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Boiled and Steamed Potatoes

Potatoes boiled and then steamed until dry, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Boiled and Steamed Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the old potatoes in cold water and scrub them clean.

  2. If any potatoes are diseased, peel them and cut out any black specks.

Boil

  1. Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water. Sprinkle with salt.

  2. Bring to a boil and cook for 20 to 30 minutes until tender. Check tenderness with a fork.

Steam and serve

  1. Drain the water and cover the potatoes with a clean cloth in the saucepan. Let them steam by the fire with the lid on until dry.

  2. Carefully peel the potatoes and serve in a hot dish.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Old potatoes
Starchy flesh that becomes fluffy and absorbs salt well when boiled and dried.
New potatoes
Waxier, firmer flesh that holds its shape better after boiling.

The step that matters

Drying the potatoes after draining. Letting the potatoes steam dry in the covered pan drives off surface water, so they stay fluffy rather than soggy and taste less diluted.

“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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