Rations

[Cottoncarder]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Oddly enough, the color improves after a while as the potatoes move through a blue/purple/brown phase back to a cream color. I was surprised to notice this last night.

You mentioned horseradish in your post, and while eating the potatoes I was thinking about how much they'd be like a mild condiment for cold roast beef if minced and spread about like a thick horseradish paste. Pickled beets are good. Pickled eggs are good. Kraut is good. Pickled beef tongue is excellent, so what did they do to make these confounded pickled potatoes edible?

Hummm? Think perhaps there might be an assumption regarding first par boiling the peeled potatoes rather than putting them in the crock raw? Maybe its one of those things that every mid-nineteenth century cook was assumed to know. This would certainly improve the texture, color and consistancy and help them to absorb the spiced vinegar.

Mr. Heath, by the time you work your way down to the bottom of that crock with your tastings, I know I will laugh myself silly many times over with your naratives.:D

[Charles Heath]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Hummm? Think perhaps there might be an assumption regarding first par boiling the peeled potatoes rather than putting them in the crock raw?

Barb,

Way down in the original instructions, "well-washed sliced potatoes" appears to indicate a clean, raw, potato, but par boiling the little spuds whole may be a good variation on the recipe, which brings us back around to pickled eggs or beets once again. With vinegar flavored potato chips being all the rage in today's marketplace, and fried potatoes with malt vinegar being still common, there may be a reason such concoctions have survived as long as they have. Mmmm, good. A question that hasn't been posed it why pickle potatoes in the first place. Perhaps it has more to do with potatoes not faring well in temperature extremes and the slow speed of period modes of transportation than taste.

Now, if you think the tuck or not to tuck debate is something to see, just wait until the "pie- vs par-" boil conflagration erupts. :wink_smil

[BobbyHughes]

Re: Double smoked bacon

DeKalb Farmers Market... okay, got it... thanks for all the help boys! Just the info I needed.

[jacobite8749]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Well-washed sliced potatoes does appear to indicate a clean, raw, potato, and then pickled, and i assumed was just for storage! I have eat raw spuds (why?) and recall them being quite awful, but pickled raw spuds??????????
However, I had also assumed that you would perhaps fry them or at least cook them prior to eating. Fried spuds with a hint of malt vinegar..........mmmmm sounds like chips (frys).

My samples are not pickled enough yet to try but will fry mine.

[Cottoncarder]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

I does seem as though something has been lost in translation here if the raw product is so gag-nasty. Either that, or taste buds have gone through some serious mutations in only a few generations.

Mr. Hopper your interpretation does sound quite appealing. Oh my, fried up with a little onion and I think they would be quite tasty.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Barb,

A question that hasn't been posed it why pickle potatoes in the first place. Perhaps it has more to do with potatoes not faring well in temperature extremes and the slow speed of period modes of transportation than taste.

I don't know what anyone else's luck is with keeping potatoes, but they sprout quickly around here even when kept in the proverbial cool, dark place. Pickling would guarantee no sprouts and less waste. OTOH, if storage was the problem, why not simply dry them?
I have never tried to dry potatoes, although I have dried apples, beans, berries and, of course, grapes. Has anyone else desecrated any vegetables?:)

[Hank Trent]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

I don't know what anyone else's luck is with keeping potatoes, but they sprout quickly around here even when kept in the proverbial cool, dark place. Pickling would guarantee no sprouts and less waste. OTOH, if storage was the problem, why not simply dry them?
I have never tried to dry potatoes, although I have dried apples, beans, berries and, of course, grapes. Has anyone else desecrated any vegetables?:)

Just a thought... Did y'all notice in the first post, the comment that the pickled potatoes had their skins still on?

For what it's worth, we've kept potatoes here (Ohio) until about February, when they really start trying to grow in earnest. You do have to "sprout" them occasionally, and a certain proportion "die" and go bad.

Also, don't know if anyone's run across this yet, but here's a recipe from 1872, in To-Day: The Popular Illustrated Magazine. Though it's only a few years later, the Saratoga chip fad would have started, and I don't know if that had any influence, especially considering the "beautifully crisp" comment, when crisp potatoes had become all the rage.

PICKLED POTATOES.--Wash and peel some potatoes, cut them into long thin strips and pass threm through two or three waters; drain them upon a coth, and then sprinkle them wtih fine salt. Let them remain for an hour, rub them dry in the cloth, and put them into a cold pickle of spiced vinegar, to which a clove of garlic bruised or a sliced onion has been added. If well done, and the potatoes be of the proper kind, this pickle is beautifully crisp, and will take any flavor communicated to it in the vinegar, such as that derived from a mushroom or two. A few slices of boiled beet root will give it a fine red color.

Obviously there's a difference between making something in small quantities for your family table, and shipping out the maximum amount of anti-scorbutic veggies to soldiers who'll never get to praise or curse you in person, and I wonder if the care in preparation accounted for the difference between good and bad pickled potatoes.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[jacobite8749]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

"I don't know what anyone else's luck is with keeping potatoes, but they sprout quickly around here even when kept in the proverbial cool, dark place".

