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Hashed Brown Potatoes
2 tablespoons oil or drippings
Salt and pepper
6 boiled potatoes
Chop the potatoes, adding salt, and a dash of pepper. Melt the fat in a frying-pan and, when hot, add the chopped potatoes to the depth of one inch. Press the potatoes down in the pan, packing them firmly. Cook slowly, without stirring, until the potato is brown. Then begin at one side of the pan and fold the potatoes over on the other like an omelet, packing closely together. Turn upside down on a hot serving platter and serve hot.
A straightforward pan of hashed browns, with one technique worth noting: the potatoes are folded like an omelet rather than flipped whole.
- The hinge: do not stirThe browning happens because the packed layer sits undisturbed against hot metal. Stirring breaks the crust and you end up with steamed potato fragments. Give it 10-15 minutes over medium-low before you touch it.
- PotatoesBoiled and cooled potatoes hash far better than warm ones; refrigerate them a few hours or overnight so they hold their shape when chopped. Six medium potatoes is roughly 2 lb, serving four.
- "Drippings"Bacon fat or beef drippings, the kind of fat a period kitchen kept on hand. Any neutral oil, butter with a little oil, or clarified butter works; the fat is a flavor decision, not a structural one.
- Pan choiceCast iron or heavy carbon steel gives the even, sustained heat this needs. A thin nonstick pan browns unevenly and the crust will be patchy.
- DepthOne inch is deliberate and on the deep side. If your pan is wider than the potatoes will fill to that depth, use a smaller pan rather than spreading them thin.
- The fold and turnFold only once the underside is set and brown, or the cake tears. Loosen the whole edge with a thin spatula first, then invert onto a warmed platter so the crust faces up.
- SeasoningSalt the chopped potatoes before they go in the pan, as written. Salt added after the crust forms sits on the surface and tastes harsh.
Hashed potatoes belong to the long tradition of cooking yesterday's boiled vegetables in fat the next morning, and the name simply means chopped -- from the French hacher, to cut up. American hotel and restaurant menus of the late nineteenth century listed "hashed brown potatoes" as a breakfast side. The Butterick collection, published for readers of the company's dress patterns and magazines, is aimed squarely at a household cooking three meals a day with no waste: this recipe assumes you already have boiled potatoes left over and treats the folded, omelet-style presentation as the thing worth teaching.