Mashed Potato Pancakes.
Or… What In Tarnation Do I Do With All Those Mashed Potatoes On Friday?
Or even… Boring Recipes That Turn Out To Be Something Amazing.
(I like the second one better.)
There are a few meals my mom made that screamed “comfort food”. Certain meals that I can remember sitting down at the table to eat on cold, crisp nights. One of them was pot roast with egg noodles, mashed potatoes and gravy. Another was egg sandwiches with fried, chipped ham. And one of my favorites were these mashed potato pancakes.
She made these on nights when my dad wasn’t home for dinner because it was never really something he would go for. I can still remember exactly how delicious they smelled frying away on the stovetop.
Yesterday I asked her how she made them. I was fairly certain she didn’t just form plain old mashed potatoes into a patty.
Well, she almost did. She added a sprinkling of flour, then formed them into patties. And I chirped, “then you just fried them in butter, right?”
She laughed. Her next words were music to my ears. “Um, no… I fried them in bacon grease.”
Hey, at least you all know where I come from.
Would you believe that up until five years ago, I thought these were the only potato pancakes that existed? In fact, the first time I ordered potato pancakes at a restaurant and was served the latke version, I was disappointed. Those sure are tasty, but they are nothing like these. However, discovering the latkes were a relief… because I really couldn’t figure out how one ate applesauce or sour cream on a potato pancake like the ones here.
These just taste like home. The outsides are crispy and the insides fluffy. You can add toppings or dipping sauces. You can add tasty treats mixed throughout the pancakes. They make a fun side dish when mashed potatoes are getting old.
Mashed Potato Pancakes
serves 2
2 cups mashed potatoes
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons bacon grease, butter or olive oil
Sprinkle flour on mashed potatoes, add in any mix-in’s and form into patties that are about 1 inch thick.
Heat a skillet on medium high heat. Add your fat of choice and let it heat for 30 seconds. Add patties and let brown on each side, about 3-4 minutes per side.
As expected, Mr. How Sweet covered his in ketchup.
126 Comments on “Mashed Potato Pancakes.”
mmm I bet those are nice and crispy on the outside but still smooth and creamy on the inside, Genius idea
These look delicious! I’ve only had latke potato pancakes so I’m curious to try these…
My daddy made these for years!! He also added an egg to help the potatoes stay together. Every so often, he’d chop up an onion & add it to the mixture along with some crumbled bacon…those were always my fave!!
I’m so glad someone else knows what I’m talking about!
Of course I’m a Southern girl, so we call them Tater Cakes…lol! I am making mashed potatoes with cream cheese & half & half in them for Thanksgiving…I can not wait for the leftovers….they will definitely be turned into tater cakes!! (I even have bacon waiting for them in the fridge!! ha ha)
Love that! I use heavy cream in my mashed potatoes… so creamy.
I feel like I would want to put cheese in these (if it wasn’t already in the mashed potatoes). And I feel like with that cheesy casserole from last week as the way to deal with leftover turkey, there would be no need to leave the house the rest of the weekend.
Cheese in these would be incredible.
Will be incredible. Will be.
Also, speaking of bacon grease, have you ever made risotto by prepping the arborio rice in hot bacon grease? I saw the technique in Cooking Light (seriously), so it must be healthy.
Um… no! Why have I never thought of that?? What a brilliant idea. And yes, because it was in Cooking Light – of course it is healthy.
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=10000001981765
Also, I took out the mushrooms and did this with corn instead because…I dunno, it made sense.
Bacon grease makes everythinggggg better! I’ve made potato pancakes (latkes) before but never like this with leftover mashed taters, great idea!
Yes… I knew I loved you. Bacon grease FTW!
We love making these with our left over mashed potatoes! We mix an egg in ours though. And like Mr. How Sweet… we cover ours in ketchup :)
Hmmmm maybe these will be on my thanksgiving table…I always like trying a new spin on a classic ;)
Yum! Fantastic idea! The best part is definitely the bacon grease.
Yummers!
So good.
I think they also lend themselves nicely to be topped
with cheese :)
I love these! We sometimes use egg to hold it together as well. And coming from Maine and being the daughter of a fisherman we made fishcakes – which are the same as these except you also add flaked, leftover cooked fish. Very good!
That sounds delicious. We would love that!
Yes, this is what you do with leftover mashed potatoes!! My mother-in-law taught me how to make these when I got married. She added an egg to the mixture and I’ve made my own little additions by putting cheese on top. Sooo good!
Those are so cute. Like puffy, creamy ladke’s.
This was always the star of my dad’s famous breakfasts. They also usually involved leftover steak and eggs. And waffles. The man loves breakfast.
my mom used to make these too!!! She also would sometimes just fry the leftover mashed potatoes up loosely in bacon grease for breakfast (like home fries)… some of the bits got crunchy and some stayed soft… sooo yummy.
