Boxty

Ingredients

Batter

• 450 graw potatoes, peeled
• 225 gcooked mashed potato
• 225 gplain flour
• 1 tspbaking powder
• 1 tspsalt
• 250 mlbuttermilk

To fry

• butter or bacon fat

Directions

1. Grate the raw potatoes on the fine side of a box grater straight onto a clean cloth, and do it immediately before you need them, because grated potato turns pink and then grey within minutes.
2. Gather the cloth up and wring it hard over a bowl, squeezing out as much liquid as you possibly can. This step decides whether boxty holds together at all.
3. Let the squeezed liquid stand for 10 minutes. A layer of white starch will settle out at the bottom of the bowl. Pour the water off carefully and scrape that starch back into the potato, because it is what binds the cakes and throwing it away is the commonest mistake made with this recipe.
4. Mix the grated potato, the mashed potato, the flour, baking powder and salt together thoroughly.
5. Stir in the buttermilk to make a thick dropping batter.
6. Heat a heavy pan with butter or bacon fat over a medium heat, no higher.
7. Drop in spoonfuls and flatten each to about 1 cm thick.
8. Fry for 4 to 5 minutes a side, until well browned and crisp at the edges and cooked right through. Raw potato needs that time, and a hot pan will brown the outside while leaving the middle grey and raw.
9. Serve hot, with butter, or alongside a fried breakfast.

Technique

• Squeeze the potato, then give the starch back. That is the whole trick and it is not obvious.
• It is a Leitrim, Cavan and Fermanagh dish, and the rhyme still recited about it makes a bad boxty a matter of some social consequence.
• Both potatoes are needed. The raw grating gives the texture and the cooked mash gives the softness.

Substitutions

• Milk soured with a tablespoon of lemon juice if you have no buttermilk.
• Bacon fat rather than butter, which is the older and better-tasting choice.

Variations

• Boxty bread, the same mixture baked as a flat loaf and cut into farls.
• Boxty dumplings, rolled and boiled rather than fried.
• The modern Dublin pancake version, made thin and rolled around a filling.

History

Grated raw potato pancake from Leitrim, Cavan and Fermanagh, preserved in the rhyme about boxty on the griddle and the girl who cannot make it.

Frequently asked questions

What is Boxty?

Boxty is a snack from Ireland: griddled pancake of grated and mashed potato. Grated raw potato pancake from Leitrim, Cavan and Fermanagh, preserved in the rhyme about boxty on the griddle and the girl who cannot make it.

How long does Boxty take to make?

Boxty takes 20 min of preparation and 20 min of cooking. The recipe makes 8 cakes. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Boxty?

Yes, within limits. Milk soured with a tablespoon of lemon juice if you have no buttermilk. Bacon fat rather than butter, which is the older and better-tasting choice.

What is the most important thing to get right in Boxty?

Squeeze the potato, then give the starch back. That is the whole trick and it is not obvious.