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Potato Rissoles
Mash the desired quantity of cold boiled potatoes with a lump of butter, and one or two well-beaten eggs, seasoning to taste with salt and pepper; mould the mixture into small egg-shaped balls, and roll them in grated breadcrumb, then in beaten egg, and in the breadcrumb again. Next place a large lump of good beef-dripping in a flat stewpan over the fire, and let it remain there until the blue smoke rises, then put in the rissoles, and fry them until they become of a bright golden brown on all sides; after which, drain them for a few minutes on a sheet of kitchen-paper in front of the fire, and then pile them on a dish over which has been spread a folded napkin or ornamental dish-paper; garnish with fried parsley, and serve.
Potatoes, Sarah Cut some raw potatoes with a sharp knife into the form of corkscrews and fry till half done in not too hot fat, then drain and place them in a sautoir with some clarified butter and finish the cooking. Season with salt and chopped parsley and lemon juice.
Two potato garnishes from the Waldorf's kitchen, both built on the same principle: get the fat hot enough that the surface sets before the interior absorbs it. The instructions are terse because a hotel cook of 1896 needed no more.
- The hinge: dry mashCold boiled potatoes make rissoles because they have given up their steam. If the mash is at all wet the balls slump in the fat and the crumb coat splits. Use baking potatoes, mash them without milk or cream, and add only the butter and egg.
- "Until the blue smoke rises"That is the old signal for frying fat at roughly 375F. Beef dripping tolerates it; if you substitute, use a refined oil rather than butter, which will be black at that point. A thermometer removes the guesswork the phrase was invented to handle.
- QuantitiesOscar gives none. Reckon on 2 lb potatoes, 2 tablespoons butter, and one egg for the mixture, with a second egg beaten for the coating -- enough for a dozen egg-shaped rissoles, serving four to six as a garnish or side.
- Egg in the mixtureOne egg per 2 lb binds; two makes a softer, richer paste that is harder to mould. If you use two, chill the moulded balls before breading.
- Breadcrumb, egg, breadcrumbNote the double crumb. Fresh grated crumb from a dry loaf, not commercial dried crumb, gives the ragged bright-brown surface described. Rest the coated rissoles 20 minutes so the coating adheres.
- Stewpan and sautoirA flat stewpan is a wide, straight-sided pan -- a modern sauté pan or shallow Dutch oven. A sautoir is the same thing; the Potatoes Sarah are finished in butter in it, not deep-fried a second time.
- Fried parsleyDry the sprigs thoroughly and drop them into the frying fat for about 20 seconds after the rissoles come out. Wet parsley will spit violently in fat at that temperature.
- Potatoes SarahThe corkscrew shape is cut with a knife or turning tool from a peeled potato -- a spiral cutter does the same job. Blanch-fry at about 300F until pale and pliable, then finish in clarified butter over moderate heat. The lemon juice goes on off the heat, at the last moment.
- DrainingKitchen-paper in front of the fire meant a warm draining spot. A rack in a 200F oven does the same and keeps the crust from steaming soft underneath.
Oscar Tschirky's Cook Book (1896) records the working repertoire of the Waldorf, and its potato section is essentially a catalogue of the French garnitures every grand hotel was expected to produce on demand. Rissole reaches English through Old French, and is generally traced back to a Latin word for reddish or russet; in classical usage it covers anything fried to a russet colour -- here a potato croquette in all but name. Potatoes Sarah belong to the long list of dishes named for stage celebrities, and are generally traced to Sarah Bernhardt, whose name attached itself to a good deal of restaurant cookery in the 1880s and 1890s; the attribution is traditional rather than documented. That the frying medium is beef dripping rather than oil is characteristic of the period: dripping saved from the roasts was a normal kitchen resource, and its high smoke point and beefy flavour were counted a virtue, not a compromise.