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Potato Loaf
3 cups mashed potatoes 1 egg (beaten) 1 cup bread crumbs ½ cup sweet cream 1 onion (chopped fine) Pepper Salt Sage.
Mix and flavor to taste. Shape into loaf and place in cool spot. Cut into slices, dip in Five Roses flour and fry in a little butter.
PUDDINGS OF ALL KINDS (FOR SAUCES, CUSTARDS, ETC., SEE PAGE 65)
A thrifty way to turn leftover mashed potato into a fried supper dish. The recipe assumes you know what it should look like, so the two things worth pinning down are the moisture of the potato and how long the loaf chills.
- Chill it properlyThe "cool spot" is the hinge. Before domestic refrigeration that meant several hours in a genuinely cold pantry or room; use the refrigerator and give the loaf at least three hours, ideally overnight. Slices cut from a warm loaf collapse in the pan.
- Sweet creamThis means fresh, unsoured cream, as opposed to the soured cream that was common in a period kitchen. Half a cup of heavy or whipping cream is the equivalent.
- Mashed potato consistencyUse potato mashed plain and fairly dry, without added milk or butter, or the loaf will not hold a slice. If your leftovers are loose, add bread crumbs beyond the cup called for until the mixture holds a shape when pressed.
- SageNo quantity is given because the book expects you to taste as you go. Dried rubbed sage is strong: start with half a teaspoon for the full quantity and work up. If using fresh, a scant tablespoon chopped.
- The raw onionA finely chopped raw onion will still be crunchy after a brief fry and can weep liquid into the loaf. Softening it in a little butter first and letting it cool gives a better texture and a sweeter flavour.
- FryingSlices about three-quarters of an inch thick, floured on both sides, in butter over medium heat, four or five minutes a side until a firm crust forms. Butter alone browns fast; a little neutral oil with it keeps it from burning.
- YieldThree cups of mashed potato makes a loaf giving roughly eight to ten slices, enough for four as a side or three as a light main.
- The trailing line"PUDDINGS OF ALL KINDS" and the page reference are the printed heading of the next section of the book, not part of this recipe.
Potato loaf of this kind belongs to the long tradition of dishes built to use up yesterday's supper. The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company to promote its Five Roses flour, and the recipes were solicited from Canadian housewives across the country, which accounts for the terse, take-it-as-you-find-it style and the unspecified seasonings. The flour dredge is doing double duty here, binding the surface for frying and advertising the sponsor's product. Sage with potato and onion is a very old English and Anglo-Canadian pairing, the same flavour combination that turns up in sage-and-onion stuffing, and its appearance in a leftovers dish suggests it was simply what was in the crock.