Potatoes, to Steam
INGREDIENTS.-Potatoes; boiling water.
This mode of cooking potatoes is now much in vogue, particularly where they are wanted on a large scale, it being so very convenient. Pare the potatoes, throw them into cold water as they are peeled, then put them into a steamer. Place the steamer over a saucepan of boiling water, and steam the potatoes from 20 to 40 minutes, according to the size and sort. When a fork goes easily through them, they are done; then take them up, dish, and serve very quickly.
TIME.-20 to 40 minutes.
SEASONABLE all the year, but not so good whilst new potatoes are in season.
A method rather than a formula, and one that still works exactly as written. The only real variables are potato size and variety.
- TimingTwenty to forty minutes covers whole medium potatoes. Halved or quartered pieces are tender in 15 to 20 minutes; check with a skewer rather than trusting the clock, since a fork can split a floury potato before the centre is cooked.
- Uniform sizeBeeton gives a wide range because time varies with 'the size and sort'. Cutting everything to roughly equal size narrows the spread, though variety still affects the result.
- Why the cold waterDropping peeled potatoes into cold water stops them browning at the cut surfaces. Do not leave them soaking for hours, though, or they lose starch and turn watery.
- Keep the lid onThe steamer needs a tight lid and water at a genuine boil below it. A slack simmer lengthens the cooking and can leave potatoes dense at the centre.
- Serve at onceThe instruction to "serve very quickly" is the hinge. Steamed potatoes hold surface moisture and go clammy if they sit; take them straight up and dish them.
- VarietyFloury potatoes (Maris Piper, russet, King Edward) steam best and mash afterwards without gluing. Waxy new potatoes are usually better boiled in their skins, which may be behind Beeton's remark that the method is not so good while new potatoes are in season.
- QuantityReckon 6 to 8 oz of peeled potato per person as a side dish, and do not crowd the layers, since crowded potatoes steam unevenly.
Steaming potatoes on a scale seems to have been a Victorian institution rather than a domestic novelty — Beeton's remark that the method is "much in vogue, particularly where they are wanted on a large scale" suggests kitchens cooking for large numbers, where a tall steamer set over a single boiler could save the labour of tending several cauldrons. The advantage over boiling is straightforward: steamed potatoes do not waterlog or break up in the pan, and they do not need draining, which matters when the vessel is a large one. The seasonal note is worth reading as a piece of nineteenth-century produce knowledge. Potatoes were stored through winter, growing drier and more floury, which suits steaming; the waxy early crop dug in early summer was traditionally boiled in its skin and eaten within a day or two of lifting.