Monday, April 9, 2012

Potato Cakes

"Mash potatoes, just boiled. Add salt, pepper, butter, and cream, make into cakes and fry brown on both sides." Mrs. P. W. Housekeeping in Old Virginia. pg 197

I saw the description of this recipe yesterday, having two potatoes I decided to give it a shot.  This morning I boiled a peeled potato on the stove for approximately twenty minutes.  I then extracted the potato and put in a bowl.  I used a fork to mash the potato and added salt, butter, and pepper.  I had no cream, so I added extra butter and a little bit of milk -- to milk cap fulls. I stirred the vigorously until all the contents were well blended. The ending consistency was something similar to stiff mashed potatoes. I made four "cakes" by rolling portions of the potato mix into a ball and flattening it in the frying pan.  I aimed for each cake to be about 1/2 an inch thick.  I then fried the cakes with a bit of oil, although I'm certain Mrs. P.W. would have advised either butter or lard (those seem to be the frying food products of choice in most of these recipes).

The end-product was quite delicious, very similar to a hash brown. As any good Virginian, I appreciate my salt- so I was sure to season the finished cakes for good flavor.

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