Yum– those do look like the perfect comfort food. I love family recipes…they just always taste better. :-)
Love the idea of frying these up in BACON grease! Great breakfast or any time of the day meal :)
MMM I’m a huge mashed potato fan – just add bacon and we are all happy campers :)
P.S. I love when food tastes like home!
It’s the best, isn’t it?
I know what I’m making Friday!
hmmm i wonder how this would turn out with mashed sweet potatoes!
I was thinking the same thing yesterday. I bet it would be delicious. Especially if you added some maple syrup, cinnamon, nutmeg and brown sugar!
oh yum!!!
I love potato pancakes!! And I have made them with leftover sweet potatoes and they were delicious!! I can’t wait for Turkey Day leftovers!! :-)
Good to know! Yum.
We do something similar after TDay. We mix mashed potatoes, stuffing, and turkey, sometimes even a little bit of corn, form it in a ball with some flour and fry. Then we cover in gravy and devour!
Some may think that sounds gross, but I think it sounds AMAZING.
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You had me at mashed potatoes! I love anything and all mashed potatoes…they are my favorite! :-)
This brings back such memories for me! My mom ALWAYS made these same potato pancakes with leftover mashed potatoes–and she also fried them in bacon grease! I suspect if I tried to duplicate them without the bacon grease they just wouldn’t be the same though :(
I seriously wish some of these were sitting in my kitchen right now. Let me wipe the drool off my keyboard and go eat my boring breakfast!
Can’t wait to try these :)
I’m emailing these to my sister in law to make for my brother (and me). They look amazing, but I’m scared to mash potatoes, so I can just let her do the dirty work :)
Mmmm these sound soooo tasty! They kind of remind me of hash browns, but the home made kind as opposed to the straight-from-the-box kind they’d have in the dining hall when I was in university. Love it!
Sometimes I think you read my mind. I just had potato pancakes for the first time last weekend and loved them!
Looks delish! :)
Look delicious! I need to make these for the BF as soon as I get back into town ;) Thanks!
hahahaah I was going to say I could make these for hannukah but having them fried in bacon grease in a Kosher home probably wouldn’t jive with my dad! BUT I can use butter or olive oil, love the subsitutions!! :)
LOL! Yeah… it’s butter or oil for you!
I’m sure you hear this all the time, but I just wanted to say that I think you are AMAZING. I’ve used so many of your recipes with great success…despite me being a crazy-person in the kitchen. But more importantly, the way you write tickles my soul. I seriously laugh out loud at your blogs and I love it! I follow a lot of food blogs but I think you by far have the best personality and are an incredibly talented writer.
Also, I’d have to pull a Mr Sweet and cover those potato pancakes in ketchup. I love ketchup, I put it on everything….
Thank you so much! It means so much for you to comment and say that. Thank you so, so much for reading.
yum! my mom always makes this for breakfast the morning after thanksgiving.
These sort of remind me of potato latkes… only mashed instead of shredded :)
I *just* made these the other night with my extra mashed potatoes and I loved them! They did fall apart a little though, so I might try adding the flour next time.
I love mashed potatoes and all derivatives thereof!
all you really had to say was bacon grease ;)
This is my daughters favorite side dish when I have leftover mashed potatoes. I haven’t made this in ages though – thanks for the reminder! :D
Bacon grease? Mashed potatoes? You’ve got me hooked. I NEED to make these! NEED.
My mom used to make something like this for us. Except for she never formed the potatoes into pancakes. This is pretty much the best idea ever.
Oh my. We used to fry potatoes in bacon grease when I was growing up. And when the electricity was out, we fried them in a skillet on the wood stove. Thanks for bringing memories back. Suzanne
There really isn’t anything better than potatoes and bacon grease.
Mmm, these look wonderful. They’ve been on my list to make for a little while and now I’m craving them!!
Yum! I love potato pancakes. My mom makes them, too, but also adds green onion (I don’t know if that’s a little too green for you, though!).
Great minds think alike! I posted a leftover mashed (sweet) potatoes recipe today. I will have to make some potato pancakes with your recipe. I’ve never made them before… can you believe that?
Where’s the syrup? ;)
I love potato cakes. They’re one of the best things about making WAY too many potatoes for big holiday meals :)
Neat! My grandmother used to make those, I think. Of course, I’m from Memphis, TN, so anything fried was fried in bacon grease, which we call “drippins”. So no wonder they’re good.
Yum! I bet they’re so good with other leftovers.
oh. I WILL be making these Friday. maybe Thursday… as a midnight snack. at 6pm. instead of dessert.
Sounds yummy! Whenever I make them, I like to add a little grated onion and parsley to it.
Delish. They obviously belong with ketchup. It’s potato. Duh! Mr. How Sweet and I would get along swimmingly.
Yes you would. :)
I love that there is even a question of what to do with leftover mashed potatoes.