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Lattice Potatoes
Wash and pare potatoes. Slice, using a vegetable slicer which comes for this purpose, and let stand in a bowl of cold water two hours. Drain, and dry between towels. Fry in deep fat, drain on brown paper, and sprinkle with salt.
A short recipe that depends almost entirely on equipment and on how dry the slices are before they hit the fat.
- The slicerThe "vegetable slicer which comes for this purpose" is a mandoline with a corrugated or waffle blade; the lattice comes from rotating the potato a quarter turn between cuts so the ridges cross. Slices around 1/8 inch give an open lattice that holds together; thinner and the web breaks apart in the fat.
- Potato choiceThe era assumed a mealy winter potato. Russets fry crispest; waxy red or new potatoes hold too much moisture and go limp.
- Why the two-hour soakCold water leaches surface starch so the slices do not glue to each other or to the basket. Two hours is generous but harmless; thirty minutes accomplishes most of it. Change the water once if it clouds heavily.
- Drying is the hingeWater on the slices means violent spattering and soggy potatoes. Blot between towels until they feel dry to the touch, not merely damp-free.
- Fat temperatureThe book gives none. Use 365-375F and fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash; a single layer, turned once, takes two to three minutes to golden. Crowding produces pale, greasy lattices.
- DrainingBrown paper meant plain unbleached wrapping or bag paper, untreated. A rack set over a sheet pan drains better and keeps the crispness; paper towels work if you do not stack the potatoes.
- Salt and timingSalt the moment they leave the fat, while the surface is still oily enough to hold it. These do not hold — serve within a few minutes.
- YieldTwo large russets, about 1 1/2 lb, serve four as a side.
Waffle or lattice cuts are generally traced to the mechanical vegetable slicer, a fixture of late nineteenth-century kitchen outfitters who sold corrugated blades for cutting carrots, beets and potatoes into decorative shapes. Period cookbooks often treat such cuts as a small catalogue of devices, each defined by a blade rather than a seasoning. The style belongs to the era's interest in garnish and variety on the plate at a moment when frying in deep fat had become practical at home, and it survives largely unchanged as the waffle fry.