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Excellent Potato Flour, or Arrowroot

A method for producing potato flour by grating potatoes, washing, sieving, drying, and sifting.

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 and stir well.

  2. After 6 hours, pour off the water.

  3. Add fresh water, stirring the mixture well.

  4. Repeat this process every 3 to 4 hours during the day, changing the water at night.

  5. The next morning, pour off the water.

  6. Add 2 to 3 quarts more water to the potatoes.

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 the flour 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, 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

Potatoes
Provide the starch that is washed out and dried into the flour.
Water
Soaks and rinses the potatoes, drawing out soluble material and leaving behind the starch.

The step that matters

Drying the sediment in a slow oven. Starch left damp can sour, mold or clump when stored. Drying at a low, steady heat removes the moisture gently so the flour keeps well without scorching.

“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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