I love those things so much,but I just can’t figure out how to do it the same I can make the horsey sauce, but I can’t figure out the cakes.
Size of Potato piece or cut, oil temp, binder, dredge? Par-bake or par-microwave? I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong; I just want to know how to make ARBY’s potato cakes and all my attempts are failures 
My Grandma knew every-fricken-thing about potato frying, but some how I forgot that lesson.
You know, you can buy those kinds of things at the supermarket really really cheap.
Otherwise, all I can suggest is that they’re hash browns formed into that particular shape, deep fried and salted to the ends of the Earth.
They used to serve those at my school cafeteria when I was a kid. They’re probably made by Ore-Ida and next to the Tater Tots in “your grocer’s freezer section”.
They’re just hashbrowns. But if you want to make them from scratch all you have to do is peel a potato and grate it using a big-hole grater (I don’t know what the official name for the different sizes on a grater are). If you aren’t going to fry it right away you better keep the grated potato submerged in water. When you are ready to make the potato cake just pick out a handful and mash it together and fry it till golden brown. If you want it to be really delicious fry it in bacon grease. Of course it’s not too healthy that way.
Of course if you don’t want to make them yourself just buy them frozen as already suggested.
ETA: they really are delicious in bacon grease. The bacon flavor infuses into the entire potato cake. YUM! (haven’t had it like that since I was a kid, though )
That’s because the potatoes – hash browns, French fries, whatever – are just a matrix to hold grease.
Absolutely, but hash browns are particulary effective in absorbing the grease --moreso than French fries. They are so unhealthy I can only dream of eating them these days.
Wait, what? Gimme, gimme!
They’re more than that, though. The grind doesn’t have any grater texture artifacts that I can detect. They’re probably much more heavily processed than we even imagine. Aren’t they at least partially cooked prior to freezing?
Frozen grocery store patties wouldn’t pass for Arby’s but they aren’t bad.
Mr. Dee’s, for example.
And those are delicious in their own right, but Jeebus are they greasy. Even when they’re still frozen when you take them out of the freezer you can feel how laden they are with grease.
It’s been a long time since I’ve had them, but aren’t Arby’s potato cakes really strangely flavored? There’s some weird artificial quality and flavoring to them that really turned me off when I first tried them in the 80’s. I don’t think I’ve had them since. Have they changed them, or are they still sort of like a potato fritter?
Maybe this recipe for potato fritters from Jaques Pepin will substitute…
Probably, not quite the right texture or flavor, but they might be better.
My favorite potato cake is made with leftover Mashed Potatoes and a can of cream corn, enough flour to bind, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper, and onion powder. Then shallow fried in crisco in a skillet.
I believe it’s a pretty traditional midwest (USA) recipe.
I forgot, sometimes eggs are added to this mix.
Lessee, to make an arby’s potatocake… I might reconstitute some potato buds, add egg yolks, flour, massive amounts of onion and garlic powder, MSG, Paprika, and salt and pepper. Make a stiff cake, coat with breadcrumbs, and deepfry.
After thinking about it a while, another way to achieve that Arby’s potato cake falavor might be to add reconstituted dehydrated onion flakes with its liquid to the potato cake.
Ok, here’s the rundown of ingredients…
Potato Cake
Potatoes, Partially Hydrogenated Vegetable Shortening (Soybean Oil and/or Canola Oil), Dehydrated Potato, Salt, Corn Flour, Natural Flavoring, Disodium Dihydrogen Pyrophosphate (To Promote Color Retention), Dextrose.
So, it looks like it is real (presumably grated) potato and potato buds, salt, corn flour, seasonings, a preservative, and sugar. If I were trying to make it at home, I’d still probably go with eggs as a binder.
Or run the boiled spuds through a potato ricer. Makes for very nice texture, if you ask me.
DK’s RB’s Potatocakes
4 potatoes peeled and finely grated
1 1/2 cups of the cheapest, instant, dehydrated, mashed potatoes or potato buds you can find.
1/2 cup of boiling water
1 cup of Corn Flour or Mas Harina
2 1/2 to 3 tablespoons of a decent quality seasoning salt with MSG.
1 cup of crisco or any other hydrogenated vegetable shortening
Reconstitute the potato buds with the 1/2 cup of boiling water, put to the side in the refriderator or freezer to cool, and prepare and grate the fresh potatoes. Add the grated potatoes to the cooled potato bud mixture (they must be cool, cold is even better.), along with the spices, and a couple of tablespoons of corn flour to thicken. Vigourously cream in and beat in the vegetable shortening to the potato mixture, fold in more flour, if needed, to make a proper consistency.
Form into 1/4 inch cakes, dust and coat them on all sides in the corn flour, and line them up on cookie sheets. Place into the freezer for several hours. When ready to serve, drop in a deepfryer at around 370 for 5-6 minutes.
I forgot the sugar… you might need a couple tablespoons of sugar as well.
Thanks, Ill give tha a try this weekend.
Mmmmm Potato cakes… DId you know there are Arby’s that don’t even have potato cakes :mad:
I’m sure they’re made with finely grated or shredded raw potato, egg and flour. It’s the proportions I’m looking for. Also, whether to blanch or pre-cook the potato shreds.
They are NOT just hash browns. Or, at least they’re a unique variety. Tater Tots are similar, and yummy, but even they are NOT Arby’s variety. When patting them into cakes, use pressure. There are lots of hash brown recipes. Try latkes sometime. You particularly like Arby’s and want to make them at home the same way. So do I.
The recipe here that uses potato buds or mashed potatoes is probably good, but not Arby’s. And I’d be worried about no egg. Starches alone won’t hold the cakes together very well, especially when bobbing around in hot oil.
Ignore the advice to just shred potatoes and fry them. What you’ll get is a gazillion fried potato shreds. You need a binder. I don’t think flour alone will do the trick. Egg is needed. There can be a variety of recipes, some using mashed potatoes, but for Arby’s you need to deep fry them, floating in the oil. If they stick to the bottom of the pan, that’s not good. Maybe oil isn’t hot enough. After patting out the cakes, I’d let them sit a bit to begin drying a little. Or even freeze them.
I hope we’ll BOTH find a really good copycat recipe. Arby’s are one-of-a-kind yummy.
NINE YEAR OLD ZOMBIE THREAD!!!
Try an internet latke recipe. Even better, try an internet recipe for Swiss rosti, a pan-sized potato cake you have to cut like a pizza. A spoonful of cornstarch is the binder. Nothing else in it but potatoes, salt and pepper.
I swear by the one from the Cook’s Illustrated website, but I can’t link it because Christopher Kimball is an asshole.