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Kentucky Potatoes
Pare and slice thin, put in a pan, with bits of salt pork among them, and season with salt and pepper. Pour over them one cup each of sweet milk and boiling water, and bake in a hot oven.
A scalloped-potato formula stripped to its bones: the original names no quantity of potatoes and no baking time, so both have to be inferred. Slice thickness is the hinge — anything much over an eighth of an inch will still be crunchy when the liquid has gone.
- QuantityThe cup of milk and cup of boiling water suit about 2 lb of potatoes in a 9-inch dish or a 1½-quart baker. More potatoes than that and the liquid will not reach the top layer; the exposed slices dry out rather than bake.
- "Sweet milk"Plain fresh whole milk, named to distinguish it from the sour or buttermilk that period recipes also called for. Whole milk holds together better here than skim, which tends to look watery around the edges.
- A hot ovenThe original gives no temperature. 'Hot oven' in period usage corresponds to roughly 400-450F, so 425F is a reasonable modern reading. At that heat the top browns while the interior cooks through; much below 400F the dish sets without taking much colour.
- Salt porkSold cured and quite salty, usually near the bacon. Two or three ounces, cut into small dice and scattered between the layers, is plenty. Unsmoked pork belly or thick bacon will stand in, though bacon brings smoke the original did not have.
- SeasoningSalt the potatoes lightly and taste at the end — the pork does much of the work, and there is no way to correct an oversalted casserole once the milk has reduced.
- TimingReckon on 50 to 60 minutes, covered for the first half so the potatoes steam, then uncovered to brown. Test with a knife tip in the centre rather than going by the surface, which colours well before the middle is soft.
- CurdlingMilk at 425F will separate a little at the edges. This is normal for the style and settles as the starch from the potatoes thickens the liquid; a tablespoon of flour dusted between the layers keeps it smoother if that bothers you.
- YieldServes four to six as a side.
Scalloped potatoes baked in milk were everywhere in American cookbooks by the late nineteenth century, and the regional names attached to them — Kentucky, Delmonico — were often little more than labels of convenience, distinguishing one variation from the dozen others in the same chapter. What marks this one is the salt pork, the standard fat and flavouring of American cooking before refrigerated shortenings and cheap bacon: it kept for months in a barrel, needed no ice, and turned a pan of potatoes and milk into something substantial enough to carry a meal. The absence of cheese is worth noting too, since cheese-topped versions appear in American cookbooks of the same period; a book of this vintage more often relies on pork fat and a hot oven for richness and colour.