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Pommes Chateaux
Ingredients.
Two pounds of Potatoes.
Two ounces of Butter.
Salt. Wash the potatoes in cold water, scrape them and cut them into shapes like the quarters of an orange. Put them into a saucepan of cold water, and just let them boil up; then strain them and wipe them dry on a clean cloth. Put two ounces of butter into a stewpan, and toss the potatoes in it for about twenty minutes over a quick fire; they should brown on all sides alike. Strain off the butter, sprinkle some salt over the potatoes, and serve.
A straightforward turned-potato garnish that lives or dies on the shaping and on keeping the butter from burning. Everything else is timing.
- The hinge: cut them all the same sizeThe recipe asks for "shapes like the quarters of an orange," i.e. even segments cut down with a small knife (later classical practice turns the same potato into a barrel). Whatever the shape, evenness of bulk is what matters. If the pieces vary, some will be dark before others are cooked through, and there is no rescuing them once the butter is hot.
- Blanching, not boiling"Just let them boil up" is a brief blanch from cold water — bring to the boil and drain immediately. The point is to set the surface and shorten the frying time, not to cook the potato. Drying them thoroughly on a cloth matters; wet potatoes steam instead of colouring.
- "A quick fire" and twenty minutesA quick fire is high heat, but two ounces of butter over twenty minutes will scorch on a modern gas or induction hob. Work at a steady medium, turn the pieces often, and if the milk solids start to darken, add a spoonful of oil or clarified butter to raise the tolerance.
- Pan and quantityA "stewpan" of the period is a heavy pan, usually deeper and straighter-sided than a modern sauté pan; for this job use whatever heavy pan is widest. Two pounds of potatoes need room for a single layer — crowd them and they steam. Cook in two batches rather than piling them up.
- Choice of potatoUse a firm, waxy or all-purpose potato that will hold a turned shape. Floury baking potatoes crumble at the edges as they are tossed and will not brown evenly.
- Salt at the endThe recipe salts after the butter is strained off. Salting late is in any case the safer course, since salt draws moisture to the surface and moisture works against browning.
- YieldShaping the potatoes throws away a fair proportion of them, perhaps a quarter to a third by weight. Reckon on four to six side portions; keep the trimmings for soup or mash.
Pommes château belong to the vocabulary of classical French garnishes, and this book's phrasing — stewpan, quick fire, strain off the butter — is the language of professional instruction. The name is generally traced to the garniture château, a set-piece accompaniment to grilled or roast meat, and the potato is one of a family of turned shapes graded chiefly by size: cocotte smallest, then château, then the larger fondante. Turning vegetables into regular barrel forms was a mark of a trained kitchen rather than a domestic one — it consumes both time and potato. The technique survives in professional kitchens today largely as a test of knife control.