No. 2808

Potatoes Souffled

Pommes de Terre Soufflees

Good souffled potatoes can best be made by using those called Holland potatoes. First trim the raw potatoes in ovals of equal size, two and a quarter inches long by one and a quarter wide, and then proceed to slice them lengthwise three-sixteenths of an inch in thickness. As quickly as they are cut throw them into a bowl of cold water, leaving them in for twenty-five minutes. Heat two panfuls of fat, one of fresh beef kidney suet, the other having previously been used for other purposes and therefore its strength being somewhat extracted, it should be clean and white. Wipe the sliced potatoes on a cloth, dry them thoroughly, put them in a basket and plunge them into the oldest fat, leaving them cook until they become soft, but do not let them take color. Remove and place them on a large sieve to drain and cool for a few moments, and just before serving plunge the potatoes into the fresh, hot fat, toss them, remove those that do not souffle, also those that souffle badly; set them to cool, and return them again to the hot fat. Should they not souffle at the second immersion, it is useless to try again. Salt the potatoes before serving, dress around the meat, or on a napkin in a separate dish.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Soufflé potatoes are a two-temperature fry: a low bath to cook the interior and raise steam, a hot bath to set the skin so the slice inflates. Ranhofer's method is sound; what needs translating is the fats, the temperatures he never states, and the expectation of failure.

The hinge: two distinct fat temperaturesThe first bath should sit around 275-300F, warm enough to cook the slice through without browning it. The second must be 375-400F, hot enough to flash the moisture inside into steam and blow the two surfaces apart. If the first bath colors the potato, the crust has already set and nothing will puff.
Two panfuls of fatRanhofer uses fresh beef kidney suet for the hot bath and older, previously used fat for the cool one, noting only that the used fat's 'strength' has been somewhat extracted and that it should still be clean and white. Rendered beef fat works well and is available; a neutral high-smoke-point oil such as peanut or refined sunflower is the usual modern substitute, and there is no need for one pan to be older than the other, only cooler.
"Holland potatoes"A market name of the period for a firm, dense, low-moisture potato; the supposed Dutch connection is traditional rather than documented. Look for a dense, even-textured potato rather than a mealy baker; large Yukon Gold or a similar all-purpose variety behaves best. New potatoes and very starchy russets both tend to refuse.
Thickness is not negotiableThree-sixteenths of an inch is about 4-5 mm. Thinner and the slice fries into a chip; thicker and it will not inflate. A mandoline set to a fixed gauge gives the uniformity this depends on, and slices must be of even thickness end to end.
The soak, then the dryingTwenty-five minutes in cold water pulls surface starch so the slices do not stick together. Drying afterward matters more than the soak: any surface water throws fat and cools the second bath at the exact moment it needs to be hot.
Expect a poor success rateRanhofer's instruction to remove the ones that do not puff, cool them, and try once more is honest about the odds. Even in a professional kitchen a good proportion never inflates. The failures are perfectly edible as chips; plan to fry considerably more than you intend to serve.
Timing and yieldThey collapse as they cool, so the second fry happens minutes before the plate goes out. Ranhofer treats them as a garnish, dressed around the meat or on a napkin in a separate dish, so trim and slice accordingly.

A Little History

Pommes soufflées belong to the small class of dishes that exist because of an accident, or at least because of a story about one: the puffed potato is generally traced to the opening of the Paris-Saint-Germain-en-Laye railway in 1837, when a cook is said to have pulled potatoes from the fat as the delayed train approached, then dropped them back into hot fat on arrival and found they had inflated. The tale is traditional rather than documented, but the technique it describes is exactly right, and by the time Charles Ranhofer set down The Epicurean in 1894 the dish was standard high-French garnish work, dressed around the meat. His inclusion of it among the book's many potato preparations says a good deal about the period: potatoes in a grand American restaurant were not a filler but a place to demonstrate control of fat temperature, and a cook who could produce a plate of reliably puffed ovals was advertising precision more than economy.