Irish potatoes can refer to real potatoes with white interiors and brown skin, candy or biscuits made to look like potatoes, or recipes using potatoes prepared in the traditional Irish way. The potato was once an essential part of the Irish diet, but a blight in the mid-19th century caused mass starvation. Traditional Irish potato dishes include potato soup, champ, boxty, and pratie oaten. Candy Irish potatoes can be made with mashed potatoes or cream cheese and powdered sugar.
There are several things that can be called Irish potatoes. When referring to real potatoes, Irish potatoes have a white interior and brown skin. They are sometimes simply called the white potato and are specifically relatives of the nightshade family called Solanum tuberosum. Irish potatoes can also refer to candy or biscuits made that look like potatoes, or it can refer to recipes using potatoes that are prepared in the traditional Irish way.
It is perhaps to the detriment of the Irish that Irish potatoes have become such an important crop there. They grew very well and formed an essential part of the Irish diet in the 19th century. However, in the mid-19th century, the potatoes became infected with a blight which rotted most of them and this led to mass starvation in Ireland. An estimated 1.5 million people died within a few years, over an eighth of the population. This problem was eventually resolved, but not without extreme costs to the Irish. However, today the potato is an important part of the diet and will likely be served with many meals or as the main part of a meal.
Some of the traditional Irish potato dishes include potato soup, usually a combination of carrots, possibly leeks, onions and potatoes boiled together. Steamed or boiled potatoes are often simply served with a little salt and pepper. Champ uses finely chopped steamed or boiled potatoes. Milk and shallots are added and the dish is served with butter, or shredded cooked cabbage leaves may be added alternately and the dish is sometimes called a colcannon.
Another Irish potato dish is boxty, a version of the potato pancake. Combine grated raw potatoes, cooked mashed potatoes, wheat flour, milk and butter. The ingredients are mixed together and flattened into cakes, then fried on the griddles or pans in bacon grease. A simpler recipe called fadge produces smaller cakes that are usually topped with sugar. Alternatively, if oatmeal is used with mashed potatoes to make pies, it may be called pratie oaten.
Candy Irish potatoes can mean candy that contains or looks like potatoes, and sometimes it means both. Some recipes call for mashed potatoes, which can be combined with powdered sugar and other ingredients like peanut butter. Because the candy is easy to shape, it can be shaped into little potatoes and rolled in things like cinnamon sugar or cocoa, which give it a brown look. Other recipes don’t use potatoes but can make use of things like cream cheese and powered sugar to create the center.
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