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Potatoes in Cases
Wash half a dozen large potatoes, and bake them in a moderate oven. When done enough, cut a round the size of a crown from the top of each, and carefully scoop out the inside, though not so as to leave the skin quite bare. Rub the pulp through a colander, and mix with it an ounce of butter, two table-spoonfuls of milk, and a little pepper and salt. Stir the mixture over the fire until it is hot, then add the white of an egg beaten to a froth. Rub the skin of the potatoes with butter, fill them with the mixture, put the lids in their places, and bake the potatoes in a quick oven. If liked, the potato-cases can be filled with minced meat or forcemeat instead of mashed potatoes. Time to bake the potatoes, two hours at first, afterwards until quite hot. Probable cost, 4d. Sufficient for two or three persons.
A twice-baked potato in all but name, lightened with whipped egg white. The Victorian timings are the only part that needs real attention.
- Oven temperaturesThe book gives no figures. "Moderate" is usually reckoned at roughly 350F/175C for the first bake; "quick" at roughly 400-425F/200-220C for the return to the heat. The second, hotter bake is what sets the egg white and browns the tops.
- Two hours is too longSolid-fuel ranges were less steady and often cooler than a thermostat, which may account for the figure. Large baking potatoes take 60-75 minutes at 350F, or about 50 minutes at 400F. Test with a skewer rather than a clock.
- A crownThe coin, not the headwear: about an inch and a half across. Cut the lid wide enough to get a spoon in without splitting the shell.
- Leave a wallThe instruction not to scrape the skin bare is the hinge of the dish. Leave 3-4mm of potato attached all round or the case collapses when you refill it.
- Butter and milkAn ounce of butter is 2 tablespoons. Two tablespoons of milk for six potatoes is sparing by modern taste; the mixture should be stiff enough to hold the egg white, so add more only if it is genuinely dry.
- The egg whiteBeat to soft peaks and fold it in off the heat, after the mash has been warmed through. Stirring it into a pan over the flame will cook it into threads and lose the lift.
- YieldSix potatoes serving two or three people reflects a period side dish of some substance. As a modern side they will stretch to six.
- The meat variationIf filling with minced meat or forcemeat, it must be cooked through before it goes into the shells; the second bake is only long enough to heat and brown.
Cassell's places this among the economical vegetable dishes of the late Victorian kitchen, where the potato skin does the work of a pastry case and costs nothing. The technique is the same one behind the modern twice-baked potato. The note about filling the cases with minced meat or forcemeat is telling, and the "probable cost, 4d" that Cassell's attaches to nearly every entry was aimed squarely at mistresses budgeting a household to the penny.