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Breakfast Potatoes
Peel, cut in very thin slices into a very little boiling water, so little that it will be evaporated when they are cooked, add salt to taste, some cream, or a very little milk and a bit of butter. A little practice will make this a favorite dish in any family. The art is, to cook the potatoes with a very little water, so that it will be evaporated at the time the potatoes are done. They must be stirred occasionally while cooking.
A short method that depends entirely on water management: the potatoes steam in almost nothing, and the little liquid left behind becomes the sauce when cream and butter go in.
- The hingeUse only enough water to film the bottom of the pan; the recipe's whole point is that it should be evaporated at the moment the potatoes are tender. If liquid remains when they are done, let it drive away over higher heat before adding the dairy.
- Slice thickness"Very thin" is not defined in the recipe; something around an eighth of an inch is a reasonable reading, which means a mandoline or a steady hand. Thicker slices need more water than the pan will evaporate in time and you end up boiling them.
- Potato typeA waxy or all-purpose potato holds its slices through the stirring. Russets will collapse into a rough mash, which is not wrong but is a different dish.
- StirringStir gently and only now and then. Constant agitation breaks the slices apart and releases enough starch to turn the whole pan gluey.
- Cream or milkAdd it off the heat or with the burner very low. Cream will thicken pleasantly against the potato starch; milk added to a hot dry pan can catch and scorch.
- TimingThin slices in a little water are done in roughly 10 to 15 minutes. Test with a knife tip rather than watching the clock, since pan width changes the evaporation rate.
- YieldThe recipe specifies nothing; as a working scale, two pounds of potatoes with a third to a half cup of cream and a tablespoon of butter will serve about four at breakfast.
This method sits between boiled potatoes and creamed potatoes without quite being either. What marks it out is that it teaches by feel rather than by measure: the writer gives no quantities at all and states that a little practice is what makes the dish, an approach suited to ranges where heat and evaporation rate differed from kitchen to kitchen.