D-Otto (Tom) Potato Dumping Recipe

Makes about 16 baseball-size dumplings.  Serve with a beef roast, vegetables and brown gravy.
 
Ingredients:

10 lb potatoes (5 lb Russet, 5 lb Yukon Gold)

3 eggs

3 cups flour (perhaps more, depending on how well you squeezed out the water)

6 slices white bread (stale is best or pre-stale it in the oven).

1 sturdy, sacrificial pillowcase

1 stick butter

1 tbsp baking powder

Salt

Steps:

1.  Peel the potatoes.  You can leave them in the sink, covered w/water for up to 3 hours in advance.

2.  Cut the bread into 1/2" cubes and saute with the stick of butter until browned.  Set croutons aside.

3.  Put two very large (stock-pot size) kettles of salted water on the stove to boil.  On my stove it takes a couple of hours to come to a full boil, so I start these early.

4.  90 minutes before mealtime:  Grate the potatoes into a large mixing bowl.  I use a hand-crank Rival Grind-o-Mat and use the cone with the finest openings.  Periodically empty the grated potatoes into the pillow case and place in cold water.  Otherwise, the potatoes may begin to oxidize and turn black.

5.  60 minutes before mealtime:  Remove pillowcase from the water and wring as much water out of the potatoes as possible.  Note:  You CANNOT get them too dry, but too wet is bad.  I use a combination of twisting the pillowcase and then squeezing against a flat surface to get the water out.  (Hint:  If you have an under-hung kitchen sink, don’t squeeze against the bottom of the sink or you can break it loose from the countertop.  This results in much cursing, wringing of hands, and domestic unhappiness.)

6.  Clean and dry the large mixing bowl.  Then dump the grated potato dough — it should be a cohesive ball about 10” in diameter — into the mixing bowl.  Add eggs, baking powder plus 1 tbsp salt, and mix thoroughly with your hands.

Note:  You must have an assistant for the remaining steps.

7.  Have assistant add flour, 1/2 cup at a time, while you continue to mix with your hands.  After repeating about 5 times you should notice a change in the “feel” of the mix — it gets slippery.  That means you’re getting close.  You need to add one final 1/2 cup of flour and mix in.

8.  45 minutes before mealtime:  Grab a handful of the sticky dough and make a divot in the center.  Assistant drops about 6 croutons in to the divot.  Pick up some additional dough and form into a ball with the croutons in the center — about baseball size.  Drop ball onto assistant’s large, slotted spoon, and assistant gently drops the dumpling into a boiling pot.  (Note:  It’s good to pause at this point to make certain that the first dumpling doesn’t come apart in the water.  If it does, you haven’t added enough flour to the dough.)  Continue until all dumplings — about 16 — are in the pots.

9.  Boil for 45 minutes.  Use a long spoon to free any laggards which may have stuck to the pot bottoms.  All dumplings should be free-floating at the end.  Watch the pots carefully, or they can suddenly boil over, creating a gooey, starchy mess all over your cooktop.
 
10.  Remove the dumplings from the pots with a slotted spoon and place in serving bowls.  Serve, along with roast, vegetables and brown gravy.


Put left-over dumplings in the fridge.  They’re great the next day (or the day after that) cut into 1/4” slices and sauteed in butter — even better than they were right out of the kettle.