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Potatoes Waldorf
Peel and wash some potatoes and then cut them round and round in curls in the same manner in which apples are peeled; place two flat stewpans over the fire with an equal quantity of lard in each; when boiling throw in the pieces in one of the pans and fry until just commencing to color, then remove quickly with a drainer and throw into the second pan of boiling lard; when they have become nicely browned and soft take the potatoes out of the fat, drain them for a minute or two on kitchen paper at the front of the fire; spread a folded napkin over a hot dish, pile on the potatoes, dredging a small quantity of salt over them, and serve while hot.
A double-fry method for potato ribbons, written when frying temperature was judged by eye rather than by thermometer. The two pans are the whole point: one to cook the potato through, one to crisp and color it.
- The hinge: two fats, two temperaturesThe recipe never says the pans differ in heat, and the transfer may simply have been to fresh hot fat. Read as a modern double-fry, though, the first pan is usually held around 300-325F to cook the curls soft without browning and the second around 375-390F to blister and color them; one pan at one temperature tends to give either pale limp ribbons or scorched edges over raw centers.
- "Boiling lard"Fat does not boil at frying heat — the term meant fat hot enough to bubble vigorously when food went in. Judge it with a thermometer, or by a potato scrap that surfaces immediately trailing steady fine bubbles.
- Cutting the curls"Round and round in curls, in the same manner in which apples are peeled" means a continuous ribbon pared off a whole potato with a knife. A swivel peeler worked around the potato gives the same effect with less loss; a spiralizer is the modern shortcut. Aim for ribbons about 1/16 inch thick — thicker will not crisp, thinner will burn in the second pan.
- Rinse and dryThe instruction to wash matters more than it looks. Surface starch makes the curls glue together in the fat, and any clinging water spits violently in hot lard. Rinse the cut ribbons until the water runs clear, then dry them thoroughly in a towel.
- Fat quantity and choice"Flat stewpans" means wide shallow pans; you want depth enough to float the curls, roughly 2 inches. Lard is what the recipe calls for and it holds up well; refined peanut oil behaves nearly the same. Both pans need the same fat, since the curls carry it from one to the other.
- Draining"Kitchen paper at the front of the fire" is a warm draining spot. Paper towels on a wire rack in a 200F oven does the job and keeps the crust from steaming soft underneath.
- The napkinFolded linen on the hot dish absorbs residual fat and keeps the pile from sliding. It is period service rather than necessity, but it works.
- YieldNot stated. Reckon one medium potato per person as a garnish beside a roast or steak, two if serving them as the vegetable. Salt only at the moment of serving — salted early, the curls draw moisture and go limp.
Oscar Tschirky was never the chef of the Waldorf — he was its maître d'hôtel from the hotel's opening in 1893 — but his 1896 Cook Book by "Oscar" of the Waldorf collected the kitchen's repertoire under his name, alongside the salad that made it famous. These curls belong to the great family of nineteenth-century French fried potatoes that reached American hotel dining rooms through classical training: the two-bath method, one to cook and one to crisp, is the same principle behind pommes soufflées, whose invention is traditionally tied to a restaurant kitchen at the 1837 inauguration of the Paris–Saint-Germain railway line — an anecdote rather than documented fact. What marks the dish as hotel cooking rather than home cooking is the labor: paring a potato into one unbroken ribbon, then carrying it between two pans of hot lard, assumes a brigade with hands to spare and a diner willing to pay for the trouble.