Growing and
Cooking Floury Potatoes
I
have just started to harvest my 1st Earlies [Epicure this year]. The
plants are providing an abundance of smallish to medium sized delicious
potatoes. As an Early potato they are really quite floury rather than waxy like
most Early potatoes though, I shall not attempt to anything with them other
than boil or steam them and serve with butter and a sprinkling of chopped
parsley or mint.
All
my potato growing life and my potato buying life [where I have had a choice] I
have always chosen floury potatoes. My mother, who always cooked them in their
jackets called them ‘laughing potatoes’.
Talking
to a neighbour recently I was asked why the Irish loved floury potatoes. Of
course a hundred years ago, [ goodness, is it really a hundred years ago!] when
my Dad was a little lad he told me that the country people would grow their own
potatoes, serve them with their own butter [most of which would be sold at the
local market town] and buttermilk as a drink.
The
main meal for a large family successful farm in those days [1912 – 1930] would
be ‘tatties’ with dabitstil [dabbing the tatties in salt in the middle of the
table] or ‘tatties and point’ – the potatoes would be put in the middle of the
table, dunked in the salt and pointed towards the preserved pork/bacon joints
hanging from the kitchen ceiling which were served on high days and holidays. During
the hungry time the ‘tatties and point’ would be to the joint which used to be
there.
My
father was more interested in the animals on the farm, especially the horses
and more especially the machinery which was being developed to work the land [he
went on to become an engineer with the RAF]. Under his influence I still have a
preference for Ferguson tractors or any offshoot of his company – Ford
Ferguson, David Brown, Massey Harris, etc. – not that my little plot needs a
tractor. As an aside, my favourite car ever was the iconic Jensen FF [no longer
in production but, the FF stood for Ferguson Formulae 4 wheel drive – an
amazing car in its day!]
Many years ago, I remember my uncle, who was
much more interested in growing, crops and farming, telling me that during WW11
the Ministry of Agriculture advised farmers that the peeling of the potatoes
[deep peelings] as long as there was an eye with a good section of the potato
could be planted and would grow on into excellent viable crops. This meant that
the growers could, not only plant the normal set aside seed potatoes but, also
use the peelings from those potatoes they would expect to eat. My uncle assured
me that they had good crops from them.
Ancient
memories aside, I do believe that floury potatoes give a much greater variety
of useful dishes which can be devised from them.
I
do understand the love of the early salad potatoes – Charlotte, Pink Fir Apple,
etc. As early potatoes from the allotment, harvested and eaten on the same day
they are supreme. Nothing more is needed for a meal than the potatoes, a knob
of butter, salt and freshly ground black pepper and a handful of chopped mint
or parsley. For the traditional potato salad, of course, these waxy potatoes
are just brilliant and there is little nicer than a dishful of new, steamed
potatoes with butter and chopped mint to serve with any meal in Spring or early
Summer – roast lamb with mint sauce and the new fashion for ‘crushed’ potatoes with
loads of butter and chopped herbs – yummy.
For
me, all of these potato dishes are blissful but still can’t beat the range of
dishes available with floury potatoes.
If
you are interested in growing these or any other variety The British Potato
Variety Database - www.varieties.potato.org.uk/
is an excellent source of
information. This website is part of the Potato Council – www.potato.org.uk
.
The database provides information on categories and
classes, pests and diseases and details of hundreds of different varieties of
potato. However, you might find an interesting variety you would like to try
but not be able to find a source of the seeds.
In Ireland, Kerr’s Pink is probably the most
popular Maincrop variety grown – it is a round to oval potato with pink skin and
white flesh. A wonderful floury variety with superb flavour and excellent for
mashed, baked, chipped, roasted potatoes.
Unfortunately it is reasonably susceptible to
potato blight, dry rot, leaf roll virus and potato Virus Yo. Regardless of
these possible problems I have ,at last, found a source of these seed potatoes
and am growing them on my allotment for the first time in years.
In recent years the range of Sárpo potatoes [developed by a
Hungarian family – Sárvári,
now working at the Sárvári Research Trust in Wales] has been developed which are Blight, Virus and drought resistant,
high yielding potatoes which store well – they also have excellent flavour and
are good for a wide range of culinary uses. Of these Sárpo Mira is definitely
my favourite – a late maincrop, high yielding floury, flavoursome tuber.
Others include Sárpo Una – 2nd
Early,
Blue Danube, Sárpo Shona, Kifli – Early Maincrop
Sárpo
Axona – Maincrop
Of
course, the ultimate floury potato is Mayan Gold –
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