Have just been in communication with an aunt of mine who was married to Uncle Jimmie, an Irishman, for over 50 years. She says that her mother-in-law told her:
"...potatoes as main meal were simply eaten boiled. The 'floury' ones were the top pick and even-sized large potoatoes were boiled in the pan, the water was drained from the pan and then a dry crumpled cloth was put into the pan on top of the potatoes which had the effect of giving them the floury, almost fluffy, quality which was liked."
"Granny Young always cooked hers like that; she also used a tin teapot which she put back on the stove after making the tea to stew before drinking it. When potato was eaten for a midday meal in the fields it was in the form of potato cake, which was cooked mashed potato with a very little flour and salt, rolled out to a quarter inch or so thick, cut and cooked on a dry pan on the stove.
Potatoes were the sole diet, even 9 years ago, when Jimmie's nephew went down to Killeshandra where the family had an estate; he found their ex-steward's son, now elderly, sitting down with his wife to a dinner of potatoes and nothing more"
My aunt goes on to say that she's rather sceptical of the 14lb of potatoes daily intake, and told me that when she recently visited Dresden in Germany with her daughter, there was a Kartoffeln Restaurant below their hotel which served only potato dishes. They never went in it, only peered down into it and never saw more than a couple of old men in it - she wished now she had looked at the menu properly, as she only remembers that there was potato soup to start with...
Keith
