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Garnish, Potatoes Fried For
Choose large potatoes. Peel them, and cut them into slices, about the eighth of an inch in thickness. Wash, and dry them in a cloth. Heat enough dripping to cover them entirely. As soon as it boils and is still, put in the potatoes, a few at a time; shake them to ensure their being evenly cooked. When lightly browned and crisp, drain them from the fat, sprinkle a little salt over, and serve. Time, ten minutes to fry. Probable cost, 2d. per pound. Allow half a pound for each person.
A Victorian recipe for what we would call crisps or thick-cut chips, intended as a garnish around a joint or grill rather than a side dish in its own right. Almost everything hinges on the state of the fat.
- "As soon as it boils and is still"Dripping foams while the water in it cooks off, then goes quiet and shimmers. That stillness is the signal the fat is dry enough to fry rather than stew. The recipe gives no temperature; a thermometer takes the guesswork out, with the usual frying range put at 350-375F.
- DrippingBeef dripping was the default frying fat in a Victorian kitchen and gives a distinct savoury flavour. Any high-smoke-point fat works, but if you want the original result use rendered beef fat; refrigerated dripping is still sold in the UK.
- Slice thicknessAn eighth of an inch is about 3 mm, thin enough to crisp through in a single fry. A mandoline gives the evenness the recipe assumes. Thicker slices will need the double-fry treatment the recipe does not describe.
- Dry them properlyThe cloth is not optional. Surface water hitting hot fat spits and drops the temperature, and damp slices go limp instead of crisp. Pat hard, then let them sit a few minutes in the air.
- A few at a timeCrowding the pan collapses the fat temperature and the potatoes absorb it rather than seal. Fry in small batches, let the fat recover between them, and keep finished slices on a rack rather than paper so steam escapes.
- The ten minutesMost likely a working figure for the whole operation rather than per batch, though the recipe does not say. Thin slices at proper heat are lightly browned in three or four minutes; pull them when the bubbling slows and the edges colour.
- Salt timingSalt straight out of the fat while the surface is still slightly oily, or it will not stick.
- QuantityHalf a pound per person is what the recipe allows. As a garnish or a snack today, 4-6 oz of raw potato per person is plenty.
Cassell's gives this under garnishes rather than vegetables, which suggests how fried potatoes could be used in a late-Victorian English kitchen: a decorative crisp element banked around a steak, a cutlet or a grilled chop, in the same category as fried parsley or croutons. The technique is generally said to have reached British cookery by way of France, where fried potatoes were established street and restaurant food during the nineteenth century. The costing is the giveaway to the period: twopence a pound for potatoes places this among the cheapest things a cook could put on a plate, which is precisely why a book aimed at middle-class households recommends half a pound a head without hesitation.