Quite some years ago we grew potatoes (30 or so). My grandfather advised me to keep some new potatoes and bury them in a box covered in sand. We had new potatoes for Xmas day every year after that. However, with a global market such ideas are forgotten.

[Becky Morgan]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

I need to try something different to keep them, for sure. We're also in Ohio. I'm lucky to keep potatoes unsprouted for two weeks most of the year and a week in springtime. I bought one of those plastic-wrapped microwave sweet potatoes a week ago, started to ook it yesterday, and found sprouts popping out. I'm going to plant that one.

Obviously, *something* worked better ca. 1860. My neighbor's house was built about 1850 and still has its deep, cool basement, although she did have a concrete floor poured. Her canned goods do very well down there--but her potatoes and onions don't. I wonder whether modern varieties are bred without much regard for keeping because it's not generally necessary.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

For what it's worth, the way it worked for us is to put the potatoes in a mouse-proof wooden bin in a dry-laid cellar with a plank floor over dirt, so it was fairly damp and cold. We tried burying them in sand, and also burying them in a straw "nest" in the garden, and the main problem was that you couldn't get to them to sprout them easily, but they still kept those ways for the coldest part of the winter. This was a few years ago when we had a garden, and we planted them as late as possible and left them in the garden as long as possible, then dug them at the end of the season, didn't wash them, and put them in the cellar. The variety was the Pink-eye. Haven't tried it with store-bought potatoes, so I don't know how they'd do.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Charles Heath]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Haven't tried it with store-bought potatoes, so I don't know how they'd do.

Hank,

Commercial, store bought, potatoes should do just fine, as they are sprayed with both a rot inhibitor and an anti sprouting agent. The latter is known as CIPC (1-methylethyl-3-chlorophenylcarbamate) and does an excellent job for five to six months, which is why potatoes in those warm kitchen spud bins tend to look good well after home grown potatoes would have succumbed to the urge to sprout. Approximately half the potatoes grown in the US of A are treated in this manner.

Two of the steps most gardeners miss is letting the skins mature in the ground after the vines die back, and curing the potatoes in the sunlight for a couple of hours. The first step yields a tougher 'tater hide, and the second kills off a number of skin borne problems, especially where harvesting damage occurs. My guess is many gardeners skip the sun treatment, as overexposure turns the potatoes green, and the developing alkaloids are not pleasant for the digestive tract.

Modern information, for sure, but perhaps useful for those who grow their own.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

My guess is many gardeners skip the sun treatment, as overexposure turns the potatoes green, and the developing alkaloids are not pleasant for the digestive tract.

I thought that step was called "Whew, finally got all these potatoes dug. I'm going to take a break before I carry them to the cellar." :)

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[Charles Heath]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

I thought that step was called "Whew, finally got all these potatoes dug. I'm going to take a break before I carry them to the cellar."

Hank,

That, too!

Last year was so incredibly dry and warm that we planted the early potatoes on February 27th, which is about five weeks ahead of schedule for these parts. It was a good growing year, the yield was excellent, damage from insects and disease was minimal, and the potatoes were ready by mid-June. Harvesting potatoes manually is hard work if the ground is dry and hard as concrete, but it sure is fun to see what comes fom the ground with each pull of the potato hook.

In between the hooks and the modern mechanical harvesters, people in this region used potato plows, which are essentially furrowers (bull tongue or V type) with wings of long fingers of wrought iron laid back at a gentle angle so the potatoes rise over the plow, and fall off to each side of the hill ready for pick-up as the plow moves along. Some of these plows cut a 14"-18" path exclusive of the wings, so they aren't for the faint of heart.

[WestTN_reb]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

We always used a horse drawn, slat bore Chattanooga Plow when we harvested sweet potatoes. Is that similar to the plow you're talking about?

[Charles Heath]

Re: Pickled Potatoes

Is that similar to the plow you're talking about?

John,

Not unless you welded a right and left slat plow down the middle, and did a little grinding to make a furrower. I'd hate to lift such a monster from the furrow it would make. :wink_smil

Although the slats on your Chattanooga Plow are designed to lessen the grip of clay and other sticky soils, they do work well for harvesting shallow growing sweet potatoes. The slats allow the dirt, small stones, and small trash to pass right through. It's a nice side effect. I've often wondered if they made those slat moldboards for kick/turning plows. These fingers on the local potato plows extend as much as 3 feet behind the furrower. They are kind of odd looking, to say the least.

I have used a wooden beam 1890 Oliver for the same purpose in the sandy loam we have here. Once scoured well, it moves nicely through the soil and a single mule or horse can pull it with ease. It gets under the sweet potatoes and gives them a gentle lift and flip, although for turning the soil it would be running a tad too deep. As much fun as it is fooling with the animals, the task is a lot more enjoyable on the tractor unearthing three rows at a time.

This area is very rocky, with a thick layer of sandy loam above a yellow clay situation well below the plow line, so we don't see many slat plows here, walking or otherwise. The last one I saw was a two bottom on Jeff's place at the Payne's Farm event down in Virginia. His family provided the water refill for that event. That slat plow was either a Ferguson or Dearborn, if memory serves me and it was in darn good shape with the coulters in place, and it may have even had the jointers still installed. It was very nice. I looked at it enough that Dusty started kidding me about it.