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Fried Raw Potatoes
Wash, peel, and slice in cold water, drain in a colander, and drop in a skillet prepared with two table-spoons melted butter or beefdrippings, or one-half of each; keep closely covered for ten minutes, only removing to stir with a knife from the bottom to prevent burning; cook another ten minutes, stirring frequently until done and lightly browned. Sweet potatoes are nice prepared in the same manner.-Mrs. M. E. Southard.
A straightforward skillet potato, steamed under a lid before it is browned. Two details carry the dish: the potatoes must be dried after their soak, and the pan must be wide enough that they sit close to a single layer.
- Drain means dryDraining -- the recipe asks only that the slices drain in a colander. Water carried into hot fat will steam rather than fry, so it is worth spreading the slices on a towel and blotting them before they go in.
- Beef drippingsRendered beef fat, saved from a roast. It has a high smoke point and gives a flavour butter alone cannot. The recipe gives no reason for offering half of each, though the mix would let the butter contribute taste with less risk of scorching. Any neutral oil plus a knob of butter behaves much the same.
- Pan and quantityThe recipe specifies only two tablespoons of fat and no weight of potatoes; that much fat will suit roughly a pound and a half in a 10-inch skillet. Crowded deeper than an inch or so, they will steam through the whole twenty minutes and never brown.
- Heat levelMedium for the covered ten minutes, then medium-high once the lid comes off and the surface moisture has gone. Too hot at the start and the outside colours before the centres are tender.
- Stirring with a knifeAn iron or steel skillet was expected. A thin metal spatula does the same job of lifting from the bottom; on a nonstick or enamelled pan use wood or silicone.
- Slice thicknessNot specified. About an eighth of an inch gives tender slices inside the twenty minutes given; thicker rounds will want longer under the lid.
- Sweet potatoesThey carry more sugar, so they brown faster and scorch more readily. Shorten the uncovered stage and keep the heat a notch lower.
- YieldNot given. About a pound and a half of potatoes would serve four as a side dish.
The Dixie Cook-Book is a late-nineteenth-century American compilation whose receipts are largely signed by their contributors — hence Mrs. M. E. Southard. It is notable for the qualifier in its title: raw potatoes, as distinct from the more familiar fried cold boiled potatoes. Cooking them from raw under a tight lid is essentially steaming in fat, a method well suited to a wood or coal range where the heat could not readily be dialled down and the cook relied instead on covering the pan.