OLD-FASHIONED STEWED POTATOES
This old-fashioned recipe is one your Grandmother may have made!
If you love old-fashioned recipes, you will definitely want to check out our Old Fashioned Banana Pudding. It’s one of our most popular recipes.
❤️WHY WE LOVE THIS RECIPE
We love this recipe because it goes way back in our family. It’s a recipe our Nannie made and one we still love. One of the best things about this dish is it’s only made with water and butter. It tastes so much like mashed potatoes, but it’s not made the same way.
It’s such a budget-friendly dish, and I am sure that is why it was so popular back in the day. You don’t use any cream or milk in these, which is why they are so unique.
⭐TIP
This dish is best with peeled potatoes. Some people ask if you have to peel the potatoes and I believe it’s better if you do.
IF YOU LOVE THIS RECIPE
If you love potato recipes, you will also love this Mashed Potato Casserole! It’s a family favorite during the holiday time. Also, you can never go wrong with these Southern Fried Potatoes. It’s one of the best ways to enjoy potatoes.
SERVE THIS WITH
This dish goes great with our Fried Porkchops. We love pork chops and potatoes, and you can add the delicious gravy. You will also love our Hamburger Steak; it’s a very popular recipe.
STORING AND REHEATING
I store these in a tupperware container in the fridge and they will last for a few days. Super easy dish and great to make up and enjoy with a few different meals.
SERVING SIZE
This dish makes about 6 servings and you can easily double it.
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Old-Fashioned Stewed Potatoes
Ingredients
- 6 or 7 medium sized potatoes peeled and cut into chunks (you can use any kind of potatoes)
- Water enough to just cover the potatoes in the pot
- 1/4 cup chopped onion
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon bacon drippings
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Put the potatoes in a pot, cover with the water, add the chopped onion, butter, bacon drippings, salt and pepper. Bring the potatoes to a boil stirring to keep from sticking to pot.
- Turn heat to a low boil and cook until potatoes have cooked and thickened to desired consistency. Stir often while cooking. Makes about about 6 servings.
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I called these Aunt Helen potatoes, because my GreatAunt Helen first made them for me. I’m glad to get this recipe. I’m making them for dinner tonight. I loved my Aunt Helen.
I love this.. thank you for sharing!
I teach 8th grade Family and Consumer Science (all cooking) and the budget is low and we had a donation of potatoes so my students are experiencing boiled potatoes with Mexican cornbread muffins and sweet tea for lunch today. It’s a miracle they got 30 lbs of potatoes peeled and chopped without anyone losing a finger! They are truly experiencing eating on a budget in the South.
This is great!
I make this often . Being a southern girl from NC , down home Fav.
Could you leave the skins on the potatoes?
I guess so!
I leave the skins on but when I do , it’s best to use gold or yellow potatoes
Oh, my Lord! My Mom made these all the time. A family favorite!
I have been making potatoes like this for years! They just do not get any better than this recipe!
I agree.. SO GOOD!
I have been making these stewed potatoes for over 60 years, my MIL made them and I sometimes add cheese to mine plus lots of butter, so that they look like butter.
I used to get so excited when there was a pot on the stove & I would lift the lid and see these! Better than Christmas morning. I added another tablespoon of bacon grease. Thank you so much for this recipe & fond memories of my mom mom.
You’re so welcome! We are thrilled it brought back great memories!
Actually I made potato soup last night. I use chicken broth instead of bacon fat and serv it with cornbread. Quick and easy meal if I can get my husband to peel the potatoes!
Thank you for all the great recipes, many of them bring back wonderful memories. At 82 I don’t cook very often anymore, however, I do use one every so often.
You’re very welcome! So glad you are enjoying them.
Thank you for having the recipe. I have been looking for this recipe for years. My mom and my grandmother have been gone since I was in my late 20’s and early 30’s. My grandmother allowed no one in the kitchen to cook. So, if I tried to watch or ask questions I was run out. I remember she made “Potato Soup” as it was called at our house, for me more times than I could ever count. She also made fat back to go with it. She would fix it sometimes in the spring and summer but mainly in the fall and winter. OH how I loved sitting down to Potato Soup and fat back for supper. One of my all time favorites. And now I can have it again at 64 years old. THANK YOU!!!!!
You’re so welcome! We are thrilled you found this recipe! Thank you for sharing.
