Potato Fillets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare and slice the potatoes thinly into small fillets, about ¼ inch square.
Keep the fillets in cold water until ready to use.
Fry
Drop the fillets into boiling lard and cook until nearly done.
Remove the fillets with a skimmer and drain them.
Boil the lard again, then drop the potatoes back in and fry until fully cooked. This will cause the fillets to swell and puff.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Starchy base that becomes crisp outside and tender inside when fried.
- Lard
- Frying fat that transfers heat evenly and browns the fillet surfaces.
The step that matters
Boiling the lard again before the second frying. The fillets must go into very hot fat for the second fry. Hot fat quickly drives off surface moisture, which crisps the outside and makes the fillets puff. Lard that has cooled too much will soak into the potatoes and produce greasy, less crisp results.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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