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Pommes de Terre Farcies aux
fines Herbes. (Savoury Potatoes Stuffed.) Ingredients.
Twelve round new Potatoes.
Breadcrumbs. Thyme. Chives, Shalot and Parsley.
Yolk of one Egg.
A tablespoonful of Cream.
Two ounces of Butter.
This entry survives as a heading and an ingredient list only hough is typical of the terse professional manuals of the period, where the method was assumed known. The quantities are workable, but you will be supplying the technique yourself.
- No method givenThe original prints only the ingredients. The standard treatment for pommes de terre farcies is to bake or boil the potatoes, halve or cap them, scoop out the centres leaving a shell, mash the flesh with the flavourings and butter, refill, and return to the oven to brown.
- Fines herbesIn classic French usage this means finely chopped fresh parsley, chervil, chives and tarragon. The list here substitutes thyme and shallot for chervil and tarragon, which is an Anglicised reading; use whichever combination you prefer, but chop them fine and add them late so they keep their colour.
- ShalotAn older spelling of shallot. One small shallot is ample for twelve potatoes; raw shallot in a stuffing can dominate, so soften it in a little of the butter first.
- Twelve round new potatoesNew potatoes are waxy and hold their shape when hollowed, which may be why they are specified, though the recipe gives no reason. Choose ones of even size so they cook at the same rate. Twelve serves four to six as a side dish.
- BreadcrumbsUnspecified quantity. In this kind of stuffing they serve to bind and to top; two to three tablespoons worked into the mixture and a light dusting over the surface before browning will answer.
- Oven heatThe original specifies no oven at all. Working from a modern oven, bake the potatoes through at about 375F, then brown the filled shells in a hot oven of about 425F for eight to ten minutes, or a few minutes under the grill.
- Egg yolk and creamThe yolk sets in the oven and stops the filling slumping; the tablespoon of cream keeps it from drying. Both go in while the potato flesh is still hot, off the heat, so the yolk thickens rather than scrambles.
History: Stuffed potatoes belong to the repertoire of garnitures -- small, shaped, individually finished vegetable dishes that let a kitchen send out something more considered than a bowl of boiled potatoes. The French naming here is not affectation: English high-class cookery of the later nineteenth century worked in a professional idiom borrowed from the French kitchen, and cookery books aimed at ambitious households and their cooks often printed titles in French with a bracketed English gloss, exactly as this page does. The listing of ingredients without a method is also found in books written for cooks already trained.