No. 2791

Potatoes, Housekeeper's Style

Pommes de Terre Menagere

Cut a quarter of a pound of lean, unsmoked bacon into three-eighths of an inch squares; blanch and fry in butter two ounces of chopped onion; moisten with broth (No. 194a), having just sufficient to moisten, and let the bacon cook so that when done the liquid will all be reduced; add about a pound of mashed potatoes, and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg and chopped parsley.

← No. 2790 Potatoes Hollandaise with Melted Butter or H Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes No. 2792 Potatoes, Julienne or Straw →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in shorthand for a professional brigade, so the method reads as a single sentence. It is really a bacon-and-onion base cooked dry, into which mashed potato is folded off the fire.

The hinge: reduce the broth completelyThe bacon is meant to finish cooking just as the last of the broth evaporates, leaving fat, onion and lardons coated in a glaze. If any liquid remains when the potato goes in, the dish turns to a loose puree instead of a stiff, savory mash.
"Lean, unsmoked bacon"This is French lard maigre - unsmoked cured pork belly, closest today to pancetta or so-called green bacon. Ordinary American smoked bacon will dominate the dish; if you use it, the blanching step matters more, not less.
Why blanch the porkWhy blanch — Blanching in boiling water draws out excess salt and firms the cubes so they fry rather than steam. Period cures were often saltier than modern ones, which may be why the instruction appears. Ranhofer's wording leaves it unclear whether the blanching applies to the bacon or to the onion.
Broth No. 194 aA cross-reference to one of Ranhofer's broths. A light unsalted stock stands in; the recipe specifies only enough to moisten, so very little.
Quantities and yieldA quarter pound of pork, two ounces of onion and a pound of mashed potato makes a side dish for perhaps three or four. The pork-to-potato ratio is high by modern habit.
The mashed potatoesA pound of cooked, mashed potato is roughly two medium russets. Ranhofer presumably intends his own puree recipe; a dry, riced mash folds in best.
NutmegGrated fresh, and a very small amount - a few scrapes for the whole pan. It reads as period seasoning for potatoes and cream, not as a flavor to be noticed on its own.
FinishingFold the potato into the hot pan just long enough to heat through and take up the bacon fat. Prolonged stirring over heat makes potato gluey.

A Little History

Menagere means "housekeeper's" or "housewife's," a standing tag in French kitchen nomenclature for a preparation that is frankly domestic rather than dressed up - here bacon, onion and potato, the cheapest possible trio. Its presence in Charles Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894), the record of his three decades running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, is a reminder that a grand restaurant's repertoire rested on a long tail of plain garnishes and side dishes numbered alongside the truffled ones. Ranhofer catalogued potatoes by the dozen, and the numbered cross-references to his stocks and purees are how the book worked: it was written for cooks who already had the components standing ready, not for a household starting from nothing.