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Potato Chips
Wash and peel the potatoes, taking out the eyes and specks, peel them very thinly in ribbons, twist them into fancy shapes, put them into a fryingbasket, and fry in boiling fat for about six minutes. You can cut the potatoes into slices, ribbons, straws, or julienne if you prefer it. Fry a few at a time, and then altogether a second time, to make all hot and crisp.
A late-Victorian description of the double-fry method, which is still the correct way to make chips. The original assumes you know the fat temperature by eye; that is the one thing worth pinning down.
- The hinge: two fries at two heatsThe hinge: two fryings -- The recipe frys a few at a time, then all of them again "to make all hot and crisp". Modern practice splits this by heat as well as by batch: a first, moderate fry to cook the potato through, and a brief second plunge into hotter fat to drive off surface moisture and crisp them. The original gives no temperatures. Frying once tends to give either pale, limp chips or a scorched outside over an undercooked centre.
- "Boiling fat"Fat does not boil at frying temperatures; the phrase means fat hot enough to bubble vigorously when food is added. Use a thermometer rather than the old test of a bread cube browning in a minute. Beef dripping and lard were both in common use in British kitchens of this period, and many cooks prefer their flavour to that of a neutral oil.
- Six minutesThat is right for the first fry of a thin ribbon or straw cut, but thicker cuts need longer. Judge by texture: the potato should be soft and just beginning to colour, not browned. The second fry is a matter of one to three minutes.
- Fry a few at a timeThe instruction is not fussiness. A crowded basket drops the fat temperature sharply and the potatoes stew in their own steam. Work in small batches for the first fry, then finish larger quantities together as the recipe says.
- Soak and dryNot mentioned here, but rinsing the cut potato in cold water removes surface starch, and drying it thoroughly on a cloth before frying prevents spitting and helps the crust set.
- The cutsRibbons are long thin peelings taken with a peeler; straws and julienne are matchsticks roughly 1/8 inch square; "chips" in this book means what an American reader would call fries or crisps depending on thickness, not a bagged snack.
- Potato choiceA floury or all-purpose variety (Maris Piper, King Edward, russet) fries better than a waxy salad potato, which stays dense and greasy.
- Salt and yieldSalt immediately out of the fat, while the surface is still oily enough to hold it. Reckon on one medium potato per person as a garnish, two as a side dish.
Fried potato in ribbons, straws and julienne belongs to the French-influenced professional kitchen that British and American cookery schools were teaching at the turn of the twentieth century, when the vocabulary of the restaurant supplied the terms: julienne. The double fry described here is generally credited to French practice and was well established in professional kitchens by this date, though the physics of it — gelatinising the starch first, then dehydrating and browning the surface — would not be explained for decades. The instruction to twist the ribbons into fancy shapes is a reminder that these were garnishes as much as a vegetable: a handful of golden curls piled beside a grill or a game bird, to be admired before eaten.