I LOVE these. My mom made these all the time. But we called them Georgia potatoes, because we lived in Georgia at the time. My children still love for me to fix Georgia potatoes. Thank you for reminding me of a wonderful recipe and the memories that go with it!
You’re very welcome! Thank you for sharing.
My mom used to make these at least once a week. She didn’t want her potatoes messed up though, she would scoop them out after they were done and thicken the “broth” of water and butter with flour and then add the potatoes back in. My daughter absolutely loves these to this day. When she had Covid she asked me if I could bring her some stewed potatoes as that was the only thing that sounded good to her. I took her a big pot of them and my grandson flipped over them. She had forgotten how to cook them and he had never had any.
I love this, thank you so much for sharing!
I grew up hearing them called “ cooked down potatoes” here in north Georgia.
Love that name!
It is so good we use to call this dish Patate Fricassée because I am from Québec CA. and we add chicken or rest of roastbeefs So good.
I just love old fashioned recipes like this one. It’s amazing how just a few ingredients can produce a wonderful and delicious dish that I will continue to make year after year. I followed the recipe to the tee and it came out beautifully.
Thank you for sharing…
Didn’t you forget the flour to be able to get that paste or roux?
No, there is no flour in stewed potoates. Thanks!
Was looking for something to with pork chops and oven roasted broccoli. Since it’s just me now that my husband passed I got out of the habit of cooking.Thought about stewed potatoes because it was a go to from my mom.Your recipe Is a perfect”get back on the horse”recipe .
So glad it worked out for you!
Just like my grandmother made! Love this recipe. You ladies have all the old fashioned goodies!
Like another person stated, my grandmother always called them “Soupy Potatoes” and we all loved it! I used to make these when I was a young married and it has been quite a while since then! Thanks for bringing back some fond memories of my youth and early married life! I just may have to make them again!! Love all your recipes and thanks for sharing them!!
Love this! So glad you enjoy the recipes!
I didn’t have all the fixins for potato salad and had been craving potatoes like my aunt used to make them. I sautéed the onions in butter and caramelized then added to the stewed potatoes. I don’t like adding a lot of salt & didn’t have bacon grease. I think that is what is missing. That or more salt. Having for supper with buttermilk corn bread.
My grandma also used to put dumplings on top of these potatoes. Made them extra yummy.
Ladies, I just wanted to say, should you ever find yourselves in need of an old fat man with bad hips and knees and a similarly bad cranky disposition, then I am your man. Thanks for reminding me of my favorite foods from my mother and grandmother and all of the southern ladies I grew up with (if you have ever been to a primative baptists meal after church, you know what I’m talking about).
Thanks for the comment this morning, we all got a kick out of it! We’re so happy that the recipes on our site remind you of the special southern ladies in your life. Thanks so much!
I’ve been to those primitive Baptist meals on the grounds. Wonderful food and wonderful memories.
Do you have recipe for hot water corn bread?
Yes! Here it is. You can find any of our recipes by using the search box on every page of our website.
https://thesouthernladycooks.com/southern-hot-water-cornbread/
My Mom made this recipe often but she called it “Soupy Potatoes”. We loved them. She used bacon grease somewhere in almost every meal she prepared. Everything tastes better with bacon grease. 😉 Thank you so much for bring back sweet memories of home. I’ll be 77 this month and I still treasure these recipes from home. Blessings, Sharon
What wonderful memories, Sharon! Love it.
This Recipe foe Stewed Potatoes are identical to my Late Grandmother’s. She called them Tater Soup. I watched her make them so many times and started making them myself now. Thanks for this recipe, they really bring back so many Great Memories… I love all your recipes and have made many of them to rave reviews.
Thank you so much for the kind comment! We’re thrilled you enjoy our recipes.
I love stewed potatoes! Although my family called them German potatoes. I add a bay leaf to the boiling water with salt and pepper. I also and a splash or two of vinegar in the end to give them a slightly “sour” taste. I have also added a heaping tablespoon of sour cream for added creaminess and sourness. Give it a try!
Luv, luv luv stewed potatoes. Slice up the tadders’ add a heaping table spoon of ole’ fashioned pork lard and some water, a little bit of salt ,sprinkle with pepper and cook until the fluid is gone. Yummy! I enjoy your posts. This was the way my mother made them.
