Garnishes
tablespoon of salt and two of butter and cook slowly twenty minutes more; beat the yolks of four eggs with three tablespoons of cream or milk and stir in; butter a border mold, pack the rice into it, let it stand eight or ten minutes in a warm (not hot) place, and turn out on a hot platter. Fill the center with any meat preparation warmed in a sauce.
POTATO BORDER (or Casserole)-Mash nine good-sized boiled potatoes; add two tablespoons of butter, one good cup of boiling milk, one generous tablespoon of salt and the wellbeaten yolks of two eggs; beat till very light. Pack into a well buttered border mould and let it stand, away from the heat, eight minutes. Beat the whites of the eggs to a froth and add one-fourth teaspoon of salt; turn the border on a warm platter, cover it with the beaten white and brown in a moderate oven. Put meat or fish, heated in sauce, in the center.
Two service borders — one rice, one potato — meant to ring a platter and hold a sauced meat or fish in the middle. The text picks up mid-sentence on the rice, but the potato border is complete and works as written with one large correction.
- Cut the salt"One generous tablespoon of salt" for nine potatoes is around 20 g and will be aggressively salty by modern palates, especially with butter and yolks added. Start with 2 teaspoons and taste before the eggs go in.
- "Casserole" here is the vesselIn period usage a casserole meant the mould or dish itself, or a moulded rice or potato case, not a baked one-pot dinner. The border mould is a ring mould; a plain 8- or 9-inch tube pan or savarin ring, buttered heavily, does the same job.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350–375°F for a few minutes to set and take colour; watch them, since a savoury meringue scorches quickly at the peaks.
- Why it stands away from the heatThe eight-minute rest for the potato border (eight or ten for the rice) lets the mixture firm up so the ring holds its shape when inverted. Turn it out too early and it slumps on the platter.
- Get the potatoes dryBoiled potatoes hold water, and the recipe adds a full cup of boiling milk. Drain and return them to the dry pan over low heat for a minute or two before mashing, or the border will not stand.
- Ricer, not beaterA stand mixer or food processor overworks potato starch into glue; press through a ricer and fold in the butter, milk and yolks by hand.
- EggsThe yolks are cooked by the heat of the rice or potato rather than by a measured temperature. If you are serving anyone who should avoid undercooked egg, use pasteurized eggs.
- YieldNine good-sized potatoes should make a border for roughly six to eight.
Borders like these belong to the era of set-piece platter service, when a made dish of creamed chicken, sweetbreads, fish or hash was expected to arrive framed rather than ladled onto plates. The technique is the household cousin of French pommes duchesse and the bordure de riz found in professional kitchens of the period: a starchy purée stiffened with egg yolk, moulded, and unmoulded to serve as an edible wall. The Butterick Publishing Company, better known for dress patterns and The Delineator, issued cookbooks aimed at the same middle-class housekeeper — one who had no pastry cook but was still expected to present a dish that looked composed. Recipes of this kind also did quiet economical work, since a ring of rice or potato made a modest quantity of meat in sauce look like a course.