Potato cooking

Thepotatois a starchytuberthat has been grown and eaten for more than 8,000 years. In the 16th century, Spanish explorers in theAmericasfoundPeruvianscultivating potatoes and introduced them to Europe. The potato, an easily grown source ofcarbohydrates,proteinsandvitamin C, spread to many other areas and became astaple foodof many cultures. In the 20th century potatoes are eaten on all continents; the method of preparation, however, can modify itsnutritional value.
Prepared in its skin or peeled and cooked by methods including boiling,grilling,sautéing, andfrying, the potato is used as amain dishor as aside dish, or as an ingredient. It is also used as athickener, or for its by-products (starchor modified starches).
Joseph Dombey, in a letter written fromLimaon May 20, 1779, specifies the ancestral way used by the Peruvians to prepare potatoes that constitute, withcorn, their only food and that they carry in ahaversackduring their long journeys: the potato is cooked in water, then peeled and exposed to the wind and the sun until it is completely dry, which allows to preserve it "several centuries, by guaranteeing it of the humidity".Thispapa secais mixed with other foods for consumption.Another process consists of freezing the potato and treading on it to remove the skin. Thus prepared, it is put in running water and loaded with stones. Fifteen or twenty days later, it is exposed to the sun until it dries. It becomes thechuño, "a real starch, with which one could make powder for the hair".The Peruvians use it to prepare jams, a flour for convalescents, and mix it with almost all their dishes.
An author of the 20th century points out that the process of the Peruvians, who operate by freezing followed bydehydration, is not other than "a freeze-drying by the natural means".He specifies that the tubers are left in frozen water several nights before being exposed to the sun and trodden on and that, "to make the product suitable for consumption, it is enough to put it back in water". According to him, the Spaniards used this preparation in the 16th century to feed the indigenous people forced to work in the silver mines ofPotosi.
Another ancient way of preparing potatoes in the Andes was by mimicking native wildlife, specifically, wild relatives of the llama. They would lick clay before eating wild poisonous potatoes which would help negate the toxins. The people of the Andes copied this by creating a mixture of clay and water to dunk the potatoes into so they could eat them as well. The need for this mixture mostly disappeared with the selective breeding of non-poisonous potatoes but the practice remains in use where the old species of posionous potatoes are still grown.
Chuñois still produced in the AndeanAltiplano, specifically in the Suni andPunaregions, which are the only regions with suitable eco-climatic conditions,and is consumed inArgentina,Bolivia, Chile andPeru. According to the botanistRedcliffe Salaman, in prehistoric times,chuñowas ground into flour and incorporated into all kinds of stews andchupes, a kind of hearty soup of very ancient origin, but still cooked.
Another traditional product of the Altiplano istocosh, obtained from the fermentation of potatoes left in a stream of water for at least six months. This product, considered to haveprobioticproperties, is used in the preparation of a local dessert, themazamorra de papas.
It seems that the firstbook to give recipesfor potatoes was written by the chef of three successive prince-bishops of thePrincipality of Liège: theOuverture de cuisineofLancelot de Casteau, published in 1604, which gives four ways of cooking this plant, which was still exotic for Europe:
The absence of salt in the seasoning is justified by the fact that the salt present in the butter at the time was sufficient.
Lancelot de Casteau makes no comment on the vegetable, its origin, its price, or the ease or difficulty of finding it on the market. However, he has been using potatoes since at least December 12, 1557, since the dish "boiled potato" appears in the third course of the banquet that he organized on that date for theJoyous EntryofPrince-Bishop Robert of Berghes. As a court cook, he had to use quality products while keeping a reasonable budget, as he worked on his own funds and was only paid after presenting his statement of fees.
The potato was cooked in the Principality of Liege sixty years before being offered "as a rarity at the table of the king" of FranceLouis XIII, in 1616.
In Ireland, the potato was introduced at the end of the 16th century and quickly became the main staple food until the end of the 19th century.
Among the peasants, it appears at every meal and in one form, the simplest possible, boiled in water. The tubers, with their skins, are cooked in acauldron, the only utensil necessary for their preparation, in a bottom of water. After cooking, the contents of the cauldron are poured into a shallowwickerbasket, called askeehogue, which allows for easy draining, and the whole family, sitting around the basket in front of the fireplace, serves itself with its hands, without fork or knife.
In more affluent homes, where people eat at the table, another characteristic utensil is used: a trivet in the form of a fairly high ring (dish ring). Often made of silver and richly decorated, its function was to protect the tabletop from the heat.
