Potato Patties
INGREDIENTS for dish for 6 persons. lb. of mealy potatoes, 2 oz. of butter, pint of milk, 4 eggs, breadcrumbs. AVERAGE COST, 8d. Boil the potatoes, run them through a sieve, adding a little milk and the butter, melted and beaten to a cream. Boil the rest of the milk and pour it boiling over the potatoes, add seasoning of pepper and salt to taste, then stir over the fire into a smooth firm paste. Next add to it 2 wellbeaten eggs, and, when the mixture becomes cold, beat up with the yolks of the other 2 eggs, adding the whites of the eggs wellbeaten. Butter small patty-pans, sprinkle them with crumbs, fill them with the mixture, and bake a nice bright brown in a hot oven.
TIME.-Altogether, hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
The fractions have dropped out of this text at some point in its printing history, so the quantities need reconstructing from the method and from the stated cost and yield. What follows is a mashed-potato batter, lightened with beaten egg white, baked in individual tins.
- The missing fractionsThe fractions have gone, so the quantities can only be inferred: something like 1 lb of potatoes and ½ pint of milk suits the method, though other readings are possible. ½ pint imperial is 10 fl oz, roughly 1¼ US cups. Add the milk gradually rather than all at once.
- Mealy potatoesThis means a floury, high-starch variety — Maris Piper, King Edward, or russet in the US. Waxy salad potatoes will not sieve to a dry fluff and the patties will be gluey.
- A hot ovenTake this as 425F/220C. The patties want to set and colour quickly; a slack oven dries them out before they brown.
- The hinge: fold, don't beat, the whitesTwo whites whipped to soft peaks are the only lift in the dish. The instruction says "beat up with" but the mixture must be cold first and the whites folded in with a light hand, or the patties bake dense.
- Patty-pansSmall tartlet or deep bun tins, about 2 inches across. A standard 12-hole muffin tin, buttered and dusted with crumbs, works; fill each about two-thirds. Note that the recipe gives a dish for six persons, not a count of six patties, so the number of tins filled depends on their size.
- Stirring over the fireOnce the boiling milk goes in, the paste is worked over the heat until smooth and firm. As written, the first two eggs go into the hot paste and the remaining yolks and whites only when the mixture is cold; if you prefer, let it cool below hand-hot before any egg goes in.
- TimingThe time figure has dropped out along with the fractions, and "altogether" would normally cover the whole process rather than the baking alone. Reckon roughly 20-25 minutes in the oven, until the tops are evenly brown and the patties have risen slightly.
- SeasoningPepper and salt only, as written, but the mixture is bland by modern taste. Season the potato assertively before the eggs go in — grated nutmeg or a little Parmesan is entirely in period.
Potato patties of this kind sit at the point where the English kitchen borrowed a French technique: the potato is dried out over the fire with milk and butter and enriched with egg, exactly the method behind pommes duchesse and the fried pommes dauphine. Baking the mixture in buttered, crumbed patty-pans rather than piping or frying it is the thrifty domestic version — no deep fat, no pastry bag. Mrs Beeton died in 1865; later editions of Household Management and its spin-off volumes were continually revised and expanded by Ward, Lock and Co., which is why the same recipe can appear with different quantities and prices across printings.