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Potato Dice
Boil your potatoes and let them be of the firm, soapy kind, not the floury kind. When cooked, and cold, cut them into dice, and toss them in the following sauce: Take equal quantities of salad oil and cream, a quarter of that amount of tarragon vinegar, a pinch of salt, and a few chopped capers. Mix very well, and pour it on the dice. You may very this by using cream only, in which case omit the vinegar. Season with pepper, salt, celery seed, and instead of the capers take some pickled nasturtium seed, and let that, finely minced, remain in the sauce for an hour before using it.
A cold potato salad dressed with an oil-and-cream vinaigrette rather than mayonnaise. The whole thing hinges on the potato: waxy, cooled, and cut only once it is cold, or the dice collapse into mash.
- "Firm, soapy" potatoesThis means waxy varieties — Charlotte, Yukon Gold, red-skinned new potatoes, fingerlings. Floury bakers such as Russets will crumble the moment you toss them in sauce.
- Boil whole, cool, then cutBoil, cool, then cut -- the recipe asks only that the potatoes be cooked and cold before dicing. Cooking them in their skins and peeling once cool is one way to keep the dice intact; dicing them hot gives ragged edges and a cloudy dressing.
- Salad oilAt this date the term could cover a mild olive oil or a refined seed oil rather than a strongly fruity extra-virgin. A neutral oil or a gentle olive oil keeps the cream from being overwhelmed.
- The proportionsEqual parts oil and cream with a quarter as much tarragon vinegar, so 1/4 cup oil, 1/4 cup cream and 1 tablespoon vinegar. The recipe names no quantity of potatoes; that much dressing will coat roughly a pound and a half. Use heavy cream; thinner creams are more likely to break when the acid goes in.
- Keep the dressing from splittingThe recipe says only to mix well. Whisking the vinegar into the cream first, slowly, before beating in the oil is one way to reduce the risk of the cream curdling.
- Tarragon vinegarStill sold, but easily made by steeping a few bruised tarragon sprigs in white wine vinegar for a week. Plain white wine vinegar plus a teaspoon of chopped fresh tarragon is a fair stand-in.
- Pickled nasturtium seedThe green seed pods of Tropaeolum majus, pickled in vinegar and used as a caper substitute — a common kitchen-garden economy at the time. Capers, rinsed and chopped, do the same job; "very" in the second sentence is a printer's error for "vary."
- The hour's restOnly the second, cream-only version asks for it, and it matters there: with no vinegar, the minced nasturtium seed is the sole source of sharpness and needs time to bleed into the cream.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities or yield; as written the dressing will suit a side dish for about four to six. Serve cool rather than fridge-cold, and dress it not long before serving, as the cream slackens and the potatoes go pasty on standing.
The Belgian Cook Book was compiled in 1915 by Mrs. Brian Luck from recipes given by Belgian refugees who had fled to England after the German invasion, and it was published in aid of Belgian relief. That accounts for the tone of dishes like this one: frugal, made from potatoes and garden produce, with the dressing stretched by cream rather than built on eggs. Cold dressed potatoes are common across northern Europe, and pickled nasturtium seed points to a kitchen garden: capers were imported and dear, while nasturtiums grew easily, and pickling their green pods as a caper substitute is recorded in English household books from the eighteenth century onwards. Tarragon vinegar was among the flavoured vinegars kept in French and Belgian kitchens of the period.