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Lyonnaise Potatoes (Put two tablespoonfuls)
Put two tablespoonfuls of clarified butter in a skillet or frying pan; add to it two tablespoonfuls of minced onion. Cook until the onion turns yellow, then add two cupfuls of hashed cold potatoes, with which a tablespoonful of minced parsley has been mixed, and which has been seasoned with salt and pepper. Cover and cook slowly until nicely browned on the under side, then fold, and put on a heated dish. Two spoonfuls of sweet cream added while cooking, is an improvement.
A straightforward pan of fried potatoes and onion, given here as a game accompaniment. Almost everything depends on how the potatoes were cooked the day before.
- Start with cold cooked potatoes"Hashed cold potatoes" means boiled or steamed potatoes, fully chilled, then chopped coarsely rather than diced neatly. Warm or freshly boiled potatoes shed starch and turn to paste in the pan.
- QuantitiesTwo cupfuls of chopped potato is roughly two medium potatoes, about 10 to 12 oz before cooking. This serves two alongside a main dish.
- Clarified butterPresumably specified because whole butter's milk solids scorch during the long slow browning. Clarified butter or ghee handles it; a mix of butter and a neutral oil works the same way.
- Cook the onion first, gently"Until the onion turns yellow" means softened and just golden, not caramelized. Two tablespoonfuls of minced onion is about a quarter of a small onion.
- Covered and slow is the hingeThe lid traps steam so the interior heats through while the underside sets into a single browned cake. Resist stirring; leave it 10 to 15 minutes over medium-low heat before checking the crust.
- "Then fold"The cake is folded in half like an omelette, browned face out, and slid onto the platter. A wide spatula and a pan with sloping sides make this possible; if it breaks, serve it in pieces.
- Sweet cream"Sweet" simply means fresh rather than soured. Two spoonfuls of heavy cream added partway through binds the interior; add it before the crust has fully formed, not after.
Lyonnaise cooking takes its name from Lyon, and in nineteenth-century French kitchen shorthand "à la lyonnaise" meant, above all, with onions — the city and its surrounding countryside are traditionally associated with onion growing. The dish appears in American household manuals by the 1890s as a respectable way to use up the previous day's boiled potatoes, which is why the recipe assumes cold potatoes are simply on hand. Its placement in the game chapter is often said to reflect period service, in which roast or braised game birds and venison went to table with a starch cooked in butter, and a folded potato cake could be held in a warm oven while the meat was carved.