Home › The World's Kitchen › Potatoes Mignonnes
Potatoes Mignonnes
Boil six medium, peeled potatoes in two quarts water with a teaspoon salt for thirty minutes, drain, then press through a potato masher into a saucepan, add two egg yolks, half ounce butter, half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons white pepper and half saltspoon grated nutmeg, thoroughly stir on the fire for two minutes, remove and let slightly cool off. Divide the preparation into twelve even parts, then roll out to ball-like shapes, lightly flatten, then place them in a buttered tin. Lightly egg their surface, then set them in the oven for ten minutes or until of a golden colour, remove, dress on a dish with a folded napkin and serve.
A plain duchesse-style potato under a French dining-room name. The recipe is sound as written; most of what needs translating is the measurements and the oven temperature the author never bothered to give.
- SaltspoonsA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so two saltspoons of white pepper is a scant half teaspoon and half a saltspoon of nutmeg is about an eighth. Half an ounce of butter is one tablespoon.
- Oven heatNo temperature is given; the original leaves the heat to the cook's judgement. For a ten-minute bake to golden, a hot oven of around 425F on an upper shelf will do it.
- Choose a floury potatoRussets or another mealy variety mash dry and hold a shape. Waxy potatoes turn gluey under the masher and the balls will slump in the tin.
- Dry the potatoAfter draining, return the potato to the hot dry pan for a minute before mashing. The two minutes of stirring over the fire in the original is doing the same job: driving off water so the yolks bind rather than loosen the mixture.
- Egg yolks off the heatLet the potato cool a little before the yolks go in if you are working slowly, or stir briskly as directed. Scrambled flecks of yolk spoil the texture.
- "Lightly egg their surface"Brush with beaten egg (a whole egg with a pinch of salt works). This is what gives the golden colour in ten minutes; without it the tops stay pale.
- Shaping aheadThe rounds firm up considerably in the refrigerator and are easier to handle chilled. They can be shaped hours in advance and egged just before baking.
- YieldTwelve cakes from six potatoes, which serves four to six as a side. The folded napkin on the serving dish is period presentation; it is generally said to absorb steam so the bottoms do not soften.
Mignonnes is French for "dainty" or "little darlings," the sort of flattering label attached to a shaped potato. The preparation itself is essentially the classic duchesse base — riced potato enriched with yolks and butter, seasoned with white pepper and nutmeg — which in French practice is piped into rosettes, rolled into croquettes, or, as here, flattened into small cakes and glazed with egg. Nutmeg with potato and dairy is a long-standing French convention, and white pepper is conventionally used so no dark specks show in the pale mixture. Presentation on a folded napkin was a common convention of the period for dishes of this kind.