No. 2770

Potatoes, Anna

Pommes de Terre Anna

Select long-shaped potatoes; they must be peeled and cut into the form of a large cork; mince them finely, and soak in water for a few moments; drain and wipe on a cloth. Butter and bread the inside of a thick copper pan, having a well-fitted cover; range on the bottom and sides a thin layer of the potatoes, one overlapping the other, then fill entirely with the remaining ones in separate layers, covering each with butter free from moisture, softened by working in a napkin; mask the upper layer with the same, and close with the lid. Cook the potatoes for three-quarters of an hour in the oven; a quarter of an hour before serving take from the fire, drain off the butter and cut a cross through the potatoes yet in the sautoir, and turn each quarter over with the aid of a palette; put back the drained-off butter and return to the oven until ready, and invert on a dish to serve. These potatoes may be made in a smaller pan; in this case they should not be cut but turned over whole before putting in the oven the second time.

← No. 2769 Sweet Peppers Sauted Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes No. 2771 Potatoes Baked →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's version of the dish is close to the classical one, but two of his instructions are easy to misread: mince here means slice thinly, not chop, and "butter free from moisture" means clarified butter.

"Mince them finely"This is the French émincer, to cut into thin slices. The potatoes are trimmed into a cylinder the width of a large cork, then cut into rounds about 1/16 inch thick, which a mandoline does more evenly than a knife.
Clarified butter, not meltedButter with the moisture worked out -- "butter free from moisture, softened by working in a napkin" is butter kneaded in cloth to press out the water, rather than melted and clarified, though clarified butter is the usual modern equivalent. Whole butter's water content steams the slices apart and its solids can scorch over the long cooking; dried or clarified butter lets the outside crust properly.
The soak is brief on purposeA few moments in water rinses off surface starch and grit, no more. A long soak strips the starch that glues the layers into a single cake, and the slices must be wiped genuinely dry or they will steam.
The panA thick copper pan with a close lid is a cast-iron or heavy stainless skillet today, 8 to 10 inches, with a tight cover or a sheet of foil and a weight. The mass of the pan matters more than the metal; a thin pan burns the base before the centre cooks.
Breading the panButtering and dusting the interior with fine breadcrumbs is Ranhofer's insurance against sticking and gives the crust a little extra colour. It is optional with a well-seasoned iron pan, but it does make the turn-out reliable.
Oven heatHe gives no temperature. Cooked for three-quarters of an hour, the dish wants a hot oven, around 425F, so the outer layers brown while the interior sets. Modern practice often browns the base on the stovetop for five to ten minutes first, then finishes in the oven.
The cross-cutFifteen minutes before service he pours off the butter, cuts the cake into quarters in the pan and flips each with a palette knife so the pale top browns. In a small pan he turns the whole cake instead. Many later recipes omit this step; it is what gives crust on both faces.
Yield and servingA 9-inch pan takes roughly 2 lb of potatoes and serves four to six as a side. Invert onto a warm plate and cut in wedges; it will not hold, so send it out immediately.

A Little History

Pommes Anna belongs to the Paris restaurant kitchen of the Second Empire, which ended in 1870, and is usually dated to the 1860s; the name is traditionally attributed to one of the celebrated women of the period, though which Anna was meant has never been settled and the various stories are traditional rather than documented. The dish gave its name to a piece of equipment, the cocotte à pommes Anna, a heavy tinned-copper vessel with a lid deep enough to serve as a second pan so the cake could be flipped between the two; Ranhofer's "thick copper pan, having a well-fitted cover" is that vessel or its equivalent. Its appearance in The Epicurean (1894) is a good marker of how quickly Delmonico's absorbed Parisian restaurant cooking: Ranhofer had trained in France and ran the New York kitchen, in two spells, for some three decades, and he set this among plain baked and sautéed potatoes without any note that it was a novelty.