Potatoes are a staple in most Amish gardens. While we think of Idaho and Maine as being the potato leaders (and they are), you can grow potatoes in almost soil and climate. Loose soils are the best. I've seen amazingly wonderful plump potatoes growing in Amish gardens from Maine to Michigan to Texas. And wonderfully plump potatoes can make for perfect potato-bacon cakes.
Because potatoes are so easy to grow, many Amish rely on them. In addition to ease in growing them, once you have a good crop you can do so much with them! Potatoes can be used in casseroles, soups, stews, breads, rolls, and even desserts. There are very few vegetables as versatile as the potato as today's potato-bacon cakes show.
Which brings us to potato pancakes. These "pancakes" can be made from scratch using whole potatoes or you can "cheat" and use leftover mashed potatoes for this. Either way, they taste amazing.
These potato cakes are a bit different than Latkes, the traditional Hanukkah dish. These are a bit thicker and there's no tradition in this Amish version that is being hewed to, it's just a way to use up bulk potatoes. And, of course, you wouldn't find bacon in a Hanukkah dish.
As noted, you can mash potatoes for the sole purpose of making this delicious dinner or you can just use leftovers sometime.
Most Amish cooks would fry in a cast iron skillet, but stainless steel is also really popular. I try to stay away from Teflon. Butter the skillet and you'll get great additional flavor, calories, and it'll keep the cakes from sticking.
Because these Perfect Potato-Bacon Cakes have bacon in them you really get more of a full meal out of it than a side dish. So pair it with some vegetables and maybe a dinner roll and you've got a great meal!
Potatoes have always been a staple on Amish farms because of how versatile they can be: a foundation for a casserole, a great soup, bread, and now pancakes.
🥔Potato-Bacon Cake Ingredients
- 4 cups cold mashed potatoes
- 5 slices bacon
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 eggs well beaten
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
📋 Potato Cake Instructions
- Place the bacon in a large, deep skillet, cook over medium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned and crisp about 10 minutes.
- Remove the bacon slices, crumble set aside.
- Leave the bacon drippings in the skillet.
- Mix mashed potatoes, eggs, onion powder, salt, and black pepper together in a bowl; stir in the crumbled bacon and Cheddar cheese.
- Form the mixture into 8 patties.
- Heat the bacon drippings over medium heat, pan-fry the patties in the drippings until crisp on each side, about 4 minutes per side.
🥔 More Amish Potato Recipes
Here are more wonderful ways the Amish enjoy their spuds!
Regina Mast's Gourmet Potatoes
WIth Velveta, I am sure it tastes good!
Delicious side dish!
Amazing!
This is sort of like a deconstructed version of the bacon-potato pancake recipe above.
🖨️Printer-Friendly Bacon-Potato Cakes
Amish Potato-Bacon Cakes
Ingredients
- 4 cups cold mashed potatoes
- 5 slices bacon
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 eggs · well beaten
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions
- Place the bacon in a large, deep skillet, cook overmedium-high heat, turning occasionally, until evenly browned and crisp about 10minutes.
- Remove the bacon slices, crumble set aside.
- Leave the bacon drippings in the skillet
- Mixmashed potatoes, eggs, onion powder, salt, and black pepper together in a bowl;stir in the crumbled bacon and Cheddar cheese
- Heat the bacon drippings over medium heat, pan-fry thepatties in the drippings until crisp on each side, about 4 minutes per side
Leave a Reply