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Lancashire Potato Cake
1 pound of mashed potatoes 1/2 pound of flour 2 ounces of butter 1/4 pint of milk 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder The potatoes should be quite dry before they are put through the potato masher. Rub the butter in the flour; then mix the potatoes and flour together. Stir in the milk, and roll out on a well-floured pastry-board about half an inch thick. Cut into cakes the size of a breakfast saucer, and bake in a quick oven. The cakes can be split and a little butter spread between, or they can be served plain. They must be sent to table very hot, and are best as a breakfast dish.
A potato-and-flour scone dough, closer to a griddle cake than a loaf. The success of it rests almost entirely on how dry the potatoes are.
- Dry potatoes are the whole recipeUse floury potatoes (Maris Piper, russet), and either bake them in their skins or boil and then return them to the dry pan over low heat until the steam stops. Wet mash forces you to add flour, and the cakes turn heavy and gluey.
- A quick ovenRoughly 400-450F (200-230C). At that heat cakes half an inch thick and saucer-sized need roughly 15-20 minutes, until risen and lightly browned.
- 1/4 pintThis is an imperial pint, so 5 imperial fl oz, about 140 ml, a little under 2/3 US cup. Add it gradually: depending on the potatoes you may need noticeably less to reach a soft, rollable dough.
- Weights in cups1 lb mashed potato is about 2 cups packed; 1/2 lb flour is roughly 1 3/4 cups; 2 oz butter is 4 tablespoons.
- The baking powderHalf a teaspoon to 8 oz flour is very modest by current practice, and the instructions never say when to add it. Whisk it into the flour before rubbing in the butter, and use 1 1/2 to 2 teaspoons if you want a lift closer to a modern scone.
- SaltNone is specified, and unsalted potatoes plus unsalted butter will taste flat. Half a teaspoon in the flour is enough.
- Size and yieldA breakfast saucer would be somewhere in the region of 5 to 6 inches across, so this makes four or five large cakes, or eight of a more manageable scone size.
- Griddle instead of ovenThe same dough cooks well on a dry, lightly floured heavy pan over medium heat, about 5 minutes a side, much as potato cakes were handled on a bakestone; it gives a crisper crust.
- Serve at onceThe instruction to send them to table very hot is not politeness. Potato cakes go dense and slightly waxy as they cool; split and butter them straight from the oven.
Potato cakes cooked on a bakestone or girdle were everyday food across the north of England, Ireland and lowland Scotland, and the Lancashire version is usually described as a breakfast bread eaten hot with butter. Potato was a familiar way of stretching flour when flour was dear or short. The exchange is a real one: potato brings moisture and starch but no gluten, so the cakes rise little, stale quickly and want eating within the hour, which is exactly why the recipe insists on sending them to table very hot.