Potato Egg Puffs

History

"Potato Egg Puffs" is recorded in Martha McCulloch-Williams's "Dishes & Beverages of the Old South" (1913). Two eggs are beaten into a quart of rich, highly seasoned mashed potatoes, and the mixture divided into six or eight equal portions. With lightly floured hands each is made into a ball, set in a baking dish, and a hard-boiled egg pressed into it; a bit of butter goes on each egg with a light dredge of salt and pepper, and they bake in a quick oven until the potato is brown and light.

It sits in the book directly after her Baked Eggs, and shares its logic — a way of turning a few eggs and yesterday's potatoes into a dish that arrives at table looking deliberate.

The historical record does not document a specific earlier origin for this particular preparation.

McCulloch-Williams was a white writer born near Clarksville, Tennessee, who grew up on a plantation before the Civil War; the book's dedication is "to our Mammys," and much of the cooking it records is the work of enslaved and formerly enslaved Black women it does not name.

Ingredients

• 1 quart mashed potatoes
• 2 eggs
• 6 hard-boiled eggs
• butter
• salt and pepper
• flour

Instructions

1. Beat two eggs into a quart of rich and highly seasoned mashed potatoes. Divide the mixture into six or eight equal portions. With lightly floured hands, shape each portion into a ball and place in a baking dish. Press a hard-boiled egg into the center of each ball. Lay a bit of butter on each egg and dredge lightly with salt and pepper. Bake in a quick oven until the potato is brown and light—it ought to rise up like a fat apple.