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To Boil Potatoes in the Lancashire Way

This is a method for boiling potatoes in Lancashire style, using coarse sea salt and drying them in a saucepan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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To Boil Potatoes in the Lancashire Way

Ingredients

Directions

Boil

  1. Peel the potatoes and cover them with cold water.

  2. Boil the potatoes slowly until they are tender, being careful not to overcook them.

  3. Drain off all the water.

Dry and fluff

  1. Sprinkle salt over the potatoes.

  2. Leave the saucepan uncovered by the side of the fire.

  3. Shake the saucepan vigorously every minute or two until the potatoes are dry and floury.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Provide the main body; cooking until tender and then drying them makes them floury and fluffy.
Coarse sea salt
Seasons the potatoes after draining, adding flavour to the surface.

The step that matters

Boil the potatoes slowly until tender, without overcooking. Overcooked potatoes absorb too much water and break apart, becoming waterlogged rather than floury. Gentle boiling cooks the interior evenly, and draining and drying afterward lets the surface lose moisture so the potatoes turn dry and fluffy.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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