Penguin, 1980
“The Misses Sautéé were dainty and trim
In their new summer hats, with parsley-decked rim
They flirted in quite a Parisienne way…”
Sautéed potatoes done the “Parisienne way” correlate, I think, with this “French Fashion” recipe of Mrs Beeton’s for fried potatoes, which uses sliced potatoes. If you sauter something it should only be shallow-fried, as here:
FRIED POTATOES (French Fashion).
1142. INGREDIENTS.—Potatoes, hot butter or clarified dripping, salt.
Mode.—Peel and cut the potatoes into thin slices, as nearly the same size as possible; make some butter or dripping quite hot in a frying-pan; put in the potatoes, and fry them on both sides of a nice brown. When they are crisp and done, take them up, place them on a cloth before the fire to drain the grease from them, and serve very hot, after sprinkling them with salt. These are delicious with rump-steak, and, in France, are frequently served thus as a breakfast dish. The remains of cold potatoes may also be sliced and fried by the above recipe, but the slices must be cut a little thicker.
Time.—Sliced raw potatoes, 5 minutes; cooked potatoes, 5 minutes. Average cost, 4s. per bushel. Sufficient,—6 sliced potatoes for 3 persons. Seasonable at any time.
Source: Isabella Beeton. The Book of Household Management. [London], S.O. Beeton, 1861
More than a century and a half later we find the method is still current. Because the potatoes are boiled first in this 2014 version, it’s easier to ensure they’re cooked through after frying. The recipe still sprinkles salt, though here it’s the newly trendy “flaky sea salt”. The only addition is the rosemary:
Sauté Potatoes With Sea Salt & Rosemary
“There are few sides as simple and perfect as pan-fried spuds - the secret is boiling the potatoes in their skins before frying until golden.”
* 6 even-sized medium potatoes (about 700g)
* 2 tsp chopped rosemary * generous sprinkling flaky sea salt
* 2 tablesp rapeseed [canola] oil * 2 tablesp olive oil
1. Put the whole unpeeled potatoes in a pan of water. Bring to the boil and cook for 15 mins. Drain and leave to cool. Can be done several hours ahead.
2. When ready to serve, strip the skins from the potatoes, then cut them into thick slices. Heat the oils together in a very large non-stick frying pan. Add the potatoes in a single layer if there is room, and cook for 10-15 mins, turning them frequently with a fish slice until they are golden and crispy. Sprinkle with the rosemary and flaky salt, then serve.
–Serves 4
Source: Sara Buenfeld, Good Food Magazine, December 2014. BBC Good Food,
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/saute-potatoes-sea-salt-rosemary
This is a lovely recipe, and not hard to do. There are two points to note before you plunge into it. Firstly, rosemary is a woody herb, so use the most tender leaves from the tips of the sprigs. Secondly, if you leave the spuds sitting with their skins on, they’ll be harder to peel than if you slip the skins off while they’re still hot. (Or you could leave them on.)
“They flirted in quite a Parisienne way
With Young Baked Potato, so stylish and gay”
BAKED POTATOES.
1136. INGREDIENTS.—Potatoes.
Mode.—Choose large potatoes, as much of a size as possible; wash them in lukewarm water, and scrub them well, for the browned skin of a baked potato is by many persons considered the better part of it. Put them into a moderate oven, and bake them for about 2 hours, turning them three or four times whilst they are cooking. Serve them in a napkin immediately they are done, as, if kept a long time in the oven, they have a shrivelled appearance. Potatoes may also be roasted before the fire, in an American oven; but when thus cooked, they must be done very slowly. Do not forget to send to table with them a piece of cold butter.
Time.—Large potatoes, in a hot oven 1-1/2 hour to 2 hours; in a cool oven, 2 to 2-1/2 hours. Average cost, 4s. per bushel. Sufficient.—Allow 2 to each person. Seasonable all the year, but not good just before and whilst new potatoes are in season.
Source: Isabella Beeton. The Book of Household Management. [London], S.O. Beeton, 1861
Baked potatoes have remained popular ever since Mrs Beeton gave her readers those instructions. A favourite method has been to bake as she describes, then mash up the potato’s fluffy inside with additions to taste, pop back in the shell and brown in the oven. The simple recipe below is from an American book that’s over 100 years old: it’s still doable and yummy for today’s family dinner—and still done, as the illustration indicates: it’s from a version given nearly another 100 years after that, “Twice Baked Potatoes”.
