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Garfield Potatoes
Peel ten small new potatoes, then cut in lengthwise slices a sixth of an inch thick. Wash and thoroughly dry, then place in a frying basket and fry in boiling fat six minutes or until a nice golden colour; lift up, thoroughly drain on a cloth, sprinkle half teaspoon salt over dress on a hot dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A plain deep-fried potato dish that depends entirely on dryness and fat temperature. Everything else is presentation.
- Dry the slices, then dry them againThis is the hinge. Wet potato slices drop the fat temperature, steam rather than crisp, and spit. Blot between towels until the surface is matte before they go anywhere near the fryer.
- "Boiling fat" means about 350-375FFat does not boil; the phrase describes the visible shimmer and the vigorous bubbling around anything dropped in. Use a thermometer and hold 350-375F, letting it recover between batches.
- A sixth of an inchRoughly 4 mm, thicker than a chip and thinner than a steak fry. A mandoline gives the even thickness that makes six minutes a meaningful instruction.
- Six minutes is for small new potatoesWaxy new potatoes at that thickness will colour in five to seven minutes at temperature. Larger, starchier potatoes brown faster on the outside than they cook through, so keep to small ones or expect to adjust.
- Frying basket and quantity of fatThe original assumes a deep kettle with a wire basket. Any heavy pot filled no more than a third deep works; fry in two or three batches so the slices are not crowded.
- Salt while hotThe half teaspoon goes on the moment they leave the drain cloth, while surface fat still holds it. Salted later, it slides off.
- The folded napkinA period serving convention: a linen napkin folded on the platter absorbed residual fat and kept the potatoes from sweating. It was a common way to send fried dishes to table. A wire rack over a warm dish does the same job.
- YieldTen small potatoes will make a side for perhaps three or four; the recipe gives no yield. They collapse quickly once cooled, so fry them last and serve immediately.
Named potato preparations were a staple of the American restaurant kitchen at the turn of the twentieth century, and dishes were sometimes named for presidents. Alexander Filippini, long associated with Delmonico's in New York, compiled hundreds of such named entries, and the differences between them are often minute: the cut, the fat, the shape of the slice. Garfield potatoes are essentially a lengthwise-cut fried potato, distinguished chiefly by thickness and by the small new potatoes specified. The folded napkin on the serving dish, which reads as an odd flourish now, was a common convention for fried dishes; it belonged to a dining room where the platter came to the table and had to look composed while it did the practical work of absorbing grease.