The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Peel the potatoes and cut them into small balls using a vegetable cutter (¾ inch in diameter).
Fry
Heat lard in a deep pot until boiling.
Fry the potato balls in the hot lard for about 5 minutes until golden and cooked through.
Remove the balls from the lard immediately and sprinkle with coarse sea salt.
Serve
Serve immediately to maintain crispness.
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
- Provide the starchy interior that turns soft and fluffy while the outside crisps in hot fat.
- Lard
- Conducts high heat evenly and browns the potato surface, giving it a golden, crisp crust.
The step that matters
Remove the balls from the lard immediately. Potatoes keep cooking from residual heat and absorb fat as they cool, so leaving them in the lard softens the crust and makes them greasy. Draining them right away keeps the surface crisp.
“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.
You might also like
Illustration
Illustration
Illustration
IllustrationThe Sunday pairing: one pairing, the chemistry behind it, and how to cook it. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account for sign-in; Pro adds the full results and chemistry.