No. 2779

Potato Cakes with Ham

Galettes de Pommes de Terre au Jambon

Lay in a saucepan one pint of mashed potatoes (No. 2798), rubbed through a sieve; mix in with it a lump of butter, a pinch of sugar, nutmeg, a handful of grated parmesan, six raw egg-yolks, two beaten whites, a little salt and four ounces of cooked and finely chopped lean ham. Heat a griddle or frying-pan, butter well the surface, take the preparation up with a spoon, and let it fall on it in rounds three inches each, keeping them slightly apart; cook them on a slow fire, turning over; when nicely colored and hardened drain and serve hot. The preparation may be let fall into three-inch diameter rings, five-sixteenths of an inch thick, filling them to the top; in this way the cakes will be more uniform than when cooked as above.

← No. 2778 Potato Cakes Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes No. 2780 Potatoes Chopped with Cream, and Baked →

For the Modern Kitchen

A rich potato batter rather than a dough — six yolks and two whites to a pint of potato means the mixture spreads unless you control heat and thickness. The griddle work is where this succeeds or fails.

The hinge: slow heat, patient turnRanhofer says "cook them on a slow fire" for a reason. With this much egg the outside will scorch long before the centre sets if the pan is hot; medium-low, four to five minutes a side, until the surface is firm enough to lift cleanly with an offset spatula.
A pint of mashed potatoTwo cups by volume, roughly 1 lb of potato before cooking. Use a dry, floury potato (russet) and let the steam escape before mashing — wet potato plus six yolks and two whites gives a batter that will not hold a three-inch round.
Rubbed through a sieveA potato ricer or food mill does the same job faster. Do not use a food processor; the starch turns gluey and the cakes go heavy.
"A lump of butter" and "a handful of parmesan"The original is genuinely unquantified here. Reasonable readings are 1 to 2 tablespoons butter and about 1/2 cup (roughly 1.5 oz) grated parmesan for a pint of potato. Season carefully — parmesan and ham are both salty, so add the salt last.
The ringsThe alternative method uses metal rings 3 inches across; 5/16 inch is midway between 1/4 and 3/8 inch thick. Egg rings or crumpet rings work, lifted away once the cake has set on the bottom.
Ham"Cooked and finely chopped lean ham" means a firm boiled or baked ham, not thin deli slices, which shred rather than dice. Four ounces, chopped to the size of peppercorns so the cakes still hold together.
Egg whitesThe two whites are beaten but not called for as a stiff meringue — beat them to soft, foamy peaks and fold in at the end for lightness.
YieldAbout twelve to fourteen three-inch cakes; four servings as a side dish, or three as a light supper course.

A Little History

This is No. 2779 in Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the enormous record of his thirty-odd years as chef at Delmonico's in New York. The French title, galettes de pommes de terre au jambon, points to its origins: a galette is simply anything shaped into a flat round, and the enriched potato base — sieved potato bound with yolks, butter and cheese, seasoned with nutmeg — is the same family of preparation that gives pommes duchesse and croquettes their body. The second half of the entry is concerned with neatness: the buttered rings are there so that the cakes come out more uniform.