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Casserole of Potatoes
Peel and boil some good mealy potatoes, mash them with a little salt, butter, cream, and the yolk of one egg to every pound of potatoes. Beat them two or three minutes over the fire to dry them thoroughly, then place them on a shallow dish, and work them with the hands into the shape of a raised pie. Leave a hollow in the middle, ornament it with flutings, etc., brush it over with beaten egg, and brown it in a quick oven. Fill the inside with a ragout or mince, and serve hot.
A potato case shaped by hand, baked until the surface sets, then filled at the last moment. The technique is straightforward; the difficulty is getting the mash dry and stiff enough to hold its walls.
- Dry the potato, or it collapsesThe instruction to beat the mash over the fire for two or three minutes is the hinge of the whole dish. Steam driven off there is what lets the walls stand; a wet mash slumps in the oven and the filling runs out.
- "Casserole" here means a shape, not a potIn nineteenth-century cookery a casserole could be a moulded border or case of rice, potato or pastry, built to hold a ragout, and that is the sense used here. The word was also used in English for the cooking vessel itself; the further sense of the stew cooked in such a dish is later.
- Mealy potatoesUse a high-starch baking type such as russet, Maris Piper or King Edward. Waxy salad potatoes turn gluey when mashed hard and will not hold flutings.
- ProportionsOne egg yolk per pound of potato is the only fixed ratio given. Butter and cream are left to judgement: roughly 1 oz butter and 2 tablespoons cream per pound keeps the mash rich without loosening it. Add cream sparingly and stop while the mash still holds a peak.
- A quick ovenRoughly 400-450F. The point is to colour the egg wash fast, not to cook through, so watch it from about ten minutes and pull it when the ridges are brown.
- ShapingWork on the dish it will be served from, since the case cannot be moved once baked. Wet or lightly buttered hands stop the mash sticking; a piping bag fitted with a large star tube does the flutings more neatly than fingers if you prefer.
- The fillingRagout or mince should be cooked, thick and hot before it goes in, and added only at the moment of serving. Anything loose or lukewarm will soften the walls from the inside.
- YieldThe recipe gives no yield; two pounds of potato will build a case that should serve about four as a main course, or six alongside other dishes.
Moulded borders of this kind are often associated with the service à la russe dining of the later nineteenth century, when a made dish arrived at table already composed rather than being carved and portioned in front of the guests, though the connection is more traditional than demonstrated. Potato was the cheap version of the idea: French kitchens built the same cases from rice, forcemeat or short pastry, and the technique is a domestic descendant of the elaborate socles and croustades of professional cookery. Cassell's was aimed squarely at the middle-class household with one or two servants, and here the presentation is borrowed from grand cooking and rebuilt out of what was already in the larder. The hollow centre also had a practical use in a thrifty kitchen, since a mince made from yesterday's roast looks like a deliberate dish once it is served inside a browned and fluted case.