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Potatoes, New, to Boil
INGREDIENTS.-Potatoes to each 1/2 gallon of water allow 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt.
AVERAGE COST, 2d. per lb.
Do not have the potatoes dug long before they are dressed, as they are never good when they have been out of the ground some time. Well wash them, rub off the skins with a coarse cloth, and put them into boiling water, salted in the above proportion. Let them boil until tender; try them with a fork, and when done, pour the water away from them; let them stand by the side of the fire with the lid of the saucepan partially removed, and when the potatoes are thoroughly dry, put them into a hot vegetable-dish, with a piece of butter the size of a walnut; pile the potatoes over this, and serve. If the potatoes are too old to have the skin rubbed off, boil them in their jackets; drain, peel and serve them as above, with a piece of butter placed in the midst of them.
To obtain this wholesome and delicious vegetable cooked in perfection it should be boiled and sent to table with the skin on.
In Ireland, where, perhaps, the cooking of potatoes is better understood than in any country, they are always served so. Wash the potatoes well, and, if necessary, use a clean scrubbing-brush to remove the dirt from them; and, if possible, choose the be had, forced, in March. potatoes so that they may all be as nearly the same size as possible. When thoroughly cleansed, fill the saucepan half full with them, and just cover the potatoes with cold water, salted in the above proportion; they are more quickly boiled with a small quantity of water, and, besides, are more savoury than when drowned in it.
Bring them to boil, then draw the pan to the side of the fire, and let them simmer gently until tender. Ascertain when they are done by probing them with a fork; then pour off the water, uncover the saucepan, and let the potatoes dry by the side of the fire, taking care not to let them burn.
Peel them quickly, put them in a very hot vegetable-dish, either with or without a napkin, and serve very quickly. After potatoes are cooked they should never be entirely covered up, as the steam, instead of escaping, falls down on them, and makes them watery and insipid. In Ireland, they are usually served up with the skins on, TIME. to hour, according to the size.
SEASONABLE in May and June, but may Potatoes, Fried. (French Fashion.) - INGREDIENTS. - Potatoes, hot butter or clarified dripping, salt.
Peel and cut the potatoes into thin slices, as nearly the same size as possible, or in ribbons with a cutter; make some butter or dripping hot in a frying-pan; put in the potatoes, and fry them on both sides until nearly cooked. Now take the potatoes out of the fat, make the fat quite boiling, then throw in the potatoes for a minute or two until sufficiently done. The immersion of the vegetable in the grease a second time, after it is partially cooked, causes it to puff or "gonfler," as the French say, which is the desired appearance for properly-dressed fried potatoes to possess. When they are crisp and done, take them up, place them on a cloth before the fire to drain the grease from them, and serve very hot, after sprinkling them with salt. These are generally served with pheasants and other POTATOES, COOKING. game-birds as a garnish, they are also delicious with rump-steak, and, in France, are frequently served thus as a breakfast dish.
The remains of cold potatoes may also be sliced and fried by the above recipe, but the slices must be cut a little thicker.
TIME.-Sliced raw potatoes, 5 minutes; cooked potatoes, 5 minutes.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Two recipes sit on this page: new potatoes boiled and dried, and the French twice-fried slices. The hinge in both is drying — steam left on a boiled potato makes it watery, and wet potato slices will not puff in fat.
- Salt proportionA heaped tablespoon to the gallon is roughly 20 g in 4.5 litres (an imperial gallon), which is lightly seasoned water by modern standards. If you are boiling potatoes in their skins, closer to 10 g per litre gives more noticeable seasoning.
- The time is garbledThe original reads "TIME. to hour", the fraction having dropped out in printing. New potatoes of even size take about 15 to 25 minutes at a gentle simmer, older jacket potatoes 25 to 35; the fork test in the text is the reliable guide.
- "By the side of the fire"This means low, indirect heat, not the hot centre of the range. On a modern hob, return the drained pan to the lowest burner setting for a minute or two, lid ajar, and shake once or twice.
- Little water, not drownedThe instruction to just cover the potatoes is sound and worth keeping. Less water means less leaching of flavour and starch, and the pan comes to temperature faster.
- Rubbing off the skinsThis only works on genuinely new potatoes, dug within a day or two, whose skins are still feathery. Supermarket "new" potatoes have usually set their skins; scrub and boil them in their jackets as the second half of the recipe directs.
- Clarified dripping and butterWhole butter will burn before the potatoes crisp. Use clarified butter, beef dripping or a neutral oil with a high smoke point.
- The double fryingFirst fry gently, around 300-325F, to cook the slices through without colour; lift them out, bring the fat to 375-400F, and return them briefly to blister and crisp. The "gonfler" the text promises depends on thin, evenly cut slices and is unreliable at the best of times.
- DrainingA cloth before the fire is now a wire rack or paper in a low oven. Salt the moment they come out of the fat, while the surface is still hot enough to take it.
- YieldNeither recipe gives quantities. Reckon 175-225 g of potato per person as a side dish, less for the fried slices when they are serving as a garnish to game.
Mrs Beeton's insistence that potatoes be boiled and sent to table in their skins, with a nod to Ireland as the country "where, perhaps, the cooking of potatoes is better understood than in any country", was a commonplace of Victorian cookery writing, as it was within living memory of the Famine of the 1840s, when Ireland's dependence on the crop had proved catastrophic. The price note of 2d. a pound is attached to the entry for new potatoes of May and June; the aside about forced potatoes to be had in March points to the market gardens and hotbeds that supplied London with out-of-season produce long before refrigerated shipping. The fried recipe shares its method with pommes soufflées, whose invention is traditionally attributed to a French railway kitchen in the 1830s; whatever the truth of that story, the technique of two immersions at different heats — cook first, colour second — is the same principle behind every good chip made since.