My Christmas tradition: Granny's potato stuffing recipe from west Cork

Passed down through generations, this is excellent reheated with leftovers or carved into chunks for a turkey sandwich

By Clodagh Tait, MIC Limerick

When we were children, our Cork grannies were distinguished from one another by their special attractions. 'Granny with the stairs' had stairs, while ‘Granny with the swings’ lived up the road from the playground in Schull, which had swings, a slide, a seesaw and a very fast roundabout whose memory still makes me feel queasy.

This granny was Mary (May). She and my granddad William had retired to a 1960s bungalow in Schull, a few miles from their former home and farm on the rocky slopes of Mount Gabriel. The house has a stunning view of the harbour towards the islands. My taciturn grandfather, a man more inclined to see beauty in a herd of healthy bullocks than in picturesque vistas, was once complimented on it and replied ruefully ‘Huh! Nothing but bloody water.’

I don’t imagine that Granny had much time to contemplate the view, at least not when she had visitors. She was a slight woman and seemed to be constantly in motion, somewhat hunched at the shoulders like an athlete dipping towards the finishing line. She hardly even sat at mealtimes, instead hovering behind her guests, waiting for space on their plates so that she could load on more food.

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Her generous hospitality is recalled in my, my parents' and my brothers’ households every Christmas as we sit down to 'Granny’s potato stuffing’. It’s termed ‘stuffing’ but we don’t usually stuff it into anything, though technically you could.

The recipe that is still referred to is a piece torn from a letter (on the inevitable Basildon Bond blue notepaper, now spotted with age) from Granny to my mother. It is written in a conversational style, and the measurements are impressionistic, originally reliant on my mother's understanding of the size of 'my big pyrex dish’ and the (ceramic) cup used for measuring the flour.

However, it can easily be scaled up or down according to the receptacle (pro tip: you want the biggest one you have, as you can never have too much potato stuffing). How wet it’s made depends on the preference of the maker. My mother makes a wetter mixture which my father always says ‘sticks to the insides’; mine is usually drier. Either way, it is excellent reheated with leftovers, or even carved into chunks for a turkey sandwich.

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The ‘gravy’ referred to is the sediment from the roasting tin in which you’re cooking your goose or turkey, and it makes the top nicely golden, but vegan alternatives can be substituted, and of course it can also be made gluten-free. Vegans will prefer the margarine specified here, but otherwise butter is a good option. I note potato stuffings online that include things like sage, celery and parsley, which sound nice but are not The Same.

Potato Stuffing recipe

I mash potatoes and put them in a pyrex dish.

When hot put a slice of margarine in to the hot mashed spuds, pepper and salt and chopped onion.

I get about one cup of flour in my big pyrex dish and sift on top of mashed spuds and wet it with milk, you would need to wet it fairly well and stir it up

Then I would put a few dessert spoons of chicken gravy or turkey gravy on top and stir it nice and wet and put one spoon on top and rub the spoon on top and it will bake brown and soft.

This is my old way, and I'll have to make a lot for Christmas for they do not like bread stuffing.

This is an edited extract of the author's piece as published in Christmas & The Irish: A Miscellany (Wordwell) edited by Salvador Ryan

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Dr Clodagh Tait is a lecturer in History at MIC Limerick. She is a former Research Ireland awardee