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Quirled Potatoes
Peel, boil, mash, and season a few mashed potatoes, then put them into a colander, pressing them through into the dish you wish to serve them in ; set in the oven and brown.
A ricer-and-broiler trick from the era before piping bags were common in home kitchens. The whole point is the texture of the extruded strands, so handle them as little as possible once they are through.
- The hingeDo not smooth or stir the potato after it comes through the colander. The browning depends on the raised threads catching the heat; press them directly into the serving dish and let them lie as they fall.
- Read the wording"A few mashed potatoes" means a few potatoes, peeled and mashed. The recipe gives no quantity; something like 2 lb would serve four, but that is a modern guess, not the book's.
- Use a ricer or food millA modern fine-mesh colander may clog, and a plastic one is not the thing to press hot potato through. A potato ricer with a coarse plate, or a food mill, gives similar threads with less effort.
- Season before pressingButter, salt, pepper and a little hot milk or cream go in while the potato is mashed. Nothing can be mixed in afterward without destroying the surface.
- Work hot and dryDrain the boiled potatoes well and let them steam dry in the pan for a minute. Wet potato slumps in the oven; a floury variety such as russet holds the shape.
- Oven heat"Set in the oven and brown" gives no temperature. The aim is colour on the surface rather than further cooking, so a hot oven, or a short spell under a broiler with the dish watched, will do it.
- Serving dishUse an ovenproof gratin or shallow baking dish, since the recipe browns the potatoes in the vessel they go to table in. Brush the tops with a little melted butter for even color.
"Quirled" is often taken as a variant of twirled, describing the curled threads of potato that come through the holes of a colander. The technique belongs to the late-nineteenth-century enthusiasm for making plain food look decorative: mashed potato pressed through a sieve, forced through a pastry tube into rosettes, or piped as a border around a meat dish. The instruction to brown the finished dish in the oven reflects the ordinary economy of a coal or gas range already lit for the roast.