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Stuffed Potatoes
6 medium sized potatoes 3 tablespoons butter 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/8 teaspoon pepper 1/3 cup hot milk Wash the potatoes but do not cut. Bake from forty to forty-five minutes. When done lay the potatoes on the sides, with a sharp knife cut a thin slice from each; scrape out the potato, pass through a ricer or mash, mix with seasonings and beat until very light. Pack lightly into the potato shells, brush with a little white of egg and brown in a quick oven. Serve each with a tiny sprig of parsley on top.
A straightforward twice-baked potato from the era before ovens had dials. Two things need translating: the oven heat and the initial bake time.
- Oven temperatureThe first bake is unspecified; use 400F for russets. The "quick oven" for browning means 425-450F, which takes about 10-15 minutes once the shells are filled.
- Bake timeForty to forty-five minutes suggests fairly small potatoes. A 8-10 oz russet at 400F needs closer to an hour, until a skewer meets no resistance in the centre.
- Prick the skins"Wash the potatoes but do not cut" preserves an intact shell, but pierce each a few times with a fork before baking so steam escapes and the flesh stays dry rather than sodden.
- Work them hotScrape and rice the flesh while it is still steaming. Potato that has cooled mashes poorly and is more easily worked into a pasty texture, and the whole point of the ricer here is a light, dry mash.
- The milkA third of a cup for six potatoes is deliberately restrained; hot milk added gradually keeps the mixture stiff enough to hold its shape in the shell. Cold milk cools the mash and slackens it.
- Pack lightlyThe instruction is doing real work. Loosely mounded filling puffs and browns; compressed filling bakes into a dense plug.
- Egg white glazeBrushed white of egg gives a thin glossy crust. A little melted butter or grated cheese does the same job if you have no spare egg white.
- YieldSix whole stuffed shells, serving six as a side dish or three as a light supper.
Stuffed or twice-baked potatoes belong to the turn-of-the-century American interest in making a plain vegetable look composed enough for a served table. The Gold Medal Flour Cook Book, issued by the Washburn-Crosby milling company of Minneapolis, was one of many free or near-free promotional cookbooks distributed by flour millers. A ricer was among the tools of a well-equipped kitchen of the period, and its use in preference to mashing reflects the era's preoccupation with lightness in potato cookery.