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Potato Stuffing
Cut some peeled, raw potatoes into slices of moderate thickness, and then cut into squares, rinse with cold water, drain, and place them in a saucepan with a couple of ounces of butter, a chopped onion and one or two tablespoonfuls of chopped parsley, a little salt and pepper and grated nutmeg; place the lid on the pan, keeping the pan at the side of the fire and shaking contents occasionally, until nearly cooked, then chop fine an equal quantity of pig's liver and stir it into the potatoes a few minutes before serving.
A liver-and-potato forcemeat of the German and Alsatian type, meant for goose, duck or a pork roast rather than for the plate on its own. Two things need translating: the fireside heat and the treatment of the liver.
- The liver is the hingePork liver must reach 160F/71C throughout — it is a common carrier of Hepatitis E and of salmonella, and finely chopped raw liver folded into potatoes "a few minutes before serving" is not a reliable way to get there. If the mixture goes into a bird or roast and comes out of the oven fully hot, it is cooked; if you are serving it as a side dish from the pan, cook the liver through and check it.
- "At the side of the fire"On a range this is low heat with the lid on — a covered sweat, not a fry. The potatoes should soften in the butter and their own steam without colouring; figure 20 to 30 minutes with occasional shaking.
- ButterA couple of ounces is 4 tablespoons, half a stick. It is doing all the work of the liquid here, so do not cut it back.
- Cut and rinse"Moderate thickness" then cut into squares gives roughly a half-inch dice. The cold rinse washes off surface starch so the cubes stay separate instead of gluing into a mash; drain them well or the butter will spit.
- Equal quantityThe recipe does not say whether it means equal by weight or by bulk; either reading gives a great deal of liver by modern taste. A ratio nearer one part liver to three parts potato gives a stuffing most people will eat happily.
- NutmegGrate it fresh and keep it discreet — a quarter teaspoon for a pound of potatoes. Pre-ground nutmeg in a jar has usually lost the point of being there.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. Scaled to about 1 1/2 lb of potatoes with liver in proportion, it would make roughly enough to fill a large bird, with some left to bake alongside in a buttered dish.
Potato stuffings belong to the German-speaking kitchen -- Alsace, Bavaria, Bohemia and, in America, the Pennsylvania Dutch counties, where potato filling remains a dish in its own right. Adding the bird's own liver, or a piece of pig's liver bought for the purpose, would have been thrift: the liver came with the carcass, and chopped fine it seasoned a bulky starch cheaply. Oscar Tschirky, who ran the Waldorf's dining rooms and compiled his large cook book in 1896, was Swiss-born and drew on continental household cookery of this kind alongside the hotel's French repertoire; the same volume gives chestnut, oyster and bread stuffings.