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Mashed Potato Stuffing
toes, highly seasoned with salt and pepper cup chopped, parboiled onions 2 egg yolks Mix ingredients in order given.
A plain potato stuffing of the sort used for goose, duck and pork, where a starchy filling absorbs fat rather than adding it. The ingredient list as printed has lost its opening quantities, so treat the proportions below as a guide rather than a transcription.
- ProportionsThe amount of mashed potato is not recoverable from the text as it stands. A workable ratio for this style of stuffing is about 4 cups mashed potato to 1/2 cup parboiled chopped onion and 2 yolks; the yolks are there to bind.
- "Highly seasoned"This is the hinge. Potato is bland and dilutes everything around it, so the mixture should taste aggressively salty and peppery on the spoon before it goes near the bird. Season, taste, season again.
- Parboiled onionsBoiling the chopped onion briefly before mixing removes the raw bite and helps it cook through; inside a dense potato stuffing raw onion tends to stay sharp and unevenly cooked.
- Mixing order"In order given" means the yolks go in last, into potato that has cooled below scrambling temperature. Fold them in rather than beating, or the starch turns gluey.
- Temperature if stuffed in the birdAny stuffing packed into poultry must reach 165F at the centre, measured with a thermometer, not judged by the bird's own doneness. Pack loosely; a tight potato filling insulates and lags well behind the meat.
- Baked separatelyThe mixture also bakes well in a greased dish at around 350F for 30 to 40 minutes, until set and browned on top. This is the more reliable route and gives a crust the in-bird version will not.
- YieldIf the proportions suggested above are used, roughly four cups of stuffing, enough for a small goose or to serve six to eight baked as a side dish. The printed quantities are missing, so this is an estimate.
Potato stuffings belong to the fat-bird tradition -- goose, duck, pork -- where the filling's job is to soak up rendered fat and stretch a rich roast across more plates. A stuffing built from mashed potatoes with two yolks and an onion looks like thrift in its plainest form, and one imagines the potatoes were as often as not left over from the day before.