Delicious Stuffed Baked Potatoes
Bake six potatoes, or enough for family. When done, set away to cool slightly. Cut off a small piece, scoop out the inside, mash, add butter, salt, and milk, also tiny bits of parsley, if liked.
Fill the shells with this mixture, put back in the oven and bake until brown.
Source: Lydia Maria Gurney. The Things Mother Used To Make: A Collection of Old Time Recipes, Some Nearly One Hundred Years Old and Never Published Before. New York, Frank A. Arnold, 1914
I chose this next recipe partly because it’s an Australian example of the “stuffed” or re-filled baked potato, and partly because it illustrates how the term “au gratin” had come to mean any baked dish topped with cheese:
Stuffed Potatoes au Gratin, Suitable for Luncheon or Tea
* Six potatoes *1 oz. [25-30 g] butter * 3 to 4 tablesp grated cheese
* salt * cayenne * half teacup milk
Choose good, sound potatoes of medium size, wash them well, then dry and prick with a fork or skewer. Bake in oven till done, 1 to 1 1/2 hours or longer, according to size. To tell if done, press with the thumb and finger. Cut a slice off top of each potato, then scoop out centre without breaking the skins. Mash the potato. Heat the milk and butter, add to the potato with the cheese and seasonings. Beat till smooth and creamy. Refill cases with the mixture, piling high. Sprinkle over grated cheese. Replace in a hot oven and leave till thoroughly heated and nicely browned.
Source: A. L. Sharman, in Green and Gold Cookery Book: Containing Many Good and Proved Recipes. 15th ed. (rev.), Adelaide, R.M. Osborne, [1949?]
“Soon old multimillionaire Boileau Potate
Arrived in a motor, afraid he’d be late”
I’d say “Boileau Potate” only means boiled potato. So here are Isabella Beeton’s very full instructions:
TO BOIL POTATOES IN THEIR JACKETS.
1138. INGREDIENTS.—10 or 12 potatoes; to each 1/2 gallon of water, allow 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt.
Mode.—To obtain this wholesome and delicious vegetable cooked in perfection, it should be boiled and sent to table with the skin on. In Ireland, where, perhaps, the cooking of potatoes is better understood than in any country, they are always served so. Wash the potatoes well, and if necessary, use a clean scrubbing-brush to remove the dirt from them; and if possible, choose the potatoes so that they may all be as nearly the same size as possible. When thoroughly cleansed, fill the saucepan half full with them, and just cover the potatoes with cold water, salted in the above proportion: they are more quickly boiled with a small quantity of water, and, besides, are more savoury than when drowned in it. Bring them to boil, then draw the pan to the side of the fire, and let them simmer gently until tender. Ascertain when they are done by probing them with a fork; then pour off the water, uncover the saucepan, and let the potatoes dry by the side of the fire, taking care not to let them burn. Peel them quickly, put them in a very hot vegetable-dish, either with or without a napkin, and serve very quickly. After potatoes are cooked, they should never be entirely covered up, as the steam, instead of escaping, falls down on them, and makes them watery and insipid. In Ireland they are usually served up with the skins on, and a small plate is placed by the side of each guest.
Time.—Moderate-sized potatoes, with their skins on, 20 to 25 minutes after the water boils; large potatoes, 25 minutes to 3/4 hour, or longer; 5 minutes to dry them. Average cost, 4s. per bushel. Sufficient for 6 persons. Seasonable all the year, but not good just before and whilst new potatoes are in season.
Source: Isabella Beeton. The Book of Household Management. [London], S.O. Beeton, 1861
Oddly, the mid-1890s’ The Art Of Living in Australia, which usually follows Mrs Beeton pretty closely on basic recipes, tells you to peel the spuds. However, if they’re new potatoes, you don’t. Today we’d eat them in their skins but otherwise we could use Mrs Wicken’s directions:
To Boil New Potatoes
New potatoes may be either scraped while raw, or peeled after boiling; they are a better flavour if cooked in their skins. In either case they should be well washed in cold water, plunged into boiling water seasoned with salt and a sprig of mint, and boiled quickly until a fork will go through easily; then strain off the water, dry, and serve.
