Chipped Potatoes

Pommes chips (chipped potatoes) teach one clear principle: crispness begins in cold water, not hot oil. The ten-minute soak removes the loose surface starch that makes fine potato roundels cling together, while thorough drying allows them to fry crisp instead of softening beneath trapped moisture.

The original assumed a special potato plane, a fryer kept ready for service, stacks of linen, and brigade quantities. It needed neither a saucier nor stock kept on the fire, and certainly no salamander. A guarded mandoline, a heavy pot, two clean towels, and a thermometer are the honest home equivalents. The ready fryer and endless linen were brigade scaffolding and can go; the ten-minute soak, complete drying, and small-batch frying are the dish and must stay. This version uses 900 grams of potatoes for four people: one cook, one stove, one evening.

Finished well, the roundels are fine, curled at their edges, and pale gold, with a clean snap that holds whether they reach the table hot or cool beside game roasted à l'anglaise (in the English manner). The step that matters most is drying: before a single slice meets the oil, its surface must feel like dry paper beneath your fingertips.