Saratoga Fried Potatoes

From "Clayton's Quaker Cook-Book Being a Practical Treatise on the Culinary Art Adapted to the Tastes and Wants of all Classes", 1883

The mode of preparing the world-renowned Saratoga fried potatoes is no longer a secret. It is as follows:

Peel eight good-sized potatoes; slice very thin; use slicing-machine, when available, as this makes the pieces of uniform thickness. Let them remain half-an-hour in a quart of cold water, in which a tablespoonful of salt has been dissolved, and lay in a sieve to drain, after which mop them over with a dry cloth.

Put a pound of lard in a spider or stewpan, and when this is almost, but not quite, smoking hot, put in the potatoes, stirring constantly to prevent the slices from adhering, and when they become a light brown, dip out with a strainer ladle.


[If preferred, cut the potatoes in bits an inch in length, and of the same width, treating as above.]

German Potato Bread

From "Sandwiches", by Mrs. S. T. Rorer, "Author of Mrs. Rorer's New Cook Book, Philadelphia Cook Book, Bread and Bread-Making, and other Valuable Works on Cookery", 1912.

Boil one potato until tender; mash it through a sieve, add to it a half pint of warm water and a teaspoonful of sugar. Stir in one cupful of flour and one cupful of yeast; let this stand for two hours, or until very light. It is better to make this at seven o'clock, so the bread may be sponged at nine or ten. Scald a pint of milk, add to it a pint of water, beat in a quart and a pint of flour. The batter should be thick enough to drop, rather than pour from the spoon. Then stir in the potato starter, and stand in a place about 65° F. over night.

Next morning knead thoroughly, adding flour. Put this aside until very light, about two hours, then mold into loaves, put it into square greased pans, and when light bake in a moderately quick oven three-quarters of an hour.

This recipe will make two box loaves and a dozen rolls.

Old-Fashioned Potato Balls

From "The Suffrage Cookbook", compiled by Mrs. L. O. Kleber, 1915.

Two soup plates of grated potatoes which have been boiled in the skins the day before. Add four tablespoons flour or bread crumbs, a little nutmeg and salt, one-half cup of melted butter and the yolks of four eggs and one cupful croutons (fried bread—in butter—cut into small cubes).

Mix together, then add the beaten whites of the eggs. Mix well and form into balls, then boil in boiling salt water about fifteen or twenty minutes. Serve with bacon cut into small squares on top.

To be eaten with stewed dried fruits cooked together—prunes, apricots, apples.

Southern-Style Steamed Potatoes

Wash clean a dozen well-grown new potatoes, steam until a fork will pierce, dry in heat five minutes, then peel, and throw into a skillet, with a heaping tablespoonful of butter, well-rolled in flour, half a pint of rich milk, ten drops onion juice, salt and pepper to taste, and a teaspoonful of chopped parsley.

The sauce must be bubbling when the potatoes are put in. Toss them in it for five minutes, put in deep dish and pour the gravy over. Serve very hot.

From "Dishes and Recipes of the Old South", Martha McCulloch Williams, 1913

Potato Cakes

3 fair-sized potatoes
1 egg
2 tablespoonfuls of fine wheatmeal
pepper and salt to taste
pinch of nutmeg

Peel, wash, and grate the raw potatoes; beat up the egg and mix it with the potatoes, flour, and seasoning. Beat all well together, and fry the mixture like pancakes in oil or butter.

Baked Potatoes with Sage and Onion

* 2 large potatoes.
* 6 onions.
* 2 teaspoons sage.
* 1 ounce bread crumbs.
* 2 ounces butter.
* ½ teaspoon each salt and pepper.

Peel the potatoes and cut them lengthways into slices about half an inch thick, place six of these slices in a baking tin or dish which has been well greased with one and a half ounces of the butter. In the meantime peel and boil the onions for a quarter of an hour in a little salted water, and the sage (tied in a piece of muslin) with them for the last five minutes. Chop the onions and sage and mix with the bread crumbs, salt, pepper and half an ounce of butter, and spread the mixture thickly over the slices of potato, and bake for one and a half or two hours.

Apple sauce should be served with this dish and a rich gravy.

How to Boil Potatoes

Select potatoes of uniform size, wash and pare thinly, cover with boiling water and cook half an hour; when nearly done add salt. As soon as done drain from the water and set the saucepan where the potatoes can steam for a few minutes. They should be served immediately, and never allowed to remain in the water a moment after they are cooked.

Potatoes are much better steamed with their skins on than boiled, as they then retain all the potashes. When they are old they should be washed, pared and covered with cold water, and allowed to stand for several hours before either boiling or frying.

Warmed-Over Mashed Potatoes

To two cupfuls of cold mashed potatoes add a half cupful of milk, a pinch of salt, a tablespoonful of butter, two tablespoonfuls of flour and two eggs beaten to a froth. Mix the whole until thoroughly light; then put into a pudding or vegetable dish, spread a little butter over the top and bake a golden brown. The quality depends upon very thoroughly beating the eggs before adding them, so that the potato will remain light and porous after baking, similar to sponge cake.

This vintage recipe is from "The White House Cookbook"