In 1740, a shortage of potatoes led to a famine in the country – although on a smaller scale than the one that hit Europe – in Ireland in 1845, causing nearly a million deaths and several million refugees and emigrants.
Arrived in Europe in the 16th century, thissolanaceousplant (with a pink skinned tuber in England and a yellow skin in Spain) spread in the Principality of Liege, Ireland, Flanders, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, etc.
In France, its resemblance with toxic species (for example thedaturas, known for their toxicity to livestock, but also to humans) and the lack of techniques of conservation and use, are brakes to its cultivation, beside purely agronomic reasons (bad ecological adaptation) or religious (non-perception of thetitheon this food). In theThéâtre d'agriculture et Mesnage des champs, published in 1600,Olivier de Serresalready recommended the cultivation of the "white truffle" or "cartoufle" and found it to have a flavor worthy of the best black truffles.Around 1750, the cultivation and consumption of tubers were recommended by several people or institutions:Duhamel du Monceau, thebishops of AlbiandLéon, the ministerTurgot,Rose Bertin, the Agricultural Society of Rennes. Ten years before the publications ofAntoine ParmentierandSamuel Engel, Duhamel du Monceau "strongly exhorts farmers not to neglect the cultivation of this plant" and remarks that "it is an excellent food especially with a little bacon and salted pork".
But the French population remains more than reticent before this dish: the majority of French people still disdain it as a food for humans, even if it is cultivated and used in some regions. However, this vegetable is an alternative to wheat, the food base whose lack has causedshortagesfor centuries, which will lead to theGreat Fearor an increase in the price of bread, such as it will be one of the popular reasons for the support of the people to the bourgeoisie during theFrench Revolution, the hungry crowd going toVersaillesto get the "Boulanger" (Louis XVI), the "Boulangère" (Marie-Antoinette) and the "Petit Mitron" (thedauphin).
According to contemporaries:
To these words,LaFeuille villageoiseadds: "The example of honest, good farmers and landlords will suffice to familiarize the most stubborn day laborer with this new food; we could also use the ingenious means that were used in Ireland to accustom the least educated and least well-to-do portion of the people. In the schools, when a child had learned his lesson well, he was given a potato as a reward. When he had earned the prize for wisdom as well as for memory, he was given several; he ate them with delight; his classmates envied him, or feasted on the portion he was willing to give them. Sometimes he brought his apple home; the parents tasted it and found it good. Insensibly, the general repugnance of the people fell away, and it was not two generations before the potato became the favorite stew of the Irish."
In the 18th century, the potato was actively studied in all its practical aspects: cultivation and reproduction, diseases, use as a food for animals and as a vegetable for humans. Its use was also considered in the same way as that of cereals which produce flour – and therefore bread – but also alcohol. Other uses and by-products were born, some of which still exist in the 21st century.
As early as 1731,starchwas extracted from the potato and used as a substitute for wheat starch.
It is also used in pastries and cookies; it is in particular an ingredient of theGâteau de Savoie; it is added, mixed with water, to omelets and is used for sauces in smaller quantities than flour.
Potato starch was used to produce artificial honey that looked like honey from Narbonne.It is still abundantly produced in the 21st century. The extraction of this starch gives rise to an important industrial activity: the "starch factory".
In 1771,Samuel Engelmentions, in hisTraité de la nature, de la culture, et de l'utilité des pommes de terre par un ami des hommes, that half of Europeans live on bread and the other half on potatoes, and also that bread is made by mixing a third or a quarter of potato with cereal flour, which gives a dish "preferred by taste, to bread of pure wheat".
He refers to various authors, including François Mustel who wroteMémoire sur les pommes de terre et sur le pain économique. Mustel invented, before 1766, a kind of invertedjointer planeto grate potatoes, peeled or not, into a fine mush that must be mixed with wheat flour: the proportion of one 1/3 flour to 2/3 potatoes gives an edible bread he says, 50% of each ingredient a good one, and at the rate of 2/3 to 1/3, it is difficult to notice that the bread is not pure wheat; the mixture must be kneaded with ordinarysourdough, but less water is used and less heat is applied, which produces an additional saving; this bread keeps fresher for longer, it remains edible for fifteen days, instead of six for traditional bread. This prolongation of freshness, which is very appreciable, encourages manyArdennesfarmers to add to their bread, until the 1980s, some 10% of potatoes,theGaumaisgoing up to 50%.
