Traditional Lancashire/Yorkshire Potato Cakes

Here follows a recipe for making traditional Yorkshire/Lancashire* Potato Cakes.  These are not to be confused with Hash Browns or Potato Scallops (or Boxty :-)) - these really are little cakes made from Potato.  They may be an acquired taste (I can't tell, because I've been eating them since childhood, so any acquiring I did was a long time ago), especially as the main (almost only) ingredients are potato and plain flour.

If you're looking for a carb hit, this is the food for the job.  They can be eaten hot from the oven, but I prefer them cold and spread with butter for a morning or afternoon snack.



*or possibly Irish.  My father's family lived in a town that was either Yorkshire or Lancashire depending on your acknowledgement of the outcome of the war of the roses, but before that they were immigrants from Ireland, so I'm not quite sure where the recipe originated.

Step 1 Ingredients and Requirements

Solely for the purposes of this instuctable, I decided to measure the ingredients used*, as follows:

1. 700G peeled and cleaned potatoes
2. 220g plain flour
3. some butter  (about 2 tablespoons)
4. some milk (splash and a half or so)
5. Salt and Pepper to taste
6. Chives/cheese/onion/whatever  (optional)

In terms of equipment, you really just need:

1. a pot to boil the spuds,
2. a bowl to mash them in
3. a bigger bowl to fold the spuds and flour together in
4. a flat area to roll out the cakes
5. a baking tray for baking on

*sort of.  This recipe is made more by feel than science, but the basic ratio of 3 potato to 1 flour is about right.

Comments

[Kiteman]

Potato cake is one of those recipes that turns up everywhere.

Irish potato cake is made with cooked potatoes (if they are raw, you're making "boxty").

Lancashire [potato cakes sometimes (but not always) have an egg in them, and are usually baked on a griddle not in the oven.

Yorkshire potato cakes? Never heard of them.

[puzka]

Ah, just looked up Boxty. They are quite different from this recipe. Boxty seem more to be the antecedents of hash browns and are quite different from these.

[puzka]

Hi Kiteman,
Thanks for the info. I always suspected the recipe was originally Irish. Maybe my family recipe is a bit of a mix of Irish and Lancashire. They are definitely always cooked in the oven, and I've never had them with an egg in the middle.

[jessyratfink]

These sound great. :D I love the idea of adding lots of strong cheese to them... will have to try!

[puzka]

Yeah, you could try pocketing some cheese in the middle before cooking. Sort of like a jam doughnut with cheese instead of the Jam. Not sure how well it would cook though. And you'd have to watch out for the molten lava cheese in the middle ha, ha.

[capricorn]

Next on the list for this weekend tests in the kitchen.

Thanks for sharing mate :)

[paidin]

This is pretty much the same recipe as for the Irish potato cake called boxty. One of my favorite foods.