Pockets
1 quart of flour. 4 eggs. 1 cup of butter. 1 cup of yeast. 1 large Irish potato, boiled and mashed into the flour.
Add the yeast, butter and eggs, after mashing the potato in the flour. Knead all together and set to rise.
A potato-leavened roll dough of the kind Virginia kitchens kept going year-round. The recipe assumes you know what to do once it has risen, so the shaping, proofing and baking all have to be supplied.
- A quart of flourFlour was measured by volume in these books: a quart is 4 cups, roughly 17-18 oz of all-purpose. Expect to adjust, since the mashed potato brings its own moisture.
- A cup of yeastThis means a cup of liquid homemade yeast or barm, not dry granules. In place of it use about 2 1/4 teaspoons of active dry or instant yeast plus a cup of warm liquid (milk or the potato water), or the dough will be far too stiff.
- Irish potatoSouthern cookbooks say "Irish potato" to distinguish an ordinary white potato from a sweet potato. One large one, boiled and riced or mashed smooth while hot, gives about a cup; it keeps the crumb soft and the rolls fresh a day longer.
- SaltNone is listed; the salt in farm butter may account for some of it. With modern unsalted butter add about 2 teaspoons of salt to the flour.
- A cup of butterEight ounces, two sticks. Soften it rather than melting it, and work it in with the eggs after the potato has been rubbed through the flour.
- RisingWith this much butter and egg the dough is slow. Let it double at room temperature, which may take two to three hours, then chill it overnight if convenient: cold dough is much easier to roll and fold.
- Why they are called pocketsShaping -- The recipe does not say; the name may refer to a folded roll. One workable approach: roll the risen dough about 1/2 inch thick, cut rounds, brush with melted butter and fold each just off-center so the top overhangs, then set them to rise again until puffy before baking.
- OvenNo temperature is given. For rolls of this size, 400-425F for 12-15 minutes, until well browned, with a second brushing of butter as they come out.
- YieldAbout two to two and a half dozen rolls, depending on the cutter.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by Virginia housewives, is thick with yeast breads because many households baked frequently and kept their own leaven. A cup of yeast meant a cup of liquid stock kept alive in a jar or crock, often raised on potato or hops; reliable compressed yeast was only beginning to reach American kitchens in the 1870s, and the change is generally traced to the Fleischmann brothers' promotion of compressed yeast around the Centennial Exhibition. Potato in bread dough was valued for the same reasons commercial bakers still use it: it holds water, softens the crumb and feeds the yeast. "Pocket" appears to be a shape name rather than a filling, and a folded-over roll of this sort resembles what is now called a Parker House, though the recipe says nothing about shaping; the phrasing here, with its bare list and the assumption that the cook knows how long to bake a roll, is typical of a book written by experienced housekeepers for each other.