The Potato Chronicles

Have you ever had an experience where you ask yourself why something so obvious is so completely unknown?

The CC is going to discuss roasted potatoes and French fries and what they have in common.

It's a well-known fact among connoisseurs of the humble potato that the best way to fry it is in various versions of animal fats. Goose fat, duck fat, chicken fat and horse fat. Expensive but mind-blowingly awesome.

What also makes the perfect fry is that the surface is crispy and brown (tastes come from the Maillard reaction) and the insides perfectly soft and creamy. It's the contrast that makes it work. Here's a refresher to the science.

The potato has been a staple in many cuisines once the New World was discovered. It rapidly spread across the globe. Roasting it aside the meat which shed its fat was a common and delicious idea.

The innovation which surprised the CC last night was simple. Instead of letting the potato roast, the chef took a medium-sized potato, peeled it, sliced it vertically into thin sections that were still attached at the base — leaving the potato whole —  and roasted it. It's simple knife-work. This thin slicing meant that the edges of the potato were completely crispy while the insides were completely creamy. The potato was clearly roasted with some goose fat and served with the roasted goose giving the dish a coherent feel.

It's such a simple idea and yet so radical.

What's Good for the Goose!

From Johann Jacob Wecker's Eighteen Books of the Secrets of Art of Nature (1660) comes a most unusual recipe.

It's how to roast a goose alive and eat it in that condition.

The last line of the recipe is the pièce de resistance!

(Hint: the character ſ is the modern day "s".)

Source: Link.

To roſt a Gooſe alive 

Let it be a Duck or Gooſe, or ſome ſuch lively Creature, but a Gooſe iſ beſt of all for thiſ purpoſe, leaving hiſ neck, pull of all the Feather from hiſ body, then make a fire round about him, not too wide, for that will not roſt him: within the place ſet here and there ſmall potſ full of water, with ſalt and Honey mixed therewith, and let there be diſheſ ſet full of roſted Appleſ, and cut in pieceſ in the diſh, and let the Gooſe be baſted with Butter all over, and Larded to make him better meat, and he may roſt the better, put fire to it; do not make too much haſte, when he beginſ to roſt, walking about, and ſtriving to fly away, the fire ſtopſ him in, and he will fall to drink water to quench hiſ thirſt; thiſ will cool hiſ heart and the other partſ of hiſ body, and by thiſ medicament he looſneth hiſ belly, and growſ empty. And when he roſteth and conſumeſ inwardly, alwayeſ wet hiſ head and heart with a wet ſponge: but when you ſee him run madding and ſtumble, hiſ heart wantſ moyſture, take him away, ſet him before your Gueſtſ, and he will cry aſ you cut off any part from him and will be almoſt eaten up before he be dead, it iſ very pleaſant to behold.