Potato
The place of the potato in the English dinner has been discussed when treating of bread, and the place it holds on the French dinner-table. On account of the badness of English bread, the potato has largely displaced it at English tables; and it is now to be added that, on account of the badness of other vegetables in English cooking, the potato has gained a further importance far beyond its merits. (See Bread; also Vegetables.) Yet, with all this exaggerated importance, English cooks cannot make the potato important enough to be eaten by itself. Go into a first-rate restaurant in Paris-say the Café Anglais and at the end of dinner ask, by way of entremet, for a simple dish of potatoes tossed in butter: it will turn out a beautiful little dish, and it will be charged in the bill two or two-and-a-half francs. A couple of shillings for three potatoes! Who will pay that price in England, where the potato is vaunted so much? The French pay the price freely-which shows that they set a higher value on a good potato than we do, though they do not eat so many of them, nor suffer them to take the place of bread and to dominate over other vegetables.
Boiled Potatoes. - The Irish way-that is, cooked and served in their jackets-or, as the French say, en robe de chambre. The potatoes are to be all of a size, and to be well washed and brushed, but they are in no way to be touched with a knife, even to clear what are called the eyes. Pour cold water over them, just enough to cover them, and when it boils, add plenty of salt-a large teaspoonful for a quart of water. Simmer them gently with a tight lid: the length of time will depend on the size and kind of the potatoes, -it may be from twenty to forty-five minutes; but the last two or three minutes they should be made to boil rapidly. Prick them with a fork, to see if they are done enough. Then lift off the lid and put the pot aside, to let all the moisture escape in steam. The Irish Potato will have them sent to table as they are in their skins. Ordinary mortals have them peeled before being served. The English way. Choose them all of a size, peel them, and remove the eyes and other specks; cover them with cold water (but there is to be no salt at this stage), and simmer them very gently-the slower the better. They have to be watched very carefully towards the last, to see that they do not boil a minute more than is necessary, - and this can only be ascertained by probing with a fork. Pour off all the water, strew salt on the potatoes, and leave the pot uncovered by the fire, shaking it from time to time till the potatoes seem all dry and floury.
Potatoes Browned with roast meat.-Peel them, parboil them, drain them, flour them, and put them in an earthen dish into the dripping pan under the meat. Baste them freely from time to time, and when they are browned on one side turn them.
Fried Potatoes. Kidney potatoes are best for this pur pose, and a kettleful of beef fat. But in English kitchens the fried potatoes are very uncertain, because they are cut in too thin slices; also because they are done in a flat frying-pan, with a sparing supply of butter or dripping. Instead of cutting the potatoes, like the English, into shillings, French cooks cut them into square plugs, about the length and thickness of the little finger. These are put into a wire basket and dipped into the kettle of boiling fat, where they remain for five minutes, and are shaken from time to time the kettle resting on the stove, with only its edge on the stove fire. During these five minutes, however, the fat has been cooling, partly through the coldness of the potatoes immersed in it, partly through the kettle being removed from the central heat of the stove fire to its edge. Therefore, at the end of five minutes, take out the wire basket, and put the frying-kettle over the stove fire, to heat up. Take it off again so as to rest as before on Potato the stove, with only its edge over the fire; put back the wire basket into it, and in two minutes more the frying will be complete, and the potatoes beautifully crisp, of a rich golden colour. The whole time for frying should be as nearly as possible seven minutes not counting, of course, the time required for re-heating the fat. The salting is not to take place till the last. Shake some salt over them in the wire basket, give a shake of the basket, and then another shake of salt. Let all the fat drain away, and then serve.
