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Broiled Potatoes
Peel half a dozen medium-sized cooked potatoes, halve them and lay upon a dish, seasoning with a pinch of salt, then pour over two tablespoonfuls of melted butter and roll them thoroughly in it, after which arrange them on a double broiler and broil over a moderate fire for three minutes on each side. Serve on a hot dish with a folded napkin.
A leftover-potato dish from the Waldorf's kitchen, written for a coal range with a live fire underneath. The method translates cleanly to a grill or a heavy pan, with one adjustment of terminology.
- "Broil" means over the fireIn American cookbooks of this period broiling is done over glowing coals, not under a gas element. A hinged wire grill set over medium-hot charcoal is the closest equivalent; a ridged cast-iron pan over medium-high heat gives much the same browning indoors.
- The double broilerNot a double boiler. It is a two-sided hinged wire basket that clamps the food so the whole rack can be flipped at once — sold today as a hinged grill basket or fish grill. It matters here because halved boiled potatoes fall apart when turned individually.
- Start with cold potatoes"Cooked potatoes" here most likely means potatoes boiled earlier and left to cool; the recipe does not specify. Warm boiled potatoes are more fragile to halve and roll in butter, and cooled ones hold their cut face and brown better.
- Choose a waxy varietyChoose a firm variety -- red-skinned or fingerling potatoes keep their shape on the grill; Yukon Gold, though all-purpose rather than truly waxy, also holds up. A floury baking potato will collapse in the basket.
- Butter quantityTwo tablespoons for six potatoes is thin coverage by modern habit. Enough to coat every cut surface is the point — increase it if the potatoes are large, and re-brush the cut side before turning.
- Three minutes a sideThe recipe calls for a moderate fire and assumes potatoes that need only colour, not cooking. Judge by the crust rather than the clock: pull them when the cut faces are deep gold, which may take longer than three minutes a side on a domestic grill.
- The folded napkinServing grilled and fried items on a folded linen napkin was a common convention of the period, and it is usually explained as keeping the browned surfaces from softening; a folded tea towel does the same job.
- YieldSix medium potatoes, halved, serves four as a side.
The book collects the working repertoire of a large hotel kitchen, and dishes like this one exist because such a kitchen would often have a surplus of boiled potatoes from the previous service. Recooking them over the broiler fire — rather than frying them, as a home cook would — used the grill station that was already hot for chops and steaks, and produced a plate that could go out alongside grilled meats without tying up a range top. The folded napkin under the potatoes is often said to have been a hotel service convention of the period, used for anything fried or grilled that was meant to arrive dry and crisp. The recipe also reflects a period when the potato was served at nearly every dinner in some form, and a chef might draw on many ways to present one across a week's menus.