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Cheese and Potatoes
2 ozs. (1/2 cupful) grated cheese 1 tablespoonful chopped olives 1 cupful mashed potatoes 2 egg yolks I heaping tablespoonful (I oz.) butter Salt and pepper to taste 1 tablespoonful finely chopped parsley Beat up the yolks of eggs, melt the butter and add it to them, with the parsley, potatoes, cheese, pickles, and seasonings.
Turn into a buttered fireproof dish, brush over with the whites stiffly beaten, mark with a fork or knife, and bake in a hot oven till brown.
A small, rich potato-and-cheese gratin bound with yolks and gilded with beaten whites. It is a use for leftover mashed potato as much as a recipe in its own right.
- Olives or picklesThe ingredient list calls for a tablespoonful of chopped olives, but the method asks for pickles. Either works; pick one and use a tablespoon of it, finely chopped and well drained so the mixture does not go wet.
- Hot ovenRead this as roughly 400-450F. The mixture is largely cooked already, so the oven is mainly setting the yolks and browning the beaten whites on top; a short bake, on the order of ten to fifteen minutes, should do it.
- Fireproof dishOvenproof earthenware or heat-resistant glass. Any shallow gratin dish will do here, as nothing goes over direct heat.
- Cheese quantityTwo ounces grated is about half a cup loosely packed. A dry, sharp cheese — aged Cheddar, or a hard grating cheese — gives more flavour than the quantity suggests.
- Butter measureA heaping tablespoonful is given as one ounce, so two level tablespoons of modern butter. Melt it but do not let it get hot enough to scramble the yolks when combined.
- The whitesBeat them stiff and brush or spread them over the surface, then score with a fork so the ridges catch colour. This is the hinge of the dish: a thin, even layer browns; a thick one puffs and then collapses damply.
- Potato textureCold mashed potato stiffens and will not blend smoothly with the yolks. Warm it slightly, or work it loose with a fork before adding the other ingredients.
- YieldOne cup of potato makes a modest amount — two servings as a light supper dish, three or four as a side. Scale up in a wider dish rather than a deeper one.
Casserole cookery books proliferated in the first decades of the twentieth century, when flameproof earthenware and the new heat-resistant glassware made it practical for a household to cook and serve in the same vessel — a genuine saving of washing-up and of fuel in kitchens moving from coal ranges to gas. Recipes like this one show the other half of the appeal: they are frugal. A cup of leftover mashed potato, two ounces of cheese and a couple of eggs become a hot dish for the table, with the whites that would otherwise be wasted put to work as a browning glaze.