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Potatoes, Beignets Of
Take some potatoes; bake them, take off their jackets and pound them with a little salt, cream, a little butter, and a glass of brandy till the paste is so thick as to be easily formed into balls. A beaten egg should be added whilst pounding. Let the paste cool. Form it into balls, brush these over with egg, fry them in very hot fat, and serve with sugar sifted over them.
A sweet potato fritter of the sort Victorian kitchens made from leftover baked potatoes. The hinge is the texture of the paste: it must be stiff and thoroughly cold before it goes near the fat, or the balls will collapse and drink oil.
- "A glass of brandy"In this period a wine glass is usually reckoned at about 2 fl oz. That is plenty for about 1 lb of potato; much of the alcohol will cook off in the fat, leaving the flavour.
- Bake, do not boilBaking is specified for a reason: it drives off moisture, and a drier potato makes a paste that holds its shape. Boiled potato gives a slack mixture that will not ball up.
- PoundingWork the hot potato through a ricer or sieve rather than beating it hard in a mortar. Overworked potato turns gluey as the starch cells rupture, and the fritters go heavy and elastic inside.
- QuantitiesNone are given. For about 1 lb of baked potato flesh, allow 2 tbsp cream, 1 oz butter, 1 whole egg and 1/2 tsp salt, adding the cream last and only as needed to bring it together.
- Cooling is not optionalChill the paste until firm, at least an hour. Warm paste will not take an egg wash cleanly and tends to burst in the fryer.
- "Very hot fat"The book gives no temperature; in modern terms aim for around 375F. Below that the balls absorb fat before the outside sets; much above it and the coating colours before the centre heats through. Fry in small batches so the temperature holds.
- Yield and servingAbout 16 to 18 walnut-sized balls from 1 lb of potato. Dust with caster or icing sugar the moment they come out of the fat and serve at once, as a sweet entremets or with stewed fruit.
Beignet is simply the French word for a fritter, and by the late nineteenth century English cookery books used it for almost anything shaped and deep-fried, from apple slices to leftover rice. Sweetened potato preparations appear in cookery books of this period: baked potato was cheap and plentiful, and sugar and brandy turned it into something presentable at the end of a meal rather than a plain vegetable. The sugar dusting, which reads oddly to modern taste alongside potato and salt, was standard treatment for fried sweet fritters and reflects a kitchen where the line between vegetable and pudding was drawn rather differently than it is now.