No. 2801

Potatoes, Provencal

Pommes de Terre a la Provencale

Trim raw potatoes to the shape of corks, then cut them across three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness; wipe perfectly dry and saute slowly in oil so they have plenty of time to cook, then add a little garlic and a little onion all finely chopped; salt them and finish in the oven just when serving; drain off the butter and strew over with chopped parsley and lemon juice.

← No. 2800 Potatoes, Pont-Neuf Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes No. 2802 Potatoes, Sarah →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer's method is a slow oil sauté rather than a fry: the potatoes cook through in the fat before they ever see the oven. Two short lines in the original need unpacking.

The hinge is the word "slowly"The potatoes must cook through in the oil over gentle heat, not brown fast on the outside. Medium-low in a wide pan, turning occasionally; the original gives no timing, but slices this thin will take roughly 20 minutes.
"Shape of corks"Trim the potatoes into short cylinders, roughly cork-sized (somewhere around 3/4 to 1 inch across), before slicing. Three-sixteenths of an inch is a scant 5 mm -- thin, but thicker than a chip.
Wipe perfectly dryNot fussiness. Surface water in hot oil means spitting and steaming instead of the even, slow colouring the dish depends on. Do not rinse the cut slices unless you dry them thoroughly afterwards.
Garlic and onion go in lateThey are added toward the end for a reason: finely chopped alliums scorch and turn bitter over the twenty minutes the potatoes need. Two or three minutes in the hot oil is enough.
"Finish in the oven"A brief pass in a hot oven to crisp and heat through immediately before serving -- five minutes or so, not a bake.
"Drain off the butter"An inconsistency in the original, which specifies oil at the start. Read it as drain off the fat; the finished potatoes should be blotted, not glossy.
The finishChopped parsley and lemon juice go on off the heat, at the table edge. Both die in the oven, so this is the last step, not part of the cooking.
YieldThe original gives no quantities. As a modern guide, about 1 1/2 lb of potatoes will serve four as a side. Use a waxy or all-purpose variety; a very floury baking potato will break up in the pan.

A Little History

À la provençale in nineteenth-century French kitchen usage generally implied oil, garlic and parsley -- the cooking fat of the south standing in for the butter of the north, with garlic marking the dish as unmistakably Mediterranean. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, compiled The Epicurean in 1894 as a working encyclopaedia of that grand-restaurant repertoire, and its potato section runs to dozens of numbered variations distinguished by little more than a cut and a garnish: Pont-Neuf on one side of this entry, Sarah on the other. The slip from oil to butter in the final line is the kind of small editorial seam that shows through in a book of this size. Garlic is often said to have been regarded with some suspicion in American dining rooms of the period, and its appearance here is contained -- "a little garlic and a little onion," chopped fine and added at the end.