Peanuts and Potatoes.

Today I want to pay homage to two of the wonderful gifts of the New World to the Old. In particular, I want to explore the special joy they may bring when they work together in the same dish.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you wisdom from almost a century ago, in the form of recipes for potatoes and peanuts:

Potato and Peanuts.
6 medium sized cold boiled potatoes.
2 cups white sauce.
1 cup chopped roasted peanuts, or ½ cup peanut butter may be used.
White Sauce.
4 tablespoons butter.
4 tablespoons flour.
2 cups milk.
Put cold potatoes into cubes and mix with white sauce, to which the peanuts have been added. Put in a buttered baking dish, cover with bread crumbs, heat in oven until crumbs are light brown. Serve in baking dish.
Uses of the Peanut on the Home Table (Univ. of Texas Bulletin, 1917)

Potatoes with Peanut Butter.
2 cups cold boiled or baked potato
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons peanut butter
½ tablespoon butter or margarine
¼ teaspoon pepper
Milk [no quantity specified in the recipe]
Yolks 2 hardboiled eggs
Cut the potatoes into dice. Melt butter in saucepan. Put potatoes in. Season with salt and pepper. Add the milk, and simmer until most of the milk is absorbed. Blend the peanut butter and yolks of eggs together and stir in the potato. Serve when hot.
The Book of Potato Cookery (A.C.McClurg and Co., Chicago, 1918)

Potato Peanut Loaf
1 pint mashed potato
1 cup ground peanuts or ½ cup peanut butter
2 teaspoonfuls salt
½ teaspoonful pepper
½ cup milk
2 tablespoonfuls fat
2 eggs
Beat the entire mixture together and place in greased baking dish; set in a second pan containing hot water and bake in the oven until firm. Serve with tomato sauce.
American Cookery: formerly the Boston Cooking School Magazine (New York, 1918)