Irish Champ (Scallion Mashed Potatoes)
Potatoes boiled in their skins and mashed with milk that has simmered with chopped scallions, then beaten with butter and served in warm bowls with more butter melting in a well on top.
Champ is mashed potato with scallions, butter and milk, and Wikipedia says it is popular in Ulster, served in a bowl with a well of butter in the center, and also called poundies in some areas). It was customary to make it with the first new potatoes of the harvest. The same article, citing folklorist Bríd Mahon's "Land of Milk and Honey" (1998), says champ was served on Samhain and that in many parts of Ireland a dish of champ with a spoon was left at the foot of a hawthorn as an offering to the fairies. Some areas used nettles or dulse instead of scallions; the Ulster-Scots Agency's Discover Ulster-Scots site still publishes a nettle and kale champ.
Why it works the kitchen science
Steep, don't just stir in
Simmering the scallions in the milk softens them and flavors every drop of the milk, so the onion taste runs all through the mash instead of sitting in raw green bits.
The butter well
Keeping half the butter for the top means each forkful gets dipped in pure melted butter, which is the point of champ.
Step by step
- Step 1
Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water by 1 inch, add a good pinch of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower to medium and boil gently 25 to 35 minutes, until a knife slides in easily.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, put the scallions in a small saucepan, cover with the cold milk and bring slowly to a boil over medium-low heat. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes, then turn off the heat and let it steep.
- Step 3
Drain the potatoes, peel them while hot and mash them in the warm pan.
- Step 4
Stir in the hot scallion milk until the mash is light and soft, then beat in half the butter. Season well with salt and pepper.
- Step 5
Spoon into one large warm bowl or six small ones, press a well into the top of each and drop in the rest of the butter to melt. Eat from the outside in, dipping each forkful into the butter.
- Step 6
To make ahead, spread it in a buttered dish, cover with foil so no skin forms and reheat in a 350°F oven about 20 minutes, until hot through.
Irish Champ (Scallion Mashed Potatoes)
Serves 6 · about 6 cups · 50 min total
Potatoes
- 2 1/2 lb (6 to 8 medium) russet or Yukon Gold potatoes, unpeeled and scrubbed
- Salt
Scallion milk
- 1 bunch scallions (about 4 oz), white and green parts, finely chopped
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk
Butter
- 1 stick (4 oz) butter, half to beat in, half to serve
- Salt and black pepper
Method
- Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water by 1 inch, add a good pinch of salt and bring to a boil over high heat. Lower to medium and boil gently 25 to 35 minutes, until a knife slides in easily.
- Meanwhile, put the scallions in a small saucepan, cover with the cold milk and bring slowly to a boil over medium-low heat. Simmer 3 to 4 minutes, then turn off the heat and let it steep.
- Drain the potatoes, peel them while hot and mash them in the warm pan.
- Stir in the hot scallion milk until the mash is light and soft, then beat in half the butter. Season well with salt and pepper.
- Spoon into one large warm bowl or six small ones, press a well into the top of each and drop in the rest of the butter to melt. Eat from the outside in, dipping each forkful into the butter.
- To make ahead, spread it in a buttered dish, cover with foil so no skin forms and reheat in a 350°F oven about 20 minutes, until hot through.
Adapted from Darina Allen's "Scallion Champ", as published by Food Network from its "Tasting Ireland" special. She gives 6 to 8 unpeeled "old" potatoes (we specify 2 1/2 lb), 1 bunch scallions, 1 1/2 cups milk and 2 to 4 oz butter (we use 4 oz), for 4 to 6 servings (we say 6). Food Network notes the recipe was scaled down from a restaurant version and not tested by its own kitchen. The boiling time and the reheating time are ours; the 350°F reheating temperature is Allen's. Food Network. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Make it with new potatoes in early summer for the old-fashioned version Wikipedia describes.
- Swap in blanched nettle tops or a little kale for part of the scallions for a spring version (Discover Ulster-Scots).
- Leftover champ fried in butter makes potato cakes for breakfast.
- Mash by hand; a food processor makes it gluey.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Champ was left out for the fairies. Documented as recorded folk custom (Wikipedia, citing Bríd Mahon 1998), not as something people do today.
- Champ is called "poundies". Documented as a regional name (Wikipedia). Search results say the name comes from pounding potatoes with a wooden "beetle"; we did not find a reputable source for that, so it is Folklore until checked.
- "Cally" is champ. Disputed: Wikipedia says Dublin called champ "cally"; Michael Fortune (RTÉ, 2025) says "cally" was a Mayo name for colcannon.
- Only scallions count. Folklore: Wikipedia records nettles and dulse in some areas, and Allen's book (per a 2022 blog summary) covers peas too.
- Champ comes from Ulster-Scots. Disputed: search summaries say the word is assumed to be Ulster-Scots; Wikipedia's article does not discuss the word's origin.
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