Source: Philip E. Muskett and Mrs H. Wicken. The Art of Living in Australia, by Philip E. Muskett; Together With Three Hundred Australian Cookery Recipes and Accessory Kitchen Information by Mrs. H. Wicken. London, Eyre and Spottiswoode, [1894]
“His daughter Miss Lyonnaise came with him too,
Saying, ‘See you’re not late, so why get in a stew?’”
“Lyonnaise” must have been a current term back in the early 20th century, but I’d never seen it: I didn’t have a clue what style of dish this was. However, after checking Escoffier’s recipes I realised it must mean with sautéed onions. It also refers to an onion sauce: the Répertoire de la cuisine (first published 1914) explains under “Sauces”:
“Lyonnaise.—Onions partly fried in butter, moistened with white wine and vinegar, reduced and mixed with half-glaze, pass through tammy cloth.”
Source: Louis Saulnier. Le répertoire de la cuisine. Standard ed. London, Leon Jaggi & Sons, [1960?]
Here’s Escoffier’s classic recipe for the “Miss Lyonnaise” potato dish:
2227—POMMES DE TERRE A LA LYONNAISE
Cut some peeled and plain-boiled potatoes into roundels, and toss these in butter in a frying-pan. Likewise toss some sliced onions in butter, the quantity of the former measuring one-fourth of that of the potatoes. When the onions are of a nice golden colour, add them to the sautéd potatoes; season with salt and pepper; sauté the two products together for a few minutes, that they may mix thoroughly, and dish them in a timbale with chopped parsley.
Source: Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935). A Guide to Modern Cookery. London, W. Heinemann, 1907
“Lyonnaise” potatoes, that is, with onions sautéed in butter, also crop up at this period in Janet Ross’s Leaves From Our Tuscan Kitchen (published 1899 and 1900) in the form “Potatoes ‘alla Lionese’”. Janet Ross wasn’t a cook: she had a French-trained chef, and it’s his recipe:
In 1955 Robin McDouall’s recipe “Pommes sautées Lyonnaise” in his Collins Pocket Guide to Good Cooking, and again in 1965 in the reissued edition under the title Robin McDouall’s Cookery Book for the Greedy, is almost exactly the same as Escoffier’s. However, it seems to be a dish that has since gone out of style. It’s certainly not part of today’s popular home-cooked repertoire in the same way as baked potatoes are.
“The gossips drank tea,
Raised their hands and their eyes,
When Gay Mashed Potato, for a surprise,
Danced a jig (quite risquee)”
(It does rhyme, if you pronounce “risquee” as “ris-KEE”, not “ris-KAY”.) And here’s that masher Gay Mashed Potato himself, by Grace Gebbie Drayton (Wiederseim), from Vegetable Verselets:
Naturally Mrs Beeton has instructions for mash:
MASHED POTATOES.
1145. INGREDIENTS.—Potatoes; to every lb. [450 g] of mashed potatoes allow 1 oz. [25-30 g] of butter, 2 tablespoonfuls of milk, salt to taste.
Mode.—Boil the potatoes in their skins; when done, drain them, and let them get thoroughly dry by the side of the fire; then peel them, and, as they are peeled, put them into a clean saucepan, and with a large fork beat them to a light paste; add butter, milk, and salt in the above proportion, and stir all the ingredients well over the fire. When thoroughly hot, dish them lightly, and draw the fork backwards over the potatoes to make the surface rough, and serve. When dressed in this manner, they may be browned at the top with a salamander, or before the fire. Some cooks press the potatoes into moulds, then turn them out, and brown them in the oven: this is a pretty mode of serving, but it makes them heavy. In whatever way they are sent to table, care must be taken to have them quite free from lumps.
Time.—From 1/2 to 3/4 hour to boil the potatoes. Average cost, 4s. per bushel. Sufficient,—1 lb. of mashed potatoes for 3 persons. Seasonable at any time.
