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Potatoes, Steamed
Wash and pare some fully-grown potatoes, and as they are done throw them into cold water. Drain them, put them into a steamer, and place this over a saucepan of boiling water. Cover closely, and keep the water boiling until they are done enough. When a fork will pierce them easily they are ready. Shake the steamer over a bowl for a minute to give the potatoes a floury appearance, and serve very hot. In order to steam potatoes it is, of course, necessary that the steamer should be made to fit the saucepan which contains the boiling water. Time, twenty to forty minutes, according to the quality of the potatoes. Probable cost, 1d. to 1 1/2d. per pound. Sufficient, two pounds for four or five persons.
A method rather than a recipe, and one that still works better than boiling for floury potatoes. A few of its assumptions need translating.
- The hinge: keep the steam constantThe instruction to cover closely and keep the water boiling is the whole technique. A steamer that loses steam through a gap or a lifted lid stalls, and the potatoes cook slowly and unevenly.
- "Fully-grown potatoes"This means maincrop rather than new potatoes — floury varieties such as Maris Piper, King Edward or Russet. Waxy salad potatoes will not give the dry, mealy result the recipe is aiming at.
- The cold water bathPeeled potatoes are dropped into cold water to stop them browning. Drain and pat them dry before steaming; surface water simply prolongs the time before the steam does any work.
- TimeTwenty to forty minutes is still right for whole potatoes; the recipe puts the variation down to the quality of the potatoes, though size accounts for much of it. Cut into even 2-inch pieces they will be done in 15 to 20. Test with a skewer at the thickest point rather than by the clock.
- Shaking the steamerSteaming leaves surface moisture; the shaking drives it off and roughs up the outsides so they look floury. A modern equivalent is to return the drained potatoes to the dry hot pan off the heat for a minute, lid off, and let the steam escape.
- Fitting the steamerThe insistence that the steamer fit the saucepan may reflect a kitchen of individually bought pans. A folding metal basket or a bamboo steamer over any pan does the job, so long as the water sits below the base of the basket.
- Yield and costTwo pounds for four or five people is a generous side portion by modern standards; 1 1/2 lb serves four alongside anything substantial. The costing of a penny to three halfpence a pound is a period artefact and of no present use.
Steaming was often urged in Victorian and Edwardian household books as the thrifty, wholesome alternative to boiling: it is generally said not to leach the potato into the cooking water, and to be far more forgiving of the moment the cook's attention wanders. The costing in pence a pound is a reminder of how central the potato appears to have been to the ordinary British table by the late nineteenth century — cheap enough to be quoted by the pound rather than the piece.