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Browned Potatoes
Peel, wash and either boil or steam for three quarters of an hour the desired quantity of potatoes (they should always be boiled or partially boiled before browning), then take them out of the saucepan, drain and place them in a baking-dish with a small quantity of fat or dripping, set the dish in the oven and bake gently for forty minutes, basting frequently. When done and well browned drain off all the fat, place them in a vegetable dish, and serve.
A straightforward two-stage roast potato: cooked through in water, then browned in fat. The only real problem is the timing, which assumes whole potatoes of a size rarely sold now.
- The 45-minute boilThree quarters of an hour suits large whole potatoes left uncut. Cut into 2-inch pieces, they are done in 12-18 minutes, and boiling them the full time will collapse them. Judge by a knife slipping in with slight resistance rather than by the clock.
- "Partially boiled" is the better readingParboiling until just tender at the edges, then draining and roughing the surfaces in the dry pan, gives a far better crust than fully cooked potatoes. The recipe allows this and it is worth taking.
- Bake gentlyThe book gives no temperatures, so "gently" has to be read as a moderate oven; around 350F is a reasonable modern equivalent, and forty minutes at that heat will brown them. 425F for 25-30 minutes gives a crisper result if you have parboiled rather than fully boiled.
- Fat or drippingThe recipe names neither; dripping in this period would usually be beef, and it gives good flavour and browning. Duck fat, lard or a neutral high-smoke-point oil all work. Butter alone will scorch at these times.
- BastingFrequent basting is what browns them evenly in a moderate oven, since the fat is shallow. Turn them two or three times instead if you prefer less oven-opening.
- Potato typeA floury potato — russet, King Edward, Maris Piper — fluffs at the surface and crisps. Waxy new potatoes hold together but stay smooth and never develop the same crust.
- QuantityNo yield is given because the recipe scales freely. Allow about 6 oz of peeled potato per person, in a single layer in the dish; crowded potatoes steam rather than brown.
Browned or roasted potatoes belong to the plainest register of the Waldorf kitchen — the vegetable that went out alongside a roast joint, requiring no sauce and no announcement. Oscar Tschirky's book, published in 1896, is largely a working reference rather than a showpiece, and entries like this one exist because a hotel kitchen turning out hundreds of covers needed its basics written down in the same voice as its terrapin and its canvasback duck. The insistence that potatoes "should always be boiled or partially boiled before browning" is the operative professional point: raw potato put straight into fat browns before its centre cooks. Dripping is specified here as an alternative to unnamed "fat."