Source: Isabella Beeton. The Book of Household Management. [London], S.O. Beeton, 1861
Mashed potatoes were extremely popular in the 19th century, lending themselves to all sorts of elegant presentations. Here, in an illustration from The Book of Household Management on the Internet Archive, we see Mrs Beeton serving them with some daintily arranged chops: “Mutton Cutlets and Mashed Potatoes” is the dish marked W at lower left:
Mash of course has never dropped out of fashion, though I think during the 20th century its popularity waned in America. In Britain, Australia and New Zealand it remains a favourite. More latterly cooks have added some innovations: in the 1990s the British TV detective series Pie In the Sky celebrated, amongst other dishes, the mashed potato: the combo with olive oil and garlic got a special mention. Try it, it’s delish! I also love mashed spuds with olive oil, a good amount of smoked paprika (about 1/2 teaspoon per helping) and a sprinkle of dried marjoram.
“Danced a jig (quite risquee)
With Miss B. Tato Kake”
I initially assumed that Margaret Gebbie Hays’s potato cakes would be a savoury vegetable dish, but on investigation I don’t think they were, in those days: they were just plain. In America potato cakes of whatever variety could be eaten as a breakfast dish in the 19th and early 20th centuries, quite possibly served with syrup, just as the surviving starchy dishes like pancakes and waffles still are today, but they were also intended to be eaten with meat.
Even in early times two different strands of American potato cakes are discernible, one more scone-like, the other more patty-like. Today, the patty type seems to have largely taken over, in the form of “hash browns.” The early American recipes below are sourced from the wonderful collection of old cookbooks at the Feeding America website: the Gebbie sisters Margaret and Grace would have been familiar with at least one or two of them.
Potato Cakes [1873]
Two pounds of mashed potatoes; two tablespoonsful of butter, and a little salt; two pounds of flour; stir in milk enough to make a batter; put in one half teacupful of yeast. Set before the fire to rise; when light, bake in cakes the size of a muffin.
Source: Presbyterian Cook Book, Compiled by the Ladies Of The First Presbyterian Church, Dayton, Ohio. Dayton, Ohio: Oliver Crook, c1873.
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_29.cfm
******
Potato Cakes [1877] Version 1
Mix thoroughly with cold, mashed potatoes left from dinner, the well-beaten yolk of an egg; make into cakes as you would sausages, place in skillet with a tablespoon hot ham or beef drippings, cover tightly and, in five minutes, when lower side is browned, turn, remove cover, fry until the other side is a nice brown; serve hot. Make up after dinner ready for frying for breakfast.
Potato Cakes [1877] Version 2
Grate eight raw Irish potatoes, add salt, two well-beaten eggs, and half cup flour, roll in cakes with a spoon, and fry in butter.
Source: Susie Nixon, Selma, Alabama, in Estelle Woods Wilcox. Buckeye Cookery, And Practical Housekeeping: Compiled From Original Recipes. Minneapolis, Minn., Buckeye Publishing Co., 1877
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_33.cfm
******
Potato Cakes [1899]
Is made just as the pancakes [below], only baked in the oven in a long cake pan with plenty of butter or drippings under and above. Nice with meat sauce.
Potato Pancakes.
Pare large potatoes, the night previous, if you intend them for breakfast, and lay them in cold water over night. Grate them in the morning and pour off all the water you can. Salt liberally, add a large spoonful of flour and a few eggs, beaten together. …
Source: “Aunt Babette's” Cook Book: Foreign and Domestic Receipts for the Household. Cincinnati, Block Publishing and Print Co., c1889
http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/cookbooks/html/books/book_41.cfm
American potato cakes of this early vintage might be baked in the oven (1873, 1899). They must have been popular with many sections of the population: while the 1873 recipe is from a Presbyterian cookbook, the 1899 one is a Jewish one, but they take the same basic approach.
Or they might be fried in the pan, or presumably on the griddle (1877, versions 1 & 2). These two Buckeye Cookery recipes would have been widely used: the book “was the great mid-American cookbook of its day. … It was also issued as the Dixie Cook Book, to reach a southern audience. It was published in German to reach the largest ethnic group in the Upper Midwest. An edition was published almost every year in Dayton, Atlanta, Denver, Chicago and St. Paul as well as many in Minneapolis. At least thirty different printings have been recorded. As early as 1880, the title page indicated ‘Eightieth Thousand.’ … Why was the book so popular? Clearly, it met the needs of thousands of women looking for advice on how to feed their families and manage their households.” (Feeding America)
The second recipe from 1877 and the one from 1899 look like ancestors of the modern “hash browns,” don’t they? However, starting from scratch by grating potatoes probably doesn’t happen any more: a Culinary Lore article on a special-occasion dish from Utah, “Funeral Potatoes” writes of “pre-packaged and prepared ingredients … such as frozen shredded or chopped hash brown potatoes.” This didn’t quite sink in—I thought they’d be frozen potato patties—until I read the recipe for Funeral Potatoes (by Jillee, on One Good Thing) and found that the chief ingredient is “2 packages of Simply Potatoes shredded hash browns”—that is, grated potatoes!
