Potato Ribbons
Wash and peel the potatoes, taking out their eyes and specks, peel them as you would an apple, round and round, very thinly into ribbons; place them in a frying basket and fry them in boiling fat for about six minutes. Sprinkle with salt and dish them in a pyramid on a napkin.
A garnish rather than a side dish: long thin spirals of potato fried crisp and piled beside roast game. The whole thing hinges on peeling a continuous ribbon and getting it dry before it meets the fat.
- "Boiling fat"Means fat hot enough to bubble furiously the moment food enters, roughly 350-375F. Beef suet, lard or clarified drippings were standard; any neutral high-smoke-point oil behaves the same.
- Six minutes is too longSix minutes is longer than needed -- paper-thin ribbons colour in about 2-3 minutes in fat at frying heat. Fry until the bubbling slows and the ribbons are pale gold; the longer original time may assume a cooler pan than a modern fryer holds.
- The peelA swivel peeler or a sharp paring knife going round and round the potato, as for an apple, gives one long continuous ribbon. A mandoline set thin, cutting the length of the potato, is the practical substitute.
- Dry them firstRinse the ribbons to wash off surface starch, then blot them thoroughly in a towel. Wet potato drops the fat temperature and spits, and damp ribbons steam limp instead of crisping.
- Potato choiceA floury variety - russet, Idaho, Maris Piper - crisps best. Waxy new potatoes hold too much moisture and go leathery.
- Frying basketOptional. A spider or slotted spoon works, and ribbons are less likely to mat together if you drop them in loose and stir once as they go in.
- Salt at onceSprinkle the moment they leave the fat, while the surface is still slick enough to hold it. Salting after they cool means the salt falls to the bottom of the dish.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities; two medium potatoes will make roughly enough to garnish a platter for a small party. The napkin is there to absorb fat and keep the pyramid from sliding; a folded linen cloth or a paper-lined dish does the same.
Potato ribbons belong to the family of late-Victorian fried-potato garnishes - straws, chips, game chips, gaufrettes - that arrived with the reliable deep pan and were served in a variety of ways: with roast birds, with fish and chops, and as a savoury on their own. Grouse, partridge and pheasant were conventionally sent to table with something crisp and starchy alongside, along with bread sauce and gravy, and the ribbon, peeled in one unbroken spiral, was the showiest of these cuts. The pyramid on a folded napkin is standard service of the period, seen with fried whitebait and croquettes as well.