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Potatoes Sautees
Peel six medium-sized boiled potatoes, slice them into rather thin, equal slices. Heat in a frying pan one and a half tablespoons melted butter. Season with one teaspoon salt and two saltspoons white pepper. Gently toss the potatoes once in a while, cooking for seven minutes on a brisk fire, then give them an omelet form; cook them for four minutes longer, or until they obtain a good golden colour. Dress on a hot dish and serve.
A straightforward pan of sliced potatoes, but two details in the original will trip up a modern cook: the saltspoon measure and the instruction to give them "an omelet form."
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so two saltspoons of white pepper is half a teaspoon. That is a fair amount of pepper for six potatoes and is meant to be tasted.
- SaltA full teaspoon of salt for roughly two pounds of already-boiled potatoes reads high by current habits, particularly if the potatoes were salted in their boiling water. Add half, taste at the end.
- "Omelet form"This is the hinge, and the original does not explain it. The likely sense is that once the slices have browned loose in the pan they are folded or pressed into an oval cake, as an omelet is folded, and left to colour on the second side. Once you have shaped it, stop stirring.
- Brisk fireMedium-high heat on a modern burner. The potatoes need to sizzle steadily; too low and they steam into mush before colouring.
- Cold potatoesBoil the potatoes the day before and chill them. Warm, freshly boiled potatoes shed starch and break apart when sliced thin and tossed.
- FatOne and a half tablespoons of butter is scant for two pounds of potatoes in any pan larger than eight inches. Use three or four, or a mix of butter and a neutral oil so the milk solids do not blacken over eleven minutes of brisk heat.
- PanWell-seasoned cast iron or a heavy nonstick skillet. Anything else and the cake will weld to the surface at the moment you want to turn it out.
- YieldServes three or four as a side.
Pommes de terre sautées is one of the plainest items in the classical French repertoire, and boiled potatoes left from a previous meal were a common starting point. The instruction to shape them into an "omelet form" points toward the sort of dish also made as a potato galette, where sliced potatoes are packed into a cake and turned out whole.