Boxty
Irish potato pancakes made from grated raw and mashed potato, fried in butter until crisp.
- Prep
- 20 min
- Cook
- 25 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Makes
- about 8 pancakes
- Difficulty
- Easy
Boxty is a potato pancake from the north midlands and border counties of Ireland (Leitrim, Cavan, Fermanagh and Sligo especially), remembered in the old rhyme: "Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man."
Its texture comes from mixing grated raw potato with mashed potato: crisp and lacy outside, soft inside.
Ingredients
- 250graw floury potatoes, peeled
- 250gcold mashed potato
- 150gplain flour
- 1tspbaking powder
- ½tspsalt
- 150mlbuttermilk or milk, you may need a little more
- butter, for frying
Equipment
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Method
- 1
Grate the raw potatoes, then squeeze out as much liquid as you can in a clean tea towel. Mix with the mashed potato, flour, baking powder and salt, then stir in enough buttermilk to make a thick, dropping batter.
Photo: Eugene Zelenko · CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped) - 2
Heat a knob of butter in a heavy frying pan over a medium heat. Drop in large spoonfuls, flatten to about 1 cm, and fry for 4–5 minutes on each side until golden and cooked through.
Photo: User:senapa · CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped) - 3
Keep warm while you cook the rest. Serve with bacon, eggs and sausages for breakfast, or with butter and a sprinkle of salt.
Photo: さえぼー · CC0
Tips
Why squeeze the potato? Raw potato holds a lot of water; squeezing it out keeps the pancakes crisp instead of soggy.
If it goes wrong
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Pancakes fall apart | Batter too wet | Squeeze the grated potato harder and add a spoonful more flour |
| Grey colour | Grated potato left standing | Grate the raw potato just before mixing |
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