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Broiled Potatoes
Peel six medium, even-sized cooked potatoes and cut them in half. Have on a plate a half teaspoon salt and tablespoon melted butter, well mixed; repeatedly turn the potatoes in the seasoning, carefully arrange them on a double broiler and broil for three minutes on each side. Dress on a hot dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A leftover-potato dish that depends entirely on the potatoes being properly cooked and dry before they ever meet the fire. A few of the terms need translating for a modern range.
- "Cooked potatoes"These are boiled or steamed potatoes, cooled enough to peel and halve without collapsing. Waxy varieties hold their shape; a floury baking potato will crumble when turned in the butter.
- "Double broiler"Not a double boiler. This is a hinged wire broiler — two grids that clamp the food between them so the whole lot can be flipped at once over coals. A grill basket does the same job; under an oven broiler, a rack set 4 inches from the element and a pair of tongs will serve.
- Heat and timingThree minutes a side assumes a fierce, direct fire. Under a modern broiler, work close to the element and go by color rather than the clock — you want browned, blistered faces, which may take five minutes or more if the potatoes went in cold.
- Bring them to room temperatureStraight from the refrigerator, the outsides scorch before the middles warm. Let cold potatoes sit out, or the three-minute instruction produces a hot crust over a cold center.
- The seasoningA tablespoon of butter for six potatoes is sparing by current taste; two will coat them better and encourage browning. Mixing the salt into the butter first, as directed, distributes it far more evenly than sprinkling.
- "Dress on a hot dish with a folded napkin"Standard period service: a linen napkin folded on the platter, used for fried and broiled foods, presumably to keep them from sitting in their own grease or moisture. A wire rack or a warmed dish lined with a clean cloth does the same.
- YieldTwelve halves, enough as a side for four to six.
Broiling boiled potatoes is a thrift dish dressed for company -- it turns yesterday's plain boiled potatoes into something worth putting on a platter. The hinged double broiler it calls for was a common piece of kit when cooking still happened over coals or in a coal range's broiling compartment, and it survives in the modern grill basket. The folded napkin is a marker of the period's formal service: it appears widely in Victorian and Edwardian cookery for fried and broiled foods, croquettes and fritters alike.