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Potato Nests
Wash, pare, and cut potatoes in thin strips, using same slicer as for Lattice Potatoes. Soak in cold water fifteen minutes, drain, and dry between towels. Line a fine wire strainer of four-inch diameter, and having a wire handle, with potatoes, place a similar strainer, having a two and one-half inch diameter, in larger strainer, thus holding potatoes in nest shapes. Fry in deep fat, taking care that the fat does not reach too high a temperature at first. Keep the small strainer in place during frying with a long handled spoon. Carefully remove nests from strainers. Drain on brown paper, and sprinkle with salt. Fill with small fillets of fried fish or fried smelts.
A garnish rather than a side dish: shoestring potatoes fried in a basket so they hold a bowl shape. The technique survives in the double-mesh "bird's nest" fryer sold for the purpose, and the whole thing hinges on dry potatoes and fat that starts out gentle.
- The two strainersAny two wire strainers or fine-mesh sieves that nest with about three quarters of an inch of clearance will work, as will the purpose-made bird's-nest fryer sold in restaurant supply shops. Metal only, and both must be able to sit fully submerged in hot fat.
- Fat temperature, in numbersFat temperature -- "Taking care that the fat does not reach too high a temperature at first" is the book's only guidance; no figures are given. In practice a moderate fat to start, so the strips soften and knit together into a shell, and a hotter fat to finish for colour and crispness, follows the sense of it. Straight into very hot fat and the outside browns before the nest sets, and it is liable to collapse when unmoulded.
- CutThe book directs you to the same hand slicer used for Lattice Potatoes, set to produce thin strips; a mandoline or similar slicer with a fine julienne setting is the modern equivalent. Longer strips tangle and hold together better than short ones.
- Dry means dryThe fifteen-minute soak rinses off surface starch and keeps the strips from sticking in a solid mass. Drying afterwards is not optional -- residual water makes the fat boil over violently and prevents the strips from browning evenly.
- UnmouldingThe recipe holds the inner strainer down with a long-handled spoon throughout the frying, and the nests are eased out of the strainers afterwards; if one grips, run a thin knife or skewer between potato and mesh rather than pulling.
- Brown paperThe recipe drains the nests on brown paper, as period fried-food recipes commonly do; paper towels or a rack over a sheet pan do the same job. Salt while still glistening with fat so it sticks.
- Yield and holdingThe recipe gives no yield or holding instructions. Nests are best made shortly before serving; they can be recrisped briefly in a moderate oven, and are better not filled until serving or the base goes soft.
- SmeltsWhole fried smelts were a cheap, common fish course in 1900 and are still sold frozen at many fishmongers. Any small fried fillet, croquette, or a spoonful of creamed vegetables fills a nest just as well.
Potato nests belong to the elaborate garnish vocabulary that American cooking schools borrowed from French professional kitchens in the late nineteenth century, where a fried potato basket was known as pommes en nid. Fannie Farmer's book, first published in 1896 and reissued through many editions, kept a substantial repertoire of these show pieces: the same potato chapter runs through Saratoga, lattice, ribbon, and Parisienne cuts. The nest also reflects the period's ordering of a meal, in which a fish course arrived separately and was expected to look composed rather than simply plated.