Irish Boxty
Grated raw potato and mashed potato in a buttermilk and baking soda batter with spring onions, fried in butter into soft, golden griddle boxty for an Irish breakfast.
Boxty is an Irish potato pancake of finely grated raw potato, usually with flour, and always fried; it belongs mainly to the north midlands, north Connacht and southern Ulster, especially Leitrim, Mayo, Sligo, Fermanagh, Longford and Cavan (Wikipedia:). Wikipedia cites an 1854 Dublin University Magazine piece describing it, and quotes the rhyme: "Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan". Good Food Ireland describes it as a common dish cooked on a griddle over an open fire in small cottages, traditionally eaten at Halloween (Samhain) when potatoes were plentiful, and now served in restaurants from breakfast to dinner (September 2017:). The name is often explained as "poor-house bread", but that is DISPUTED (see Rules).
Why it works the kitchen science
Raw plus mashed
The grated raw potato gives texture and the cooked mash gives a soft, creamy middle, so the boxty is tender rather than crisp right through.
Buttermilk and baking soda
The acid in the buttermilk reacts with the soda and lifts the batter, so the cakes rise a little like a pancake.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 200°F with a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Grate the raw potato on the fine side of a box grater, wrap it in a clean dish towel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.
- Step 2
In a large bowl, mix the squeezed potato, mashed potato, flour and salt. Stir in the spring onions, pepper and baking soda.
- Step 3
Gradually stir in the buttermilk until you have a thick, wet batter that drops easily from a spoon.
- Step 4
Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat and melt a little of the butter. When it foams, add heaped tablespoons of batter, 4 or 5 at a time, and spread each into a 3-inch round.
- Step 5
Fry 3 to 4 minutes, until golden underneath and bubbly on top, then flip and fry 3 to 4 minutes more, until golden and cooked through. Scatter cheese on top after flipping, if using.
- Step 6
Move the boxty to the rack in the oven and repeat with the rest of the batter, adding butter for each batch. Serve hot with bacon and eggs.
Irish Boxty
Serves 4 · about 12 boxty · 40 min total
Boxty batter
- 9 oz (250 g) raw floury potato, such as russet (about 1 medium), peeled
- 1 cup (250 g) cold mashed potato
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 6 spring onions, thinly sliced
- 1/2 tsp salt and a few grinds of black pepper
- 1 1/4 cups (300 ml) buttermilk
For frying and serving
- 2 tbsp (25 g) butter
- Optional: 1 cup (100 g) grated Irish cheddar
- Optional: crisp bacon and fried eggs
Method
- Heat the oven to 200°F with a wire rack in a rimmed baking sheet. Grate the raw potato on the fine side of a box grater, wrap it in a clean dish towel and squeeze out as much liquid as you can.
- In a large bowl, mix the squeezed potato, mashed potato, flour and salt. Stir in the spring onions, pepper and baking soda.
- Gradually stir in the buttermilk until you have a thick, wet batter that drops easily from a spoon.
- Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat and melt a little of the butter. When it foams, add heaped tablespoons of batter, 4 or 5 at a time, and spread each into a 3-inch round.
- Fry 3 to 4 minutes, until golden underneath and bubbly on top, then flip and fry 3 to 4 minutes more, until golden and cooked through. Scatter cheese on top after flipping, if using.
- Move the boxty to the rack in the oven and repeat with the rest of the batter, adding butter for each batch. Serve hot with bacon and eggs.
Adapted from Donal Skehan, "Donal's Breakfast Boxty", RTÉ (March 25, 2022), as written for 4. Skehan uses 250 g each of grated raw and mashed potato, 250 g flour, 300 ml buttermilk and 1 tsp baking soda, fries heaped tablespoons in 25 g butter for 3 to 4 minutes per side, and finishes them with grated cheddar; we make the cheese optional. US conversions and the 200°F holding oven are ours. RTÉ. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- No leftover mash? Boil 1 peeled medium russet until tender, about 15 minutes, and mash it plain.
- Keep the heat at medium-high, not high; the raw potato needs the full 3 to 4 minutes per side to cook through.
- Boxty also comes as a loaf cut into farls and as boiled dumplings that are sliced and fried (Wikipedia).
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Boxty means "poor-house bread". Disputed: Good Food Ireland and Wikipedia give the old Irish "arán bocht tí" (poor-house bread) as probable, but Wikipedia also offers "bácús" (bakehouse), and neither is certain.
- Boxty was born in the Great Famine. Disputed: often repeated, but Wikipedia cites an 1854 magazine account of an older custom, and some recipe writers say written mentions go back to the 1820s, before the Famine (search results only).
- Boxty is a Halloween food. Documented as tradition by Good Food Ireland (Samhain, October 31) and Wikipedia (boiled boxty around Halloween).
- "Boxty on the griddle, boxty on the pan; if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man." Folklore: a real and widely quoted rhyme (Wikipedia), not a rule.
- Boxty must be made with buttermilk. Folklore: Skehan uses it; Wikipedia's griddle-cake boxty uses milk and its pan boxty only potato and flour.
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