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Potato Puffs
Take 2 cups mashed potatoes and stir in 2 tablespoons melted butter. Beat to cream, and add 2 eggs beaten very light, 1 teacup milk or cream and salt to taste.
Bake in deep dish in quick oven till nicely browned.
A soufflé-adjacent potato dish with no timings and one archaic measure. Read it as a batter rather than a mash: the liquid content is high on purpose, and the eggs do the lifting.
- TeacupA teacup in books of this period is usually reckoned at about 3/4 cup (6 fl oz), though the measure was never standardised; the potatoes are presumably in 8-oz cups. Either way the mixture should pour thickly rather than hold a peak.
- Quick ovenRoughly 400-425F. At that heat a buttered 1 1/2-quart dish should take somewhere around 25 to 35 minutes, until puffed and browned across the top and set in the centre.
- Start with plain potatoesThe recipe adds its own butter, milk and salt, so it appears to expect plain mashed potato. If yours is already loose and buttery, cut the milk back or the puffs will not set.
- Beat the eggs lightThis is the only leavening in the dish. Whole eggs beaten until pale and foamy will work; separating them and folding in the whipped whites last gives a noticeably higher, lighter result.
- Deep dishDepth matters more than width — a straight-sided casserole or soufflé dish encourages rise. Fill it no more than three-quarters full.
- Serve immediatelyLike any egg-risen dish it settles within a few minutes of leaving the oven. Yield is about four to six side servings.
The Five Roses Cook Book was published by the Lake of the Woods Milling Company to promote its flour, and its recipes were largely contributed by Canadian housewives — which is why its sections read as household shorthand rather than tested formulas. Potato puffs of this kind belong to a long line of thrift dishes built on yesterday's mashed potatoes, dressed up with eggs and cream so that a leftover could be sent to table as something in its own right. The technique is often likened to the French soufflé tradition, simplified for a wood or coal range where a "quick oven" was judged by hand rather than a thermometer.