British Potato Cakes
In Britain potato cakes had a rather different history. The English food writers, who were largely in the cordon bleu tradition, ignored the dish: it was humble fare, made by home cooks, and cooked on the griddle. Eventually, in the mid-1970s, Jane Grigson provided a range of traditional dishes in her English Food, many of which are no longer made as part of everyday fare. She lists “Potato Cakes” with the other traditional griddle cakes of English home cooking: Oatcakes, Muffins (English muffins, quite different from the oven-baked American ones), Crumpets, and Singin’ Hinnies. This form of cooking was a very strong tradition for hundreds of years. Originally, poorer people didn’t have ovens and such dishes would have been done on iron cookware over the fire.
Potato Cakes
*1 1/4 lb potatoes [about 580 g] * 1 egg (optional)
* 4 oz [125 g] flour * 1 tsp baking powder
* 1 oz [25-30 g] melted butter * 1/2 tsp salt
Scrub, boil, and peel the potatoes in the usual way (left-over potatoes may be used, but newly-cooked ones taste much better). Weigh out a pound of them and mash thoroughly, or put through the coarse blade of a vegetable mill. Mix in the other ingredients quickly, using enough flour to make a coherent and not too sticky dough. Roll out thinly and cut into saucer-sized rounds. Bake on a griddle greased with lard, beef suet or bacon fat, and eat immediately, rolling the cakes like pancakes round little sticks of salty butter.
Or: roll the dough out to a 1/2" [1 cm] thickness and cut with a scone cutter. Cook on the griddle, and eat with bacon, eggs and so on. They will need 15 minutes’ cooking time.
Or: in the Welsh manner add 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon granulated sugar to the mixture. Cut into 1/2" [1 cm] rounds with the scone cutter—15-20 minutes’ cooking time on the griddle, greased with suet or lard.
Source: Jane Grigson. English Food. Harmondsworth, England, Penguin, 1977 (First published London, Macmillan, 1974)
The potatoes are cooked and mashed, not grated. (Baking powder wasn’t always used: in Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book there is another set of instructions which omits both the eggs and the baking powder.)
If you try this recipe, use a heavy-based pan if you don’t have a griddle. With all griddle cakes the only tricky thing is getting the temperature right so as they cook right through but don’t singe.
Potato Cakes Downunder
Scones or fritters? Savoury or plain? We find both the baked scone-like type of potato cake and the pan-fried type in Australian and New Zealand cookery, certainly as far back as the 1940s, and right up to the present day. However, the fried type tends to predominate: the mixture may either be quite heavy, resulting in a griddle-cake texture, or more like a batter, producing a classic fritter. As time goes by recipes also become more savoury, at first with the addition of cheese and, as exemplified by the modern New Zealand version illustrated above, becoming even tastier, with bacon, spring onions and sour cream as well as the cheese. (“Potato cakes”, New Zealand Woman’s Weekly – Food, sourced 2023.)
By the middle of the 20th century potato cakes were already taking on a more savoury tinge in the far-flung corners of the Empire, as this Australian recipe, which adds cheese, shows:
Potato Cakes
“These may be eaten without meat, but usually with poultry.”
Beat up two or three pounds hot boiled potatoes. Add slice butter and two or three beaten eggs. Rub mash with wooden spoon until quite smooth, then spread out in layer three-quarter inch thick. Stamp out with paste cutter. Brush cakes over with beaten egg, cover with breadcrumbs, and dust with grated cheese. Fry cakes in hot fat until they are brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve very hot.
Source: Miss B. Skewes, Victor Harbour, in Green and Gold Cookery Book: Containing Many Good and Proved Recipes. 15th ed. (rev.), Adelaide, R.M. Osborne, [1949?]
This cookery book was immensely popular, running through umpteen editions, and although it originated in South Australia, was used all over the country.
