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French Fried Potatoes
Wash and pare medium-sized potatoes, cut them lengthwise in eight pieces of a uniform size. Soak them in cold water two hours, changing the water several times. Drain from water and dry between towels. Then fry a few at a time in deep hot Cottolene. Drain on brown paper and sprinkle with salt. This is an easy method of preparing potatoes in hot weather. The potatoes may be prepared beforehand and the process of cooking is both simply and quickly done. Be sure the Cottolene is not too hot as the potatoes must be cooked through, as well as browned.
A single-fry method, which is why the original insists the fat not be too hot: the potatoes have to cook through before the outside colors. A thermometer removes all the guesswork the 1913 cook had to manage by eye.
- CottoleneA branded shortening of cottonseed oil blended with beef suet, sold by the N. K. Fairbank Company, and the reason this book exists. Any neutral high-smoke-point fat works: peanut, canola, or a solid vegetable shortening if you want the same texture.
- The fat temperatureThis is the hinge of the recipe. For a single fry, hold the oil at 325-335F so the interior cooks before the surface browns; much above that and you get dark strips that are raw in the middle. If you want a crisper result, fry at 325F until limp and pale, rest, then fry again at 375F to color.
- Cut sizeEight lengthwise pieces from a medium potato gives thick wedges, not shoestrings. Uniformity matters more than the exact count.
- The soakTwo hours in several changes of cold water pulls surface starch and keeps the pieces from sticking together. Thirty minutes does most of the work; refrigerate if you extend it in a warm kitchen.
- DryingDo not skip the towels. Water on the surface makes the fat spatter violently and steams the exterior instead of crisping it.
- Brown paperBrown paper of the kind used for grocery bags was a common drain in this period. Use a wire rack set over a sheet pan, which keeps the undersides from going soft, with paper towels beneath if you like.
- Batch size"A few at a time" is the instruction that keeps the oil temperature up. Crowding the pot drops the temperature sharply and the potatoes absorb fat rather than repelling it.
- SaltingSalt the moment they leave the fat, while the surface is still hot and slightly oily, or it will not adhere.
- YieldFigure one medium potato per person as a side dish; two if it is the only starch on the table.
52 Sunday Dinners was written by Elizabeth O. Hiller and published in 1913 as a promotional cookbook for Cottolene, a cottonseed-oil shortening made by the N. K. Fairbank Company of Chicago, which explains why the brand name appears in place of a generic "fat" or "lard" in nearly every recipe in the book. Cottonseed oil was an industrial byproduct that food manufacturers spent the late nineteenth century turning into a cheap, shelf-stable substitute for lard, and cookbooks like this one were the marketing arm of that campaign. The note that this is "an easy method of preparing potatoes in hot weather" reflects a real August problem in a house with a coal or wood range, and Hiller's suggestion to cut and soak the potatoes hours ahead spreads the work away from the hottest part of the day.