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Casserole of Potatoes
Peel and boil some good mealy potatoes, mash them with a little salt, butter, cream, and the yolk of 1 egg to every pint of potatoes. Beat them two or three minutes over the fire to dry them thoroughly, then place them on a shallow dish, and work them with the hands into the shape of a raised pie. Leave a hollow in the middle, ornament it with flutings, etc., brush it over with beaten egg, and brown it in a quick oven. Fill the inside with a ragout or mince, and serve hot.
This is a potato case — a free-formed shell of stiff duchesse-style potato baked until browned, then filled at the table. The whole thing stands or falls on how dry the mash is.
- "Casserole" here means the case, not the dishIn nineteenth-century cookery the word could mean either a stewpan or a moulded shell of potato, rice or pastry built to hold a ragout. Here it is plainly the latter: nothing is baked in a covered pot.
- Dry the potatoes hardThe two or three minutes over the fire is the hinge of the recipe. A wet mash will slump in the oven and the walls will collapse, so keep stirring over low heat until the potato pulls away from the pan in a mass and no steam is rising.
- Choose the right potato"Mealy" means floury and high-starch — russets or a comparable baking potato. Waxy varieties give a gluey mash that will not hold a fluted edge.
- ProportionsOne egg yolk per pint of potato is the binding ratio; the recipe does not say whether the pint is measured before or after mashing, but a pint of mash is roughly two cups, in the region of a pound of potatoes. Butter and cream are to taste but stay sparing; every extra spoonful of liquid works against the structure.
- Quick ovenA "quick oven" is conventionally taken as somewhere around 400-450F. The case only needs to colour, so expect a fairly short time in the oven, since the potato is already cooked through.
- ShapingWork the potato while it is warm enough to be pliable but cool enough to handle, and build the walls thick enough to stand on their own. A piping bag with a large star tube gives the fluting more neatly than fingers.
- The egg washBrush lightly and get into the grooves; a heavy wash pools and sets to a shiny skin that browns unevenly.
- Filling and yieldFill only at the last moment, with a hot, fairly thick ragout; a wet sauce softens the walls within minutes. A pint of potato makes a small case, enough for a couple of servings at most, so scale up for a table.