Research on the use of the tuber forbread makingwas numerous in France at the end of the 18th century, but this did not lead to the massive perpetuation of this practice. A newspaper of 1847 makes an argument on this subject: "In Scotland, in England, in Holland, in Germany, in Prussia, on the coast of the Baltic, the greater part of the population lives on potatoes during six to seven months of the year. Nowhere is bread made from them. France, which was the last to accept the potato as a food substance, is also the first to use it for a purpose that cannot be profitable. What is the use of going to so much trouble to spoil what is good?"
Potato bread remains in family or regional use: thus we note the Correzianfarcidure, NorwegianlefseandRēwena bread.
Antoine Parmentiertried to make alcohol and beer from the potato, having learned that in other countries it was being distilled, but he admitted his failure in 1773.Two years before, theEncyclopédie Méthodiquereported that potatoeau de viewas well known to the Swedes and other Europeans.
Five methods are listed in 1839, in theDictionnaire technologique:
In 1913, Antonin Rolet gave two recipes for potato starch beer, one made from hops and starch, the other from hops, starch and malt flour, for use by families andagricultural cooperatives.
In the 21st century,aquavit,vodka,poteenandhärdöpfelerare still produced from potatoes. These spirits can be used in cooking fordeglazingor flambéing.
Louis de Jaucourt, in theEncyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, cites a German who invented a way to make three cheeses, from large potatoes boiled in their skins, then peeled and ground with a spoon before being mixed with curdled milk; the cheeses obtained acquire more quality and finesse as they age.
TheEncyclopédie Méthodique, which includes this information, specifies the proportions according to which the cheese is intended for the poor (five pounds of vegetables for one pound ofcurd), for everyone (four pounds for two pounds of curd), or for the best tables (two pounds for four pounds of milk); by adding cream, large cheeses like those of Holland are made. She says that sheep's or goat's milk gives better results than cow's milk.
According to theEncyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, the Germans use potatoes as coffee, either by using the whole tuber, boiled, scraped, cut into small cubes and put to dry, or by using the peels, chopped and dried; in both cases, the dried material is roasted, ground, prepared and served like ordinary coffee, with cream for those who prefer it.
This potato syrup replaces sugar and sugar syrup. It is used in baking. In the Netherlands, the production of potato syrup started in 1819 inGoudawhere the first starch and sugar factory was built.
After having tried for a long time to make bread with potatoes, Antoine Parmentier understood that this tuber should be considered as a versatile vegetable, and that its use required the popularization of recipes that would make it a main food.
In hisExamen chymique des pommes de terrepublished in 1773,he cites (but without giving the precise date) the composition of a menu that he had served to friends:
By applying Menon's idea of creating a meal based on a single food, as this culinary writer had indicated in 1755, inLes Soupers de la cour ou l'art de travailler toutes sortes d'aliments pour servir les meilleures tables, suivant les quatre saisonswith hisMenu d'un repas servi tout en mouton,Menu d'un repas servi tout en cochonandMenu d'un repas servi tout en œufs, Parmentier demonstrates to a group of influential people in good society, includingNicolas François de Neufchâteau,that the potato can be used, in different forms, at different times of the meal. He thus succeeded in promoting the vegetable on the culinary level, which still leaves its mark on people's minds for a long time to come: "The guests, who were all distinguished men, people in credit or people of spirit, went to the fashionable salons to tell the news of their dinner where the potato reigned without rival", wrote theSemaine des familles, nearly a century later.
Parmentier took every opportunity to promote the tuber: when he receivedArthur Youngon October 24, 1787, the menu was based on potatoes and, for the first time, his sister Marie-Suzanne Houzeau served, among other dishes, steamed potatoes.
However, the use of this tuber did not become widespread in France until the end of the 19th century, whenAlexandre Dumasfelt the need to affirm its healthiness:
Depending on the preparation and cooking methods, thenutritional valueof potatoes can vary greatly. In particular, its energy content, moderate in comparison with otherstarchy foods, can increase considerably when cooked with fat, and its vitamin content is affected to a greater or lesser extent depending on the cooking method. However, cooking is essential to make it an appetizing and especially digestible food.
In the raw potato, the starch is mainly in the form ofresistant starch, so called because it resistsdigestive enzymessuch asamylase. Under the effect of heat, around 50 °C, theamyloseswells and causes the starch grains to burst, which "gelatinize" and lose their "resistant" character. However, when the preparation is subsequently cooled, e.g. in salads, the proportion of resistant starch increases due to a retrogradation of the amylose. In boiled potatoes, this proportion can be about 2% (of the total starch) and in potato salad it can be as high as 6%.The resistant starch remains intact in the large intestine, playing a role similar to that of dietary fiber, which may be of interest in some diets.
