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Dabble
Peel, wash and drain 4 rather large potatoes and cut into long, thin shreds with a fluted vegetable cutter, or slice, then cut into strips. Season them, after washing and drying, with 1½ of a teaspoonful of salt and ¼ of a teaspoonful of white pepper. Have ready 1/3 of a cupful of grated Parmesan or dry American cheese.
Butter a number of patty pans, and fill them with alternate layers of the potatoes and cheese; over the top of each drop 1 tablespoonful of melted butter. Stand the pans on the top of a hot stove for two minutes, then place in a hot oven, and bake for twenty-five minutes. Send to the table in the little dishes.
A potato-and-cheese gratin baked in individual tins, from the era when every household had a set of patty pans. The method is sound; only the equipment and the vague quantities need translating.
- Patty pansThese are small individual tins, roughly the size of a modern muffin cup or a 3-inch tartlet mould. A standard 12-cup muffin tin works, as do ramekins set on a baking sheet; four potatoes will fill six to eight of them.
- A hot ovenRead that as roughly 400-425F. Twenty-five minutes at that heat should cook thin shreds through and brown the top; thicker slices will need longer, so test with a knife tip.
- The two minutes on the stoveSetting the filled pans on the range top before baking would start the base heating on a solid cast-iron stove plate. On a modern hob, put the tin in the oven while it preheats, or simply skip the step and add a few minutes to the bake.
- Seasoning amountsThe printed '1½' and '14' of a teaspoonful look like mangled fractions. For four large potatoes, read them as about half a teaspoonful of salt and a quarter of a teaspoonful of white pepper.
- Dry American cheeseThis means an aged, firm Cheddar-type cheese hard enough to grate to a powder, not the processed slices the phrase now suggests. A well-aged Cheddar, Gruyere or the Parmesan given as the first option all work.
- Cutting the potatoesA fluted vegetable cutter gives crinkle-cut strips; a mandoline or a firm hand with a knife gives the same result. Keep the shreds thin and uniform, around an eighth of an inch, or the centres will still be raw when the cheese has burned.
- Dry them properlyWashing removes surface starch, but any water left on the potato steams instead of browning. Pat the strips thoroughly dry in a towel before seasoning.
- YieldSix to eight small moulds, enough as a side dish for four.
Individual baked dishes of this kind are often said to have been a mark of careful table service in late nineteenth and early twentieth century cookery, when serving each diner a portion in its own little tin signalled more attention than a single shared dish. The instruction to "send to the table in the little dishes" is the point of the recipe as much as the potatoes are. Patty pans were originally for pastry cases, and were put to other uses as well. The economy here is real: four potatoes and a third of a cup of hard cheese, stretched by the grating so that a small amount of an expensive ingredient flavours the whole.