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Potato Puff
Two cups mashed potatoes, stir in two tablespoons melted butter, beat to a white cream, add two eggs beaten very light, a teacup of cream or milk, and salt to taste. Bake in a deep dish in a quick oven, until nicely browned.
— Mrs. George S. Harding
A leftover-potato dish that behaves like a loose soufflé. The lift comes entirely from air beaten into the potato and eggs, so the beating is the whole recipe.
- "Beat to a white cream"This is the hinge. Whip the warm mashed potato with the melted butter until it pales and lightens noticeably — a stand mixer with the paddle, two or three minutes. Cold, dense potato will not aerate and the puff will bake into a solid slab.
- Quick ovenConventionally reckoned at roughly 400-425F. In a buttered dish of about 1½ quarts expect it to brown and set in something like 25 to 35 minutes; the centre should be just firm with no liquid wobble.
- TeacupAn unstandardised measure in American receipts of this period, variously reckoned anywhere from about 4 to 6 fl oz, i.e. smaller than a modern cup. Start at the lower end and hold some back if the potatoes were already soft.
- Deep dishAny straight-sided baking dish or soufflé mould, buttered. Depth matters more than width: a shallow pan gives you browned crust and no interior.
- The eggsBeat the whole eggs until thick and pale, then fold them in rather than stirring hard, and get the dish into the oven at once. There is no flour or starch thickener here to hold the structure while it waits.
- Which potatoesRussets or another floury variety, mashed without lumps and without garlic, cheese or heavy seasoning. Waxy potatoes turn gluey under this much beating.
- SaltSeason the potato base before the eggs go in and taste it then — once baked, the surface browns and the interior cannot be corrected.
- YieldFour modest side servings. It falls as it cools, like any soufflé, so serve it straight from the oven.
Potato puffs and "potato soufflés" run through American community cookbooks from the later nineteenth century onward, almost always as a way of dignifying yesterday's mashed potatoes -- a frugality dressed as a company dish. Recipes signed with a contributor's married name, as this one is, were the currency of these subscription books, and the attribution served as both credit and endorsement. That it calls for cream *or* milk let the cook use whatever was on hand.