A 100 g portion of potatoes simply boiled in their skins provides 76 kcal, which is comparable to corn porridge, also 76 kcal, orplantain(94), but is significantly lower than the same portion of dried beans (115), pasta (132), rice (135) or bread (278). They are often paired or cooked with dietary fats, which can significantly increase the potato dishes caloric value.
Cooking in water causes the loss of some of the water-soluble elements, in particular vitamin C, especially when the tubers are peeled. Thus, in the case of a cooking of 25 to 30 minutes in boiling water, peeled potatoes can lose up to 40% of their vitamin C, 10% if they are cooked with the skin (in this last case, there remains 13 mg of vitamin C for 100 g of vegetable). These losses are added to those induced by the storage time, about 50% after three months.Other preparation methods are even more aggressive for vitamin C, but also for B vitamins; for example, pureeing causes up to 80% loss in vitamin C, and frying 60%.
Nevertheless, a 100 g serving of processed potato products can provide 10–50% of the recommended daily allowance of vitamin C for an adult.
Cooking with fat, especially frying, can lead to the formation ofacrylamide, a substance that is probablycarcinogenicto humans, especially if cooked for too long at high temperatures. This reaction occurs when potatoes contain too many reducing sugars (glucose and fructose); their rate, which should not exceed 0.4 to 0.6% of the fresh weight,depends on the variety, the maturity of the tubers and the storage conditions, low temperatures, below 8 °C, favoring the retrogradation of the starch into reducing sugars.
The potatoes known as "for consumption", i.e. which were harvested with complete maturity, can be preserved several weeks, provided that they are stored in a room that is ventilated, fresh (between 8 and 9 °C) but sheltered from the frost, and obscure because the light makes them green. Early potatoes, harvested before maturity, cannot be stored. They can be kept for a few days at most in the refrigeratorcrisper drawer.
Among the ingredients often associated with the potato, for example in various regional specialties, are milk anddairy products. These compensate for the deficiency of the tuber in vitamins A and D, and complete the dish inproteins,lipidsandcalcium. This explains why entire populations in Ireland and northern Europe have been able to subsist on a diet based almost exclusively of potatoes and milk.
More and more, potatoes are consumed and cooked through industrially processed products, mainly frozen products, most often precooked, or dehydrated (e.g.,potato flakes, granules,flour).
The share of processed products exceeds that of table potatoes in some Western countries (United States, Canada, Northern Europe). In Germany, for example, in 2003–2004, processed potatoes accounted for 34.3 kg per capita per year, compared to 32.5 kg for table potatoes.In the United States, the use of fresh potatoes represented, in 2007, only one third of the total consumption.
Most of the time, these are "ready to cook" products, which have the advantage of facilitating the preparation of meals, eliminating the need for tedious peeling, and which can be stored more easily and longer than fresh tubers. The most commonly used are dehydrated flaked mashed potatoes, or instant mashed potatoes, and pre-cooked frozenFrench fries. The latter are more commonly consumed in the catering industry. The simplest are peeled and pre-cooked vacuum-packed potatoes, which belong to the category of fresh products, known as fifth range. Canned potatoes (tins or jars) are also available on the market, sometimes mixed with carrots or peas.
Potato chips are a special case, since this product is consumed directly, without any culinary preparation, and most often outside the meal.
For many traditional recipes potatoes are peeled, which can be used to remove the green parts that contain solanine, aneurotoxinpresent in the potato's skin and sometimes the flesh.
Efficient techniques have been developed by the industry to peel large quantities of tubers while limiting losses and waste that must then be recycled, usually in animal feed. These techniques areabrasivepeeling (the one that produces the most losses), soda peeling (chemical peeling by soaking in a bath ofsodium hydroxideat high temperature, followed by rinsing), or steam peeling (a high-pressure steam bath removes the skin from the tubers, which is then vacuumed). The latter method minimizes vitamin losses.
Generally treated as waste, potato peels can also be cooked, in times of shortage or in the context of cooking leftovers. In addition to the cases where the tubers are cooked and served with their skins, for example new potatoes, one can also make appetizers in the form of potato peel chips, or fritters, by dipping peels taken from boiled potatoes in a fritter batter. Baked potatoes cut in half and scooped out with a spoon can be used to make nests, which can be stuffed with other ingredients, such as a poached egg in the case ofOeufs Toupinel.