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Dessert

Potato Flour

A method for producing flour from grated potatoes by repeated washing and sieving, then drying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Potato Flour

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.

Soak the potatoes

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

  2. After 6 hours, pour off the water and add fresh water, stirring the mixture well.

  3. Repeat this process every 3-4 hours during the day and change the water at night.

  4. The next morning, pour off the water and add 2-3 quarts more water.

Separate the flour

  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, then drain off the water.

Dry and store

  1. Spread the potato sediment on dishes and dry it in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  2. Sift the dried flour and store it in bottles or jars, corking or covering them closely.

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, which settles out as the potato is rinsed.

The step that matters

Drying the sediment slowly. Starch that is dried too hot can scorch or take on a brown colour, and damp flour can spoil in storage. A low, slow oven dries it fully while keeping it pale and fresh.

“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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