Deerfoot Sausages in Potato Blankets (1941)
Potatoes filled with sausage meat, parsley and breadcrumbs, then baked in stock, adapted from a 1941 British wartime recipe.
- Original yieldYield
- 4 servings4 servings
- PrepPrep time
- CookCook time
- TotalTotal time
Published Updated
Original recipe: 4 servings
The story behind the recipe
A potato can be the container for its sausage. Hollowed halves hold pork mixed with bread crumbs and parsley, while stock pools below and the tops brown above. Even the potato scooped out to make the hollow stays in the baking dish.
Heath didn't waste the scoops
Ambrose Heath's 1941 Kitchen Front Recipes and Hints calls the dish Deerfoot Potatoes. He suggests keeping the removed potato in large pieces and baking it alongside. The part taken out to make room for the filling can still come to dinner. Bread crumbs help the sausage go farther, while potatoes supply most of each portion. Saving the scoops is another economical detail in our Kitchen Front collection.
Read more about this recipe
With an apple corer, or without
Heath gives his reader two ways to assemble the dish. An apple corer makes a tunnel through a whole potato, ready for the sausage mixture to be pushed inside. Without one, the potato is cut lengthwise and hollowed out with a spoon.
Our adaptation develops those halves. Their open tops let you see the filling, with potato around it like a substantial shell. The source's whole-potato alternative is still described in the notes, but it has a different arrangement: it bakes without the stock used around the halves.
The choice of shape changes where the heat and liquid meet the food. In the halved version, stock reaches partway up the potato while the heaped sausage remains exposed. The baking dish holds both the potatoes and their pan juices, with the saved scoops nestled alongside.
A little meat spread among the potatoes
The source allows bread crumbs when sausage meat needs to go farther, and parsley if the cook would like it. Both are included in our measured filling. The potatoes supply most of each portion's bulk; sausage gives it a concentrated savory center.
This is one of the more revealing features of Heath's wartime advice. He isn't simply reducing everything on a plate. He is placing a smaller filling inside a substantial ingredient and giving the cook a choice of tools to do it. The potato blanket makes the portion look and eat like a dish in its own right.
We set modern weights, seasoning, oven guidance and a thermometer check for the pork, with butter or bacon fat for brushing. Heath allows half a full-sized sausage for each potato, without fixing sausage or potato weights. Follow the listed masses rather than assuming two butcher sausages will always supply the same amount of meat.
Stock belongs around the halves
Heath allows meat or vegetable extract when homemade stock isn't available. That flexibility survives in our beef-stock or yeast-extract vegetable-stock choice. The liquid is part of the cooking arrangement, and any pan juices are spooned over the potatoes at serving.
The halfway-up cue matters more than emptying a measured jug. A wide dish, narrow potatoes or a larger batch will change how much stock reaches that level. The recipe notes therefore treat the quantity as a starting allowance.
Check the potatoes as well as the filling before serving. A tender shell and cooked-through pork are separate requirements, even though they have shared an oven. Add greens if you like the contrast, and keep the roasted scoops on the plate. Heath gave them a place in the pan, not another use to find later.
Make it your wayOriginal: 4 servings
Original recipe: 4 servings
Ingredients
For 4 servings. Quantities are shown as written.
Source measurement convention: Metric. Explicit unit definitions take precedence; unconfirmed measures must be checked before conversion.
Original quantities for 4 servings.
- Baking potatoes (approx. 4 large, raw, scrubbed clean)800 g
- Pork sausage meat (approx. 2 butcher sausages, casings removed)200 g
- Dried breadcrumbs (for extending)40 gAuthor measures: about 1/2 metric cup (250 ml per cup).
- Fresh parsley (finely chopped)15 g
- Fine salt1/2 metric tsp
- Ground black pepper1/4 metric tsp
- Beef stock (or vegetable stock made with savory yeast extract, hot, or as needed)240 ml
- Melted unsalted butter (or bacon fat)15 gAuthor measures: about 1 metric tbsp (1 metric tbsp = 15 ml).
Measurement notes
- fine salt, ground black pepper: tsp: 1 = 5 ml.