Potatoes Soufflées. These are done precisely as the fried potatoes, and the inflation depends wholly on the manner of cutting them. Cut in square plugs, the potatoes will not inflate; cut in slices the eighth of an inch thick, they will. It is best to cut them lengthwise, in slices of equal thickness; and when putting these slices into the fat, care must be taken that they do not adhere one to another. Potatoes à la Maître d'Hôtel. It is a great fault in the preparation of these potatoes that English cooks will make them pasty by putting flour with them-that is, they do them with maître d'hôtel sauce instead of with maître d'hôtel butter. French kidney potatoes are the best to use. Boil them in the ordinary way, and cut them in slices about the eighth of an inch thick. Put two pounds of them into a stewpan, with two spoonfuls of broth and four ounces of maître d'hôtel butter or its ingredients that is, four ounces of fresh butter, with pepper, salt, chopped parsley, and lemon-juice. Toss all over the fire until the butter is melted and well mixed in with the potatoes. Potatoes tossed in butter (sautées au beurre).-1. These are for the most part boiled potatoes, sliced, seasoned lightly with pepper and salt, and tossed in butter to a golden tint. The chief difference between them and the potatoes à la Potato maître d'hôtel is that the latter are not allowed to brown. Potatoes cooked in this way are generally of the kidney kind; but if the round mealy ones-Regents, that break on tossing, and are all the more saturated with the buttershould be used, they will come as a pleasant surprise. English cooks stint the butter for this dish; the potatoes come dry to table, and nobody cares much about them French cooks are liberal with the butter; and the result is so excellent, that in Paris nobody thinks anything of paying from 1 to 2½ francs for three potatoes done in this fashion. 2. Sometimes, however, raw potatoes are done in this way, after being peeled and cut into slices. This is what is set down in many English cookery books as fried potatoes. But the quantity of butter used is so niggardly that the result is in most cases a failure. 3. The raw potatoes which are most commonly cooked in this way are the new ones. The skins are to be rubbed off with a coarse cloth; the potatoes are to be cast into water and wiped dry. Melt butter in a shallow stewpan; put the potatoes into it, giving them room enough; fry them very slowly, turning them from time to time, and taking care that there is butter enough to cover them at least a third. When the potatoes are golden of tint and done enough, remove them from the butter in which they have cooked, and put them into another stewpan with two or three ounces of fresh butter. Toss them without letting this new butter fry. Dish them, pour the butter over them, and sprinkle them with salt.
Lyonnese Potatoes (Pommes-de-terre à la Lyonnaise). - These are cooked potatoes combined with cooked onions. The combination is made in several ways; but the best and simplest is to take onions, to chop or slice them finely, to fry them in butter, to add to them more butter, together with boiled potatoes in slices, and to proceed as for the Potato potatoes tossed in butter, No. 1, not forgetting the pepper and salt.
Mashed Potatoes (Potato purée). - Mealy potatoes are best. These, when boiled in the usual way, are generally rubbed down by English cooks with the back of a wooden spoon. French cooks press them through a wire sieve, which ensures a finer grain. The mash is then put into a stewpan, with fresh butter, cream or very good milk, sometimes a spoonful of broth, pepper, salt, and it may be nutmeg; and it is vigorously stirred over the fire, to make it light.
Potato Croquettes. - Take six potatoes that have passed through the sieve; put them into a stewpan with an ounce of butter, two yolks of eggs, pepper, nutmeg and salt, and stir them well for a few minutes over the fire. They should then be put aside between two plates, to get cold. When required for use they should be rolled into shapes-corks, balls, and the like-dipped in beaten egg, rolled in breadcrumbs, and fried in hot fat. Potatoes for the Duchess. - Prepare the potatoes as for croquettes. Shake some flour upon a pasteboard, and upon this shape the potato purée into little oval cakes; fry them first on one side, then on the other, in clarified butter, and drain them on a cloth.
Potato Dumplings (Klosse in German). - Pass a pound of cold potatoes through a sieve, mix them with two ounces of flour, four yolks and two whites of eggs, pepper, salt, nutmeg, and a dash of sugar. Knead all well together, shape them like turkeys' eggs, and drop them into boiling salt and water. In ten minutes they are ready, and make an agreeable garnish.
Potato Salad.-Kidney potatoes boiled and cut in slices. They may be combined with boiled celeriac, onion, beetroot-any, or all. They may also be combined with raw Poulette Sauce celery, and with red cabbage which has boiled for fifteen minutes in water with an extra allowance of salt, and which has been allowed to soak afterwards in a wineglassful of vinegar. Potato Soup. Make a purée of three pounds of mealy potatoes, and mix it with two quarts of boiling broth, adding pepper and salt. Boil it for five minutes, removing any scum that may rise, and finish the soup with a piece of butter. Some people enjoy a flavour of onion in this soup-in which case mince finely two ounces, fry them lightly, and let them stew in the soup for ten minutes.