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Lyonnaise Potatoes (Half pound of cold boiled)
Half pound of cold boiled potatoes, two ounces of onion, a spoonful of minced parsley, butter one tablespoonful. Slice the cold boiled potatoes, or cut them quite fine. Put the butter into a saucepan and when hot, throw in the onion (minced), which fry to a light color; add the sliced potatoes, turn until they are thoroughly hot, and of a light color also; then mix in the minced parsley, and serve immediately while very hot.
A compact French side dish that needs almost nothing translated, though the proportions are worth reading closely before you start.
- ScaleHalf a pound of potatoes with two ounces of onion serves two as a side dish. For four, double everything and use a 12-inch skillet rather than a saucepan so the slices sit in a single layer.
- "A spoonful"The recipe specifies a tablespoon for the butter but leaves the parsley spoonful unmarked; period usage varies and it could be either a tea- or a tablespoonful. A tablespoon of minced parsley suits modern palates.
- Butter is shortOne tablespoon for half a pound of potatoes will not give you the browned, crisp faces the dish is known for. Two tablespoons, or butter with a little neutral oil to raise the smoke point, is closer to how the dish is cooked now.
- Cold potatoes matterBoiled-and-chilled potatoes have set starch and hold their shape when turned; freshly boiled ones fall apart into mash. Boil them the day before, or at least chill them thoroughly. A waxy or all-purpose variety works better than a floury baker.
- Slice thicknessQuarter-inch rounds brown well and stay intact. "Cut them quite fine" is the alternative treatment and gives something closer to a hash, which needs more fat and less turning.
- Onion timing"Fry to a light color" means soft and pale gold, not browned; two ounces is roughly a third of a medium onion and will take four or five minutes over medium heat. Dark onion turns bitter against the mild potato.
- Turn, do not stirThe instruction to turn is deliberate. Let each side sit undisturbed a couple of minutes to take color, then lift and flip with a spatula. Constant stirring breaks the slices and produces a grey mass.
- SeasoningNo salt or pepper is listed. Season the potatoes as they go into the pan and again at the end.
Lyonnaise means "in the manner of Lyon," and in French cooking the label conventionally signals onions. The dish belongs to the large family of nineteenth-century preparations built on leftover boiled potatoes; the same impulse produced potato hash, potato cakes and pommes sautees. Its appearance in an English-language American book reflects how far French service terms had entered middle-class cookery, often with the accents dropped and the technique simplified. That it is filed here under Game is a quirk of arrangement rather than of cooking: fried potatoes were a common accompaniment to roast birds.