Author Topic: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...  (Read 5743 times)

Offline Keith Sherwood

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How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« on: Wednesday 16 February 05 09:15 GMT (UK) »
I have just been reading "The Great Potato Famine", by James S. Donnelly, pub.2001, and am astounded to hear that "the average adult male of the labourer, cottier or smallholder class consumed as much as a stone (14lb) of potatoes per day" before the onset of the effects of the famine in 1845.
It says they supplemented this food with milk and occasionally fish, but what I want to know is, how did they cook and eat this vast quantity of spuds each day.  Did they bake them or boil them and mash them...  Did they enjoy sitting down to the next meal, realising it was potatoes again...?
Obviously, the account of what happened next in this tragedy of the Irish nation is a painful and sobering read, but is essential to any understanding of Irish history and emigration, etc. post 1845.
Keith

Offline stevenson

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Re: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« Reply #1 on: Wednesday 16 February 05 17:37 GMT (UK) »
Hi Keith
I wish you could have tasted my Grannies cooking ,she cooked tattie bread to die for(made with potatoes)Broth ,that I can never get to taste the same.

Someone  out there must have more recipes!

Irish cooking best in the world

My g-Grandfathers use to take a hand of soda bread and buttermilk out to the fields for lunch

As for understanding the Irish, I feel that it took a great nation of people not only to stay and try to survive but to up root your whole family in the hope that you might (just) find a better life....... all this took so much courage.............

As for me .....potatoes.....well I must have so many in my genes.....no wonder Iam not that keen on them
<br /><br />Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline Keith Sherwood

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Re: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 16 February 05 17:55 GMT (UK) »
Hi, Stevenson,
You're starting to make my mouth water...!
It's just when you read a statistic like that (the 14lb per day), and lift up a 2.5kg. bag of potatoes at the supermarket and try to imagine how anybody managed to eat almost 3 of those each and every day, the bounds of belief are somewhat stretched...
There must be some surviving recipes of how they served up the potato prior to 1845, surely...
Keith

Offline stevenson

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Re: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« Reply #3 on: Wednesday 16 February 05 18:06 GMT (UK) »
hi Keith

My g-grandmother use to put mashed potatoes in the porridge with salt and it was so thick she apparently cut it into thick slices as the men were going out the door to the fields........YUCK!..... I do not like porridge either...not surprised

But Iam sure that someone has lovely meals to tell you about
<br /><br />Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk


Offline Keith Sherwood

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Re: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 16 February 05 18:59 GMT (UK) »
Hi again, Stevenson,
Would the tales you tell about your grand-parents have been around the end of the 19th, beginning of the 20thC.?
In the book I have just read there are many photos taken in the 1890's that the author seems quite happy to use as illustrations of what was happening 50 years before.  No cameras then, I suppose.
But someone must have written down those potato recipes of at least 160 years ago...
Keith

Offline stevenson

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Re: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 16 February 05 19:21 GMT (UK) »
hi me again
I have nothing written down but you are right in your time scale.

 Anything that was eaten seems to have been passed down by word of mouth or memory.

I have lots of letters from the Boar,1st and 2nd world wars, that just keep saying 'how they can smell mother's cooking' as they write.(it doesn't bear thinking of what they were going through whilst they were writting) but......... those potatoes kept them going.....wars were won...thanks to the potatoe.

As to pre-1880 I would think .that again .food and how to cook it was passed down through the generations by word of mouth......unless someone out there can come up with old ideas new ways to cook......that even M&S could take on
<br /><br />Census information is Crown Copyright, from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Offline GRACELAND

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Re: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 16 February 05 19:26 GMT (UK) »
God Knew Elvis was Tired so he called him to rest !................
"I like it well done, Cooked. I ain't orderin' a pet."
--Elvis Presley, On Meat
"Don't be like nobody else or you'll be livin' a lie, and that ain't livin'."
--Elvis Presley, On Individuality

Offline Keith Sherwood

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Re: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday 16 February 05 19:29 GMT (UK) »
Thanks, Graceland,
I hope you enjoyed eavesdropping on our fascinating potato chat!
And I'll have a good browse through all those links on the site you suggest.
Keith

Offline GRACELAND

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Re: How someone ate a stone (14lbs) a day of potatoes...
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 16 February 05 19:32 GMT (UK) »
wow sorry was it private in here i did not see a sign saying do not enter  ;D

       WOOPS A Dasiy !!!            ;D ;D ;D ;D
God Knew Elvis was Tired so he called him to rest !................
"I like it well done, Cooked. I ain't orderin' a pet."
--Elvis Presley, On Meat
"Don't be like nobody else or you'll be livin' a lie, and that ain't livin'."
--Elvis Presley, On Individuality