Duchesse Potatoes

Pommes Duchesse (Duchess potatoes) teach one true thing: control the water and the potato will obey you. A dry purée holds its shape, takes butter and yolks without slumping, and bakes into tender little loaves with bronzed edges. A wet one spreads. Drying the potatoes thoroughly is the step that decides the dish.

The old entry assumed croquette potato mixture already waiting, a floured board, and enough trained hands to shape trays for service. It calls for an oven, not a sauce or stockpot, and although a brigade might keep a salamander ready for rapid browning, your honest equivalent is a parchment-lined tray in a thoroughly heated home oven. I have reduced the production batch to four generous servings. The brigade quantities were scaffolding; the dry purée, yolks, gilding, and protective streaks are the dish, so every one remains.

When they are right, the centres are soft and buttery while the scored crowns are burnished gold. Shape them while the mixture is warm enough to cooperate, then gild lightly and cut the streaks through the beaten egg. Those little vents matter: they keep the gilding close to the potato instead of letting it rise in blisters.