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Scones, Potato
Take any boiled potatoes left over from dinner, bruise them nice and smoothly, or rub them through a sieve; add salt to season. Shake some flour over them or work it in, roll out very thin, prick with a fork, and cut into three. Bake on a moderately hot girdle.
A frugal use for cold boiled potatoes, written for a cook who already knew what a potato scone should feel like. The whole thing turns on the flour: as little as will hold the dough together.
- ProportionsThe original gives none. A workable ratio is about 1 lb (450 g) mashed potato to 2-3 oz (60-90 g) plain flour, plus a teaspoon of salt. Add the flour in stages and stop as soon as the dough stops sticking to your hands.
- The potatoes must be dry and warmThe drier the potato, the better -- Floury varieties (Maris Piper, russet) sieved or riced give the smoothest dough; the original works from cold leftovers, so expect to break them down more thoroughly. Waxy or watery potatoes force you to add more flour, and extra flour makes the scone tougher.
- "Girdle" is a griddleA flat iron bakestone heated over the fire. A heavy cast-iron frying pan or a flat griddle plate is the modern equivalent, ungreased or barely greased, over medium heat.
- "Moderately hot"Hot enough that a scrap of dough browns in patches within a minute, not so hot that it scorches before the inside sets. Two to three minutes a side is usual; the scone should be freckled brown, not uniformly coloured.
- "Cut into three"The dough is rolled into a round and cut into wedges; a Scots cook's farl is strictly a quarter, so three is an unusual division. Cutting before baking also makes the pieces easier to turn on the girdle.
- Roll very thinAbout 1/8 inch (3 mm). Thicker rounds stay damp and heavy in the middle, since there is no raising agent here at all.
- Yield and servingA pound of potato makes about two rounds, so six farls at the recipe's three-way cut. Eat them hot off the griddle with butter, or keep them and fry them in bacon fat the next morning.
Potato scones belong to the griddle-baking tradition of Scotland and the north of England, where a flat iron plate over the fire did the work of an oven many households lacked. The recipe begins with leftovers rather than a list of ingredients, and sits in the book as a thrift dish, a way of turning yesterday's boiled potatoes into today's tea. There is no raising agent: these are not risen scones in the English sense but a thin, pliable flatbread, and similar doughs appear under other names across the potato-eating parts of Britain and Ireland.