Authentic New Potatoes A La Francaise (1867)

donna

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
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This simple recipe for potatoes is from "Civil War Recipes Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book".

New Potatoes A La Francaise

Skin, wash and wipe dry early potatoes; melt some butter in a stew pan; when it is quite hot place the potatoes in it, simmer them slowly, turn them occasionally, and when done take them up and place them in another stew pan, with sufficient fresh butter to form a sauce, shake them over the fire merely till the butter is melted, arrange them in a dish, pour the butter over them and stew a little fine salt upon them, serve as hot as possible. In Italy olive oil is employed instead of butter, and is really preferable.
 
This simple recipe for potatoes is from "Civil War Recipes Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book".

New Potatoes A La Francaise

Skin, wash and wipe dry early potatoes; melt some butter in a stew pan; when it is quite hot place the potatoes in it, simmer them slowly, turn them occasionally, and when done take them up and place them in another stