No. 2802

Potatoes, Sarah

Pommes de Terre Sarah

Cut some raw potatoes into corkscrew shapes with a special machine fry till half done in not too hot fat; drain and place them in a sautoir with clarified butter to finish cooking, seasoning with salt, and adding chopped parsley and lemon juice.

← No. 2801 Potatoes, Provencal Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes No. 2803 Potatoes, Saratoga →

For the Modern Kitchen

A two-stage potato: a low fry to cook through without colour, then a butter finish in a pan. The original assumes a hand-cranked spiral cutter and a cook who knows both fat temperatures by eye.

The "special machine"Ranhofer does not describe the tool; the corkscrew shape implies some form of spiral or corkscrew cutter, and the word "special" suggests it was not a general-purpose piece of kit. A modern spiralizer on its widest ribbon blade, or a mandoline with a spiral attachment, gives the same long curl; a firm waxy or all-purpose potato holds the shape better than a floury baker.
"Not too hot fat"The first fry is a blanching fry, taken only to Ranhofer's "half done": the spirals should still be pale and not yet crisp. A moderate fat, well below a browning heat, and a few minutes is the sense of it; any hotter and they colour before the interior is cooked, which defeats the point of the second stage.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow sauté pan, not a covered casserole. The spirals should sit in a single loose layer so the butter contacts them rather than steaming them soft.
Clarified butterWhole butter will brown and burn at the heat needed to crisp the outside. Clarify it yourself or use ghee. The recipe asks only that the potatoes finish cooking in the butter, so the stage is a short one, judged by eye.
Parsley and lemon at the endThe recipe adds both after the potatoes are cooked. Adding them off the heat or in the last few seconds keeps the parsley from scorching in the hot butter, and lemon juice in a hot pan will make the butter spit.
Drying between stagesDrain the blanched spirals on paper and let the surface steam dry before they go into the butter. Wet potatoes will not crisp, and water in clarified butter is what causes the violent spattering.
YieldThis entry gives none. Reckon one large potato per person as a garnish alongside a roast or grill; the dish does not hold and should go from pan to plate.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's summation of some thirty years as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and it runs through potatoes with the thoroughness of a man cooking for a large restaurant: this entry sits between Provencal potatoes and Saratoga potatoes, three ways of handling the same tuber for three different plates. Garnishes named for singers and actresses were the ordinary currency of grand-hotel cooking in this period, and pommes Sarah is generally traced to Sarah Bernhardt, who toured America repeatedly from 1880 onward and was exactly the sort of celebrity Delmonico's liked to have associated with its menu istically, explains nothing. The dish itself belongs to the same family of showy cut potatoes as pommes soufflees and the shoestring, and the double cooking \a slter toss to finish and flavour \as standard French practice still.