The secret of creamed potatoes…

According to the little leaflet I have, which must date to the 1950’s, the secret of creamed potatoes is evaporated milk – Carnation milk to be precise! My mum always used to add butter and a little milk to her mashed potatoes – it was always called mash not creamed potatoes. We had carnation at home, but only used it on deserts.

These days when we make our mashed potato we often add a little nutmeg as well as salt and pepper, butter and milk. if the mash is going on something, such as shepherd’s or cottage pie, then sometimes a light sprinkling of cheese gives a nice crispy, savoury topping. I had a friend who would add crème fraiche to his mashed potatoes – I liked it, but the rest of my family weren’t very keen!

So… the secret of creamed potato…

…delicious enough to serve alone – is to whip them hard and well with a fair portion of margarine and a generous quantity of undiluted Carnation Milk. Salt and pepper to taste.

I was interested to see the word ‘undiluted’; what I had never considered was that evaporated milk might be diluted with water to become more like normal milk – before the age of powdered milk maybe!