Creamed Potatoes

A skeleton recipe of the kind that assumes the cook already knows how to make white sauce. The proportions given are generous with potato and light on sauce, so the dish comes out coated rather than swimming.

• The white sauceThe recipe does not define "rich," and period usage is not consistent; it often signalled extra butter or cream rather than a set ratio. On the usual period scale, white sauce runs about 1 tablespoon each butter and flour per cup of milk for thin and 2 tablespoons per cup for medium, so choose accordingly. Cook the flour and butter a full minute or two before adding liquid or the sauce tastes pasty.
• ProportionsTwo cups of sauce to 6 or 8 medium potatoes works out at roughly a cup of sauce per pound at the low end of that range and rather less at the high end. Either way it is a light coating; if you want the looser, soupier version, go to 3 cups of sauce for the same quantity of potato.
• Cook the potatoes first, and undercook them slightlyCook the potatoes first -- The recipe says only "previously cooked" and does not specify how; boiling whole or halved, cooling, then dicing is the usual approach. Pull them while still firm at the centre, since they finish in the hot sauce and diced pieces boiled to softness collapse into paste.
• Potato varietyWaxy or all-purpose potatoes (red-skinned, Yukon Gold) hold their dice. Russets and other floury baking potatoes shed starch into the sauce and thicken it into glue.
• Seasoning"Season to taste" is left open; salt and white pepper are the conventional choice, and the sauce needs more salt than seems right because the potato absorbs it. A grating of nutmeg is traditional in a milk sauce and lifts the flavour.
• FinishingFold the potatoes into the hot sauce and warm through over low heat, stirring as little as possible. Add the parsley at the very end so it stays green rather than turning grey and grassy.
• YieldSix to eight medium potatoes with 2 cups of sauce serves six to eight as a side dish.