Fried Potatoes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the potatoes
Pare and slice the potatoes very thin.
Soak the slices in cold water for 2 hours.
Add 1 teaspoon of salt to 1 quart of water and soak the potatoes in this brine for an additional hour.
Drain the potatoes on a screen.
Fry
Heat 1 lb of lard in a skillet over a brisk fire until smoking hot.
Dry the potato slices on a towel, then add a large plateful to the hot lard.
Stir continuously with a skimmer to prevent sticking and watch for a golden brown color.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Potatoes
- Form the main body of the dish; their starch crisps and browns when fried.
- Lard
- Conducts high heat around the slices and adds fat that gives a crisp, golden surface.
- Table salt
- Seasons the potatoes as they soak in the brine.
The step that matters
Dry the slices before frying. Surface water turns to steam in hot fat, which cools the lard and causes splattering and soggy, greasy potatoes instead of crisp browning. Drying the slices lets the fat stay hot enough to brown them.
“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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