No. 2783

Potatoes, Dauphine

Pommes de Terre Dauphine

Bake two pounds of potatoes, cut them lengthways in two, remove sufficient pulp to obtain a pound, and mix this with a quarter as much pate-a-chou (No. 132), eggs, a little cream, salt and nutmeg. Divide it to make inch and a half balls, lengthen them to the shape of an egg, roll in butter, then in bread-raspings, and fry in hot frying fat.

← No. 2782 Potato Croquettes, in Surprise and Maisienne Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes No. 2784 Potatoes, half-Glaze →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's shorthand assumes a cook who already knows choux paste and has a kettle of fat at the ready. The proportions are given by weight, which is the useful part; the egg and cream are left to judgment.

The hinge: keep the mixture dryBaking rather than boiling the potatoes is the whole point, since the flesh loses moisture instead of taking it on. Pass the hot pulp through a ricer or sieve and let the steam escape before adding anything; a wet base will slump in the fat and split.
Pâte-à-chou, and how muchPâte-à-chou, and how much -- His No. 132 is a choux paste, boiled water, butter, flour, then eggs beaten in. "A quarter as much" means 4 oz of finished paste to 1 lb of potato pulp, rather less choux than the roughly 1:2 or 1:3 proportions usual in modern practice. Expect a firm, potato-forward mixture rather than a light puff.
Eggs and cream unspecifiedThe original gives no quantity for either, and calls for "eggs" in the plural. Add the cream last, a spoon at a time, and stop while the paste still holds a shape.
Bread-raspingsDried, finely grated crust, the nineteenth-century standby made by grating stale loaf crusts and sieving them. Fine dry breadcrumbs are the equivalent; fresh crumbs will absorb the butter and go greasy.
"Roll in butter"Melted, cooled butter, used as the glue that the crumbs stick to. Egg wash is the modern equivalent and holds better if the balls are being fried straight away.
Frying fatThe book gives no temperature; "hot frying fat" here means deep fat, and modern practice would put it around 350-360F. Fry in small batches so the temperature holds; they need only a few minutes to colour, as everything inside is already cooked.
Size and yieldInch-and-a-half balls drawn out to an egg shape give about 18 to 20 pieces from 1 lb of pulp, six side servings. Chilling the shaped pieces for half an hour before crumbing makes them much easier to handle.

A Little History

Pommes dauphine belong to the family of fried potato garnishes that French restaurant kitchens built out of two existing preparations: dry potato purée and choux paste, the same paste used for gougières and éclairs. The choux lightens the potato and, more practically, binds it well enough to survive deep fat. The name is conventionally read as a reference to the dauphine, wife of the heir to the French throne, in the same decorative manner as dauphinoise and Pommes Anna; the connection is traditional rather than documented. Charles Ranhofer, who ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, sets it here among a long run of potato numbers, croquettes, surprise potatoes, maisienne, half-glaze, each a small variation on the theme, catalogued so that a chef could pick a garnish to suit the plate rather than cook a dish for its own sake.