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Potatoes, Scalloped
Mash some potatoes in the usual way with butter and a little hot milk. Butter some scallop-shells or patty-pans, fill them with the mashed potatoes, make these smooth on the top, and then draw the back of the fork over them. Sprinkle finely-grated bread-crumbs on the top, and lay small pieces of butter here and there upon them. Put the potatoes in a Dutch oven before the fire till they are brightly browned, and serve on a neatly-folded napkin in the scallop-shells. Time, about a quarter of an hour to brown the potatoes. Probable cost, 1d. or 1 1/2d. per pound. Sufficient, one scallop-shell for each person.
A straightforward duchesse-style potato browned in individual shells. The only real translation needed is the cooking vessel: the Dutch oven here is a reflector, not a pot.
- The Dutch ovenIn this period a Dutch oven is an open-fronted tin screen set before an open fire, which browns by radiant heat. The modern equivalent is a hot grill/broiler with the shells 4-6 inches from the element, or a 425F oven followed by a minute under the broiler for colour.
- Scallop-shells and patty-pansDeep scallop shells were sold as reusable bakeware and are still available; patty-pans are individual tartlet tins. Ramekins, small gratin dishes or a muffin tin all work, though the shell shape gives more surface for browning.
- The mash matters mostNothing here rescues a wet or gluey potato. Use a floury variety, dry the drained potatoes over low heat for a minute, and rice or mash them before adding warm butter and hot milk; cold milk cools the mixture and encourages beating, which turns it sticky.
- Fork marksDrawing the fork over the top is not decoration alone. The raised ridges catch the heat and brown first, which is where the dish gets its contrast in texture.
- Crumbs"Finely-grated bread-crumbs" implies dry crumbs grated from stale bread, closer to fine dried crumbs than to fresh panko. Fresh crumbs, being damper and coarser, will behave differently under fierce top heat and are more likely to colour unevenly.
- TimingA quarter of an hour is right for a fire screen; under a modern broiler the tops colour in 3-5 minutes. Watch them, as butter-dotted crumbs go from gold to black quickly.
- YieldOne shell per person, as stated. Reckon on roughly 1 1/2 lb potatoes, 2 oz butter and a few tablespoons of hot milk for six shells.
- Serving on a napkinThe folded napkin was standard service practice for dishes sent up in shells, and would have steadied them and caught any butter. It is worth keeping if you are serving in shells.
Scalloped originally meant cooked and served in a shell rather than layered with sauce, and the two senses coexisted through the nineteenth century; this entry belongs to the older one, with the real scallop shell still doing the work. Piped or forked mashed potato browned in individual portions recalls the duchesse potato of French professional kitchens, though without the egg yolk that dish depends on; English household books absorbed the idea as an inexpensive way to make a plain vegetable look composed on the table. Cassell's notes the cost at a penny or three-halfpence a pound, a reminder of how cheap potatoes were and that most of the recipe's value lay in presentation. The Dutch oven before the fire dates the method: it assumes a household still cooking at an open range, where browning was done by reflected heat.