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Cubed Potatoes O'Brien
1 quart pared, cubed, raw potatoes Salt and pepper 2 tablespoons minced onion Mazola 2 tablespoons shredded pimientoes 2 tablespoons chopped green pepper 6 The potatoes should be cut in half-inch cubes. Put them in a frying basket and immerse in Mazola heated to 350 degrees F. or until it will brown a bit of bread in one minute. Drain, dust with salt and pepper and add the green peppers, pimientoes and onion sauted until tender in two tablespoons Mazola.
A deep-fried version of a dish usually pan-fried today, from a corn-oil promotional cookbook. The method is sound, but the ingredient list needs translating and the quantities need pinning down.
- MazolaA brand of corn oil, then as now. Any neutral oil with a smoke point above 400F works; the book names it because the book was published to sell it.
- A quart of potatoesMeasured by volume after cubing, not by weight. A quart of half-inch cubes is roughly 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lb of raw potatoes, about three good-sized russets.
- The stray 6Most likely the yield, printed as a bare numeral in the original layout; the text itself does not say so, and it may be a fragment of the surrounding page.
- Dry the cubesThe recipe does not say it, but wet potato going into 350F oil will spit and steam rather than crisp. Pat them thoroughly dry first.
- Fry in batchesA quart of cubes dropped at once will pull the oil temperature well below 350F and give you greasy, pale potatoes. Two or three batches, brought back to temperature between each.
- TimingHalf-inch cubes need roughly 5 to 7 minutes at 350F to cook through and colour. The bread-browning test given is the period's thermometer substitute and is reasonably accurate.
- PimientoesSweet red peppers, roasted and peeled, sold in jars. Drain and blot them or they will water down the finished dish.
- AssemblySauté the onion, green pepper and pimiento separately as directed, then fold them through the drained potatoes at the last moment. Held together too long, the vegetables soften the crust.
Potatoes O'Brien — diced potatoes fried with onion and sweet red and green pepper — turns up on American hotel and restaurant menus from the early twentieth century, and its origin is disputed rather than documented; it is variously claimed for Boston and for New York chophouses, with no firm evidence for either. What is clear is why it appears here. This book belongs to the genre of the branded cookbook, issued by a manufacturer — in this case the makers of Mazola corn oil — to demonstrate that its product could do everything butter, lard and drippings did. Deep-frying was the strongest argument such a company had, since corn oil tolerates higher heat than butter, so a dish that could plausibly be pan-fried is sent through the fryer basket instead. The pimiento, sold in tins and jars, was a standard American pantry item and a cheap way to put colour on a breakfast plate.