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Dessert

Excellent Potato Flour, or Arrowroot

A method for making flour from grated potatoes by repeated washing and sieving.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 ingredients
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Excellent Potato Flour, or Arrowroot

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the starch

  1. Grate the potatoes into a large vessel filled with cold water.

  2. Stir well.

  3. Let sit for 6 hours.

  4. Pour off the water.

  5. Add fresh water.

  6. Stir again.

  7. Repeat this process every 3-4 hours during the day.

  8. Change the water at night.

  9. The next morning, pour off the water.

  10. Add 2-3 quarts more cold water.

Wash and settle

  1. Turn the mixture into a hair sieve set over a pan to collect the flour.

  2. Wash the flour through the sieve by pouring water over it.

  3. Let it settle in the pan.

  4. Drain off the water.

Dry and store

  1. Spread the potato sediment on dishes.

  2. Dry it in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  3. Sift the dried flour.

  4. Store it in bottles or jars, covering them tightly.

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

Mealy potatoes
Their starch is the source of the flour, so the potato variety matters for yield.
Cold water
Soaks and rinses the grated potato so starch separates from fibre and soluble compounds.

The step that matters

Drying the potato sediment slowly. Starch that is dried too hot can scorch or partly gelatinize into lumps, and residual moisture left in the flour invites mould during storage. A slow oven dries it evenly so it stores well.

“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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