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Potatoes Rissolees
Peel, wash and drain well twelve peeled sound new potatoes. Heat two tablespoons good lard in a frying pan, add potatoes and fry on the fire until a nice golden colour, turning once in a while. Sprinkle over a teaspoon salt, toss again, set in a moderate oven for twenty-five minutes. Remove, drain and serve.
A simple French treatment of small new potatoes: browned in fat on the stove, then finished in the oven so the interiors cook through. Two details carry the dish.
- Dry the potatoes properly"Drain well" is the hinge. Surface water turns the fat to steam and the potatoes will pale and stew instead of browning. Peel them, rinse, then pat dry in a towel before they meet the pan.
- Size matters more than countTwelve new potatoes assumes small ones, roughly walnut to golf-ball size, about 1 1/2 lb total. Anything larger will not cook through in the time given; halve or quarter larger potatoes to match.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350-375F; the recipe says only "moderate." Twenty-five minutes at that heat suits small whole potatoes; test with a skewer, which should meet no resistance at the centre.
- Use one ovenproof panThe recipe does not say whether to transfer, so the simplest reading is that the frying pan goes into the oven; if so, start in cast iron or another all-metal skillet with no plastic handle.
- The fatTwo tablespoons lard for a dozen potatoes is lean; it browns rather than fries. Clarified butter, duck fat or a neutral oil all work in its place. Butter alone will burn at the oven stage.
- Salt timingSalt goes on after the crust forms, as written. Added at the start it draws moisture to the surface and hinders colouring. A teaspoon for 1 1/2 lb is generous but correct for potatoes eaten plain.
- YieldTwelve small potatoes will do for about four as a side dish, though the recipe gives no number. They are meant to go straight to the table; held warm they soften and lose the shell that is the whole point.
Rissoler is the French kitchen's verb for browning something in fat until a crust forms, and pommes rissolées are one of the standard garnishes of classical service, usually sent out alongside roast meat. The method of colouring on the stove and finishing in the oven is the same logic as a roast potato without the roast: the fat does the browning, the oven does the cooking. Its appearance in a book called The International Cook Book is characteristic of the period, when American cookery writers were busy translating the French repertoire into plain English for home cooks, keeping the French name because it signalled the standard being aimed at. The insistence on new potatoes is practical rather than fussy: waxy, freshly dug potatoes hold their shape through both stages, where a mealy old potato crumbles when tossed.