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Lyonnaise Potatoes
Boil potatoes and allow them to get cold. To one-half pound of the sliced potato, two ounces of onion, a heaping teaspoonful of chopped parsley, butter the size of an egg. Put the butter in a saucepan, and when hot throw in the onion (minced) and fry to a light color; add the potatoes; stir until hot and light brown; then mix the parsley and serve hot.
A short, workable recipe whose only real demand is that the potatoes be cooked and thoroughly chilled before they meet the pan. Warm boiled potatoes will break into mash the moment you stir them.
- Butter the size of an eggAbout 2 ounces, or 4 tablespoons. That is a generous amount for half a pound of potato, and it is what gives the browning; cut it back and you will get steaming rather than frying.
- Quantities in modern termsHalf a pound of potato is roughly two medium potatoes; 2 ounces of onion is about a third of a medium onion.
- Chill properlyBoil the potatoes a day ahead if you can. Cold, dry, firm potato slices hold their edges and brown; freshly boiled ones shed starch and stick.
- Order of the panThe onion goes in first and is taken only to a light color, not to a deep caramel. It finishes cooking with the potatoes, and onion browned hard at the start will taste scorched by the time the potatoes are ready.
- Stir less than the recipe implies"Stir until hot and light brown" is best read as turning the slices every few minutes over medium-high heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Constant stirring prevents any crust forming at all.
- Parsley at the endThe recipe adds it last, after the potatoes are browned, which keeps it green and grassy rather than dulled by long cooking.
- SeasoningNo salt or pepper is listed. Salt the slices as they go into the pan and pepper them at the end.
- YieldServes two as a side dish. The recipe scales directly, but fry in batches or use a wide pan; crowding is what turns this into a soft hash.
The name simply means "in the manner of Lyon," the French city whose cooking is often associated with onions — à la lyonnaise on a nineteenth-century menu was shorthand for "with onions," whether applied to potatoes, tripe or a sauce. Potatoes cooked this way turned up in kitchens where French terminology carried prestige on a printed bill of fare. Its practical appeal in a household kitchen was thrift: it is a recipe for yesterday's boiled potatoes, and the instruction to let them get cold is not fussiness.