Measurement notes
Original ingredients
- 800 g baking potatoes (approx. 4 large, raw, scrubbed clean)
- 200 g pork sausage meat (approx. 2 butcher sausages, casings removed)
- 40 g dried breadcrumbs (approx. 1/2 cup, for extending)
- 15 g fresh parsley (finely chopped)
- 1/2 tsp fine salttsp: 1 = 5 ml.
- 1/4 tsp ground black peppertsp: 1 = 5 ml.
- 240 ml beef stock (or vegetable stock made with savory yeast extract, hot, or as needed)
- 15 g melted unsalted butter (or bacon fat, approx. 1 tbsp)
Equipment
Baking dish (approx. 22x33 cm)
Instant-read meat thermometer
Instructions
Prepare the oven and dish
Preheat your oven to 200°C (400°F). Use a little of the melted unsalted butter to grease a deep baking dish large enough to hold eight potato halves, reserving the rest for brushing.
Hollow the potato halves
Cut each scrubbed raw large baking potato in half lengthwise. Using a melon baller or spoon, scoop a generous cavity from each half, leaving a sturdy 8 mm (1/3-inch) shell along the skin. Keep the scooped potato lumps intact to roast alongside.
Combine the stuffing ingredients
In a mixing bowl, combine the pork sausage meat, dried breadcrumbs, chopped fresh parsley, fine salt, and ground black pepper.
Mix the sausage stuffing
Mix thoroughly with a fork until the stuffing forms an even, pliable blend.
Fill the potato halves
Divide the sausage mixture into 8 portions, shape into oblong mounds, and press one portion snugly into each hollowed raw potato half, heaping slightly.
Arrange potatoes and scoops
Arrange the stuffed potato halves upright in the baking dish. Scatter the reserved raw potato scoops around the edges.
Add hot stock
Pour the hot beef stock carefully into the bottom of the dish until the broth comes halfway up the sides of the potatoes.
Brush with reserved butter
Brush the exposed potato rims and sausage tops with the remaining melted unsalted butter.
Bake and check sausage temperature
Bake for 55 to 60 minutes until the potatoes are completely tender when pierced with a knife, the stock has reduced into a savory pan gravy, the tops are browned and crisp, and an instant-read meat thermometer inserted into the sausage centers registers 71°C (160°F).
Serve with pan juices
Serve hot, spooning any pan juices over the potatoes alongside steamed seasonal greens.
Estimated calories 380 kcal
Nutrition portion: 1/4 of recipe · Original yield: 4 servings
Source & assumptions
Ingredient-based estimate using CoFID 2021, USDA SR Legacy (April 2018), identified manufacturer information. Approximately 380 kcal per nutrition portion. Uses the listed vegetable-stock and butter alternatives and includes the sausage drippings and pan gravy. Ingredients, brands and preparation affect values.
Recipe notes
When adjusting quantities
Scale ingredients proportionally. Bake until the potato shells are fork-tender and the sausage centers reach 71°C (160°F).
Original recipe notes
These notes describe the original recipe. Quantities mentioned here do not change when you adjust servings.
The historical whole-potato alternative uses an apple corer to make a tunnel for the filling, then bakes the potatoes without the stock used for the halved version. If using that alternative, check both potato tenderness and the same sausage-center temperature; timing may differ.
The stock amount is a starting quantity. Add enough hot stock to reach halfway up the potato halves, since the amount needed depends on their size and the dish.
Read the scaling guide. Times, temperatures and equipment need their own consideration. Open the recipe tool to review and correct individual amounts.
Sources and attribution
Ambrose Heath, Kitchen Front Recipes and Hints (1941), pp. 42-43
Ambrose Heath, Kitchen Front Recipes and Hints (1941), Deerfoot Potatoes, pp. 42–43. The halved method and saved scoops come from Heath; modern quantities, brushing fat and explicit doneness guidance are adaptations.
Recipe details
- Recipe tradition
- Vintage
- Course or meal
- Dinner
- Cuisine
- British
- Source decade
- 1940s
- Occasion
- Wartime cooking
- Browse category
- Main Dishes