Duchess potatoes - posh or humble?
"a rather precious way of serving mashed potatoes."
Elise Bauer/Simply Recipes
I think the above version of Duchess potatoes are as served on the Orient Express from a recipe by Escoffier no less on a website called Tasting History with Max Miller. I'm featuring it first because it's the polar opposite of the Duchess potatoes I remember my mother making in her tiny kitchen in a 50s gas-fired oven as a treat for us kids. Or maybe it was a way of getting us to eat mashed potatoes, which I think we were probably a bit diffident about due to the truly awful ones we were made to eat at our primary school for lunch. They were not cooked on site and ferried in from some mass kitchen and they had lumps in them which made me gag. Definitely no butter - or egg or nutmeg which apparently should be in the real thing.
Odd that those lumps in the mashed potato made me gag. AWhilst I do indeed try to get out all the lumps when I very rarely make mashed potatoes and I do indeed love the smooth puréed ones I still don't mind if there is the odd lump in the mashed potatoes. Not often made because they are another David pet hate. Which is difficult for him these days, because chefs in restaurants love them. They make for easy plating.
I have no idea where the original idea for this post came from but I thought it was time to 'do' it. There's probably not a lot to say, but here goes.
Going back to that photograph and the Escoffier recipe - which is actually hardly a recipe:
"Pommes de Terre Duchesse. Prepare a potato croquette mixture and mould into the form of small Brioche à Tête, bread rolls or flat cakes; or pipe out with a piping bag and star tube on to a buttered tray.Brush with beaten egg and place in a hot oven to colour, some 7-8 minutes before serving.” Le Guide Culinaire by Auguste Escoffier, 1903
According to Sophie Brickman on the Simply Recipes website, Escoffier was the first to actually pipe them into those swirly shapes:
"for years, pommes duchesse referred primarily to croquettes—neat cylinders of puréed potatoes breaded and fried until crispy, no piping required. At the turn of the 20th century, Auguste Escoffier called for the potato mixture to be piped out as a border for cod gratin but not specifically as rosettes. And as late as the 1960s, Julia Child allowed for pommes duchesse to be shaped with a fork or spoon, though she warned that "they look far more stylish when squeezed through a pastry bag."
Which is odd because my mother was either piping them or making them look as if they were piped with a fork, back in the 50s. That was what Duchess potatoes were - swirly little cakes of browned mashed potato. Special, even if they were not served on expensive plates, eaten with silver cutlery and served with the best French wine in cut glass Waterford wine glasses. Ours were also special because they were cheesy. Which now that I think of it, also used to make me gag - cooked cheese that is. And yet I loved my mum's duchess potatoes. There is no logic to children's likes and dislikes is there?
Before we get on to variations and recipes a little bit more about history. These are a French classic, in spite of them becoming popular in classy restaurants in America in the early 20th century - and from there to everywhere I guess. Jamie Oliver seemed to think they were an 80s thing. However:
"The first known appearance of a pommes duchesse recipe was in La Nouvelle Cuisinière Bourgeoise, a cookbook published in 1746." Simply Recipes
Which is slightly odd because of this particular piece of information found in a number of different places, this one from the Tasting History article:
"The French were so suspicious of potatoes that in 1748 the government issued a decree forbidding anyone to grow them; rumor had it they caused leprosy"
This is a known fact but it wasn't until 1772 that Parmentier persuaded the government of their safety, indeed their health benefits after he had survived as a prisoner of war in Prussia by eating only potatoes. Maybe a few people believed in them before the leprosy scare. Anyway the name was given to this particular dish in an attempt to make potatoes desirable. In spite of Jeanne in the Kitchen - referencing the Downton Abbey website telling us:
"Pommes duchess were named after the Duke and Duchess of Bourgogne, who were known for their love of fine dining and entertaining. According to legend, the dish was first created by the Duke’s personal chef, who was tasked with coming up with a new and impressive potato dish for a royal banquet. The chef decided to take mashed potatoes, which were already a popular dish at the time, and elevate them. By piping the mashed potatoes into decorative shapes and baking them until crispy, he created a dish that was both visually stunning and delicious." A Jeanne in the Kitchen
Even Jeanne calls it a legend. So basically who knows. Other than it comes from France, some time around the time that potatoes became acceptable and that it was indeed most likely a marketing exercise.
As it still is - and in spite of everyone saying it's easy to do Sophie Brickman - an actual chef tells us that it was the one potato dish she could not master because of the piping until Manhatten chef Jean François Bruel explained:
"He told me to smoosh the riced potato mixture to one corner of the bag, compressing it to squeeze out any air bubbles. Then, holding it at an 80-degree angle, I was to exert slow, steady pressure from the top with one hand while guiding the flow of the mixture with the other. Once I learned the movement, there was structural integrity to consider. I had to build each rosette in tight concentric circles, leaving no hollow space inside, or the form I'd worked so hard to master would collapse in the oven." Sophie Brickman/Saveur
Which is somewhat offputting is it not?
Having now browsed the net herewith a few examples of the classic kind - mashed potatoes whipped with egg yolks, flavoured with a little nutmeg and brushed with butter after that piping. Well maybe there are some that have sneaked in some cheese, or cream, herbs or garlic: Not Quite Nigella; Rebecca Nittolo/Taste; Alexa Weibel/New York Times; Sasha Marx/Serious Eats; and Jamie Oliver
Jamie also has a somewhat revolting looking imitation wedding cake - which he probably thinks is fun - the duchess potatoes decorate a cake made of slices of potato baked in a gratin kind of way - and there is also an almost as awful looking version produced on Master Chef Australia - Well I guess in a way Duchess potatoes are an excessive thing - from the name itself.
There are better ways of making them look even prettier though - which generally make use of the topping technique.
Last thing I noted - lots of the recipes raved about it being the perfect Christmas side because you can make them the day before, freeze them or not and then cook in the oven.
Potatoes for the cake-making brigade. Maybe Jamie was having a dig at them with his kind of potato wedding cake.
YEARS GONE BY
September 26
2024 - Cool as a cucumber
2023 - L'apéro
2022 - Washing up
2021 - Missing
2020 - Missing
2018 - Gulyás, goulash or pörkölt
2017 - Marshmallows
2016 - Cappuccino
One up for the Duchess's I have only known one duchess, my Aunt Irene, Duchess of Craven