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Saratoga Potatoes
Pass through a Saratoga potato machine three medium-sized, sound, peeled, raw potatoes. Wash them in cold water, drain well on a sieve, drop them one by one into boiling fat and fry until of a good golden colour--which should take about five minutes--turning them over with a skimmer once in a while. Lift them up with the skimmer, place in a wire basket and let thoroughly dry. Sprinkle half teaspoon salt over them and serve on a hot dish with a folded napkin.
N. B. If no Saratoga potato machine is at hand, slice the potatoes with a sharp knife as thin as possible.
A potato chip, cooked the way chips were made before they came in bags. The whole recipe turns on how thin the slices are and how dry they go into the fat.
- The "Saratoga potato machine"A purpose-made slicer sold for cutting potatoes very thin for chips. A mandoline set to about 1/16 inch, or the thin slicing blade of a food processor, does the same job; a knife will work but rarely gives uniform slices, and uneven slices burn and undercook in the same batch.
- Wash, then dry hardThe cold-water rinse removes surface starch so the slices do not weld together in the fat. Drying is the hinge: blot the slices between towels until no moisture shows, or the fat will foam and spit and the chips will go leathery rather than crisp.
- Fat temperatureThe book assumes you can judge "boiling fat" by eye. Use 350-360F for slices this thin, in a pot no more than a third full. Below 325F they absorb grease; above 375F they colour before they dry out.
- Five minutes is for a full basketFive minutes is longer than small batches usually need -- three potatoes fried a handful at a time may colour in two to three minutes. Pull them at pale gold, since they darken after leaving the fat.
- "Let thoroughly dry"He means drain off the fat while they are still hot. A rack over a tray works better than paper, which traps steam underneath and softens the bottoms.
- Salt while hotHalf a teaspoon is the recipe's own amount for three potatoes, and salt clings best while the chips are hot and still faintly greasy. Toss rather than sprinkle.
- Yield and holdingThree medium potatoes give roughly four modest servings. These are best within the hour; the folded napkin in the original is a presentation convention of the period, though it will also soak up some grease.
The name points to Saratoga Springs, New York, the resort town where the very thin fried potato slice became a house specialty in the mid-nineteenth century; the often-repeated tale of a short-tempered chef slicing them paper-thin to spite a fussy diner is traditional rather than documented, and versions of it attach to more than one cook. What is clear is that by the time this book appeared, "Saratoga chips" or "Saratoga potatoes" was standard restaurant vocabulary in America. The existence of a purpose-built "Saratoga potato machine" is the telling detail: the dish was popular enough to support a dedicated gadget well before commercially bagged potato chips made home frying unnecessary.