In New Zealand, while the Edmonds Cookery Book remained the favourite, the WI also published a cookbook in the 1940s. New Zealand cooks were already obsessed with oven baking by this time, and although the recipe is pretty much the traditional griddle cake mixture, it’s for a baked version, meant to be split and buttered, like the endemic and unavoidable Kiwi scones:
Potato Cakes
* One lb. Potatoes *1 oz. flour * 1 oz. butter * 1 egg * salt
Boil and mash potatoes. Pour the butter into a saucepan and when dissolved put in potatoes with flour, egg and salt. Mix well and turn onto a floured board, shape into small flat cakes, put on to a buttered tin, brush over with egg or water, and bake in a brisk oven until pale brown. Cut open, butter and serve hot.
Source: The New Home Cookery Book (Levin, Women’s Institutes of New Zealand, 1946) in David Veart. First Catch Your Weka: A Story of New Zealand Cooking. Auckland, Auckland University Press, 2008
It wasn’t only in New Zealand that potato cakes could be oven-baked: here’s an Australian recipe, found on a modern Aussie website, but dating from the 1940s, that resembles the New Zealand one and is even more scone-like:
Irish Potato Cakes
“This is my mum's recipe from the mid 40’s when things were tough.”
* 2 cup mashed potato day-old
* 1 cup self-raising flour sifted *1/4 tsp salt and pepper
1. Combine cold mashed potato with as much flour as possible.
2. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Mix by hand or with a mixer and dough hook until all ingredients are blended.
4. Turn out onto a floured board, flatten out to approximately 2cm thick.
5. Cut into 5cm squares, place on floured tray brush with milk.
6. Bake at 180C (fan-forced) for 20 minutes or until golden.
Notes: Serve with lots of butter and best eaten hot, can serve with a little chutney. You can also use mashed pumpkin mixed in with potato and spring onions as well for a change.
Source: Frank Pattaya, Australia’s Best Recipes,
https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/irish-potato-cakes/ycnz66hb
This devolution into oven-baked offerings is only one strand of the fate of traditional British potato cakes in the Antipodes. The other is a metamorphosis into fritters, not unlike the American hash browns, but under the old name. Today many recipes from the big Australian website Australia’s Best Recipes have potato cake mixtures with a batter-like consistency. Below is a typical example. (I’ve given the ingredients in the wording used: I don’t think the author means 2 lots of pepper.)
Easy Potato Cakes
“Simple potato cakes that are too yummy to only have one.”
* 4 potato grated * 1 cup water * 1 cup plain flour
* 1/2 tsp salt and pepper to taste; *1 tsp pepper; 1 tbs oil
1. Combine potatoes, water and flour in a bowl. Add salt and pepper.
2. Heat a frying pan with a little oil. Spoon the mix into pan to make circle shapes and fry until cooked.
3. Place onto paper towel to drain.
Notes: Some people may think these are plain so I add 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder or even 1/2 teaspoon of chicken stock powder. The mixture is meant to be slightly liquidly [sic].
–10 Servings.
Source: claire21, Australia’s Best Recipes, [ca. 2018?]
https://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipes/easy-potato-cakes/o8s2t0la
This is the plainest of the fritter-type “potato cakes” on the website. There’s also a potato and bacon mixture, by “allanjschultz”; and potatoes, corned beef, and onions by “des hoffman”.
“Potato Cakes” by “oldsheila” is quite different: potatoes mashed with a little flour and eggs but not made into a dough, just piled into a muffin pan and baked. The result is quite soft; most reviews were very favourable but a few didn’t care for it—possibly because they hadn’t used the right sort of potato. In the picture the result is beautifully light and fluffy. If you’re looking for a nice mashed potato oven recipe, I’d recommend this: “oldsheila’s” recipes are usually very good.
Well, that was potato cakes!
Looking at over a hundred years’ worth of recipes under the same name illustrates the way in which old traditional dishes may change and evolve, and sometimes disappear, with different social conditions, changes in equipment and resources, and the advent of convenience foods. “Hash browns”, of course, the modern descendants of the potato cake, are the prime example of convenience. And we buy our chips from fast-food outlets instead of slaving over a hot stove—but they’re still recognisably the deep-fried “Miss Julienne” and “French-Fry” potatoes of 1911!