My mother was an old fashioned, southern cook (but she loved trying new things too) and I never, ever heard of “stewed potatoes”. My husband used the description saying that’s what his mom made, but when I spoke with her, she said they weren’t stewed…she just called her buttered, boiled potatoes that. But I looked it up to see if there was such a thing, and sure enough. These are yummy and so easy!!! Thanks for the old fashioned recipe!!!
My grandmother taught my mother to make these and her grandmother taught my grandmother so I can’t tell you how long this recipe has been in my family. One thing everyone should be aware of, they come out of the pot scalding hot and stay that way for a long time so watch out for your tongue. Thank you so much for posting all my childhood food memories. I love all of your recipes. This is truly one of my favorite cooking sites.
Thank you so much! We’re thrilled you enjoy our site!
All your recipes sound so good. Have not discovered one that I think I wouldn’t like . Thanks for all the memories you have evoked for me. Have cooked so many of recipes like yours or similar to yours over the years.
So glad you enjoy the recipes and they bring back such wonderful memories!
Had something similar but called them delicious. Boiled potatoes for lunch and served with salt, pepper and butter , lots of butter. At night we used cold sliced potatoes and a little grease to lightly fry potatoes. After browning potatoes ENJOY…
This is how my grandmother cooked potatoes in Plain Dealing, La.
My Mama called these “Soupy Potatoes”. She made them in a big skillet. So good. I had forgotten about them. Will have to make them now. Blessings
My dad was Pennsylvania Dutch and he made something similar to these (no onion). He called them sloppy potatoes. All of us kids loved them.
I too grew up with these. But Mama put bacon in about 1” pieces in with hers, and, she called it “Johnny o’Brian”. She couldn’t remember why, that was just what Grandma had called it, ha. Great comfort food!!
I am making stewed Potatoes now. I sweat onions, add thinly sliced potatoes, salt and pepper. Just enough oild to brown some of the potatoes on the bottom. Get the potatoes covered well and add plenty of salt and pepper. My family adds a bit of water, covers and let it go while I make the obligatory pork chops, make some veg to round it out with corn bread. Yum!
You didn’t have much money growing up cuz it was Mom raising her three kids and she used to fry potatoes in bacon fat then she would add enough water to just barely cover the potatoes and she made her flour and water paste to thicken them with and salt and pepper we used to my husband called it Carter caviar because it’s what we ate when we were poor all my kids love it and still want to learn how to make it to this day
I make these potatoes a lot been making them for years,,,my family loves them
Jar forgot about these “creamed potatoes.” My ex-mother-in-law showed me how to fix these. As the kid came along there were times those potatoes and with cornbread was all we had. I married in 1957, and was only 16 and didn’t know how to cook a thing. Love these recipes as many bring back memories.
Ok I have been eating these for close to 90 years. Always known as stewed potatoes. I think the secret is in that bit of bacon drippings. we never added onion but I think that would be super and I plan to try it that way very soon!jeanaugusta a @a@@
My mom taught me to make these years ago….I’m almost eighty now she passed two years ago at 96 and this very recipe came from her mother so it is over 150 years old inn our family….thank you for sharing it because for new cooks it’s easy, economical and delicious
You’re very welcome! Thank you for sharing.
I grew up eating “stewed potatoes”. Honestly I never watched my grandmother cook them but it’s, literally, the favorite childhood comfort food. Anyway that recipe died with her but hopefully this is a step in the right direction.
Fingers crossed!
This is how my grandmother cooked potatoes. I didn’t know there was a name for them. I always loved them. Thank you so much for this article.
My mom called them soupy potatoes, she cooked sausage patties while potatoes cooked and added sausage drippings to thicken potatoes with some crumbled sausage .
I can’t believe it! This is the closest I’ve gotten to grandmas recipe. She also added sliced boiled eggs sometimes and just let it cook. Grandma passed 20 yearsago and mom three years ago so I lost the beginning of how to cook these. Lesson learned … Pay more attention to your family and what they do in the kitchen.
So glad this is close to your families recipe! Thank you for sharing!
I love stewed potatoes! I make them twice a month now that my husband has died instead of weekly. My grandmother called them stewed potatoes too.
So sorry for your loss. We love them too!
Hi, I live in Cumbria UK couldn’t believe it when I saw this recipe, my grandma used to make this, but she always called it Dried Stew. I still use this recipe, but I like to let it stick a little to the pan, delicious.
Oh goodness, you are far away! So glad to have you here.