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Creamed Raw Potatoes
Cut 6 raw potatoes into dice. Boil ten minutes in boiling salted water. Drain off the water. Add milk to cover, and let simmer until potatoes are tender. Then add 1 teaspoonful of butter, chopped parsley, salt and pepper. Shake well and serve.
A plain economy dish: potatoes finished in milk rather than in a separate white sauce, so the starch does the thickening. A few details in the original are worth pinning down.
- QuantitySix potatoes, if medium, would come to roughly 1 1/2 to 2 lb; on that basis the dish would serve about four as a side. The recipe itself states neither size nor yield.
- Dice sizeCut to about 1/2 inch. Larger cubes will still be raw in the middle when the milk has reduced; smaller ones collapse into a mash.
- The first boilTen minutes in salted water gives the potato a head start and takes off some surface starch. Drain it well before the milk goes in.
- Simmering in milkKeep the heat low and watch the pan. Milk scorches on the bottom of a thin pan and boils over in seconds, so a heavy saucepan helps. The recipe's shaking comes at the very end, after the butter and seasoning.
- Milk to coverThe amount depends on the pan; enough to just cover the dice. Whole milk gives better body than skim, and the potato starch will thicken it to a light sauce as the potatoes finish.
- Butter lastA teaspoonful is modest by modern habit, and the recipe adds it at the end with the parsley and seasoning.
- SeasoningThe recipe salts the first water and then seasons at the end; salting the milk as well is an option if you find milk-cooked potatoes bland.
Creaming was a common way of turning a cheap vegetable into something more substantial, and potatoes, milk and parsley were inexpensive. What distinguishes this version from creamed potatoes made with leftovers is that it starts raw: the potato gives up its starch directly into the milk, so no roux, no flour and no separately made white sauce are needed, which saves both an ingredient and a pan. Books of low-cost recipes were plentiful in the United States around the First World War and through the Depression, some issued by extension services, utility companies or charitable committees, and they often include one-pan vegetable dishes of this kind. The closing instruction is to shake rather than stir, which would keep the cooked dice intact.