No. 2811

Potato Timbale a la Parmentier

Timbale de Pommes de Terre a la Parmentier

Remove some rounds with a three-quarter inch diameter tin tube from slices of potatoes three-sixteenths of an inch thick; saute them in butter for two minutes, then drain. Line the bottom of a buttered timbale mold with part of these rounds, and the sides with separate rows laid on flat, intercalating them in such a way that a round of potato lays between two others of the next row. Prepare a puree with a pound of potatoes boiled in salted water, drained and covered with a damp cloth, then dried in the oven; rub through a sieve and stir in two ounces of butter, one whole egg, one yolk, salt and nutmeg. Fill the timbale with this, lay the cover over and push into a moderate oven to cook for half an hour or more; when removed let stand for ten minutes, and invert on a hot dish.

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For the Modern Kitchen

A lined potato mold from Ranhofer's The Epicurean (1894): sauteed potato coins tile the buttered mold, a rich potato puree fills it, and the whole thing bakes and turns out as a dome. The hinge is the puree — it must be dry enough to hold a shape, or the timbale slumps when inverted.

Dry the puree properlyBoiled, drained potatoes are returned to the oven to steam off surface moisture before sieving. Skip this and the egg-bound puree stays loose, the mold weeps, and the turned-out timbale collapses. A ricer or food mill gives the same texture as rubbing through a sieve; a food processor turns potato to glue.
Choose a floury potatoRanhofer does not specify a variety, but the technique wants a mealy potato — russet or a similar baking type — for the puree. The rounds that line the mold hold together better cut from a firmer, waxier potato.
Cutting the roundsSlices three-sixteenths of an inch are just under 5 mm; the punched rounds are about 2 cm across. A plain round pastry cutter does the job. The offcuts go into the pound of potatoes for the puree rather than in the bin.
"Intercalating"Laid flat against the mold wall in staggered rows, each round bridging the join between two below, like brickwork or roof tiles. The two-minute saute in butter part-cooks the rounds and softens them, which should also help them stay against the buttered mold while the filling goes in.
Moderate ovenRanhofer gives no number; a moderate oven is usually read today as somewhere around 350F / 175C. Half an hour is a minimum for a small mold; a larger one wants 45 minutes to an hour, until the center is set and a skewer comes out hot and clean.
The cover, and the water bathThe "cover" is the timbale mold's own lid, or a round of buttered parchment weighted with foil. A charlotte mold, a straight-sided souffle dish or a deep cake tin all work. Standing the mold in a shallow pan of hot water keeps the egg-bound puree from setting grainy at the edges.
The ten-minute restNot optional. It lets the puree firm and pull very slightly from the sides, so the timbale releases whole. Run a thin knife around the top edge, set the hot serving dish over the mold, and invert in one motion.
Quantity and servingA pound of potatoes plus the lining fills something closer to a 2 1/2-cup mold (roughly 600 ml) -- four to six as a side dish with roast meat or game. Season the puree assertively, and keep the nutmeg barely detectable.

A Little History

Anything called a la Parmentier in a nineteenth-century French kitchen means potatoes, after Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, the pharmacist and agronomist who campaigned through the 1770s and 1780s to get the French to eat a tuber then widely regarded as fit only for livestock. By Charles Ranhofer's day the name had hardened into a straightforward menu convention. The timbale itself — a mold lined with something decorative, filled with a forcemeat or puree, baked and unmolded — was one of the standard architectural devices of the grande cuisine Ranhofer cooked at Delmonico's in New York, where a vegetable was expected to arrive at table as a built object rather than a spoonful. The Epicurean (1894) is essentially the working repertoire of that restaurant, and the fussy tiled lining here, laid up like slates, is a good measure of how much brigade labor sat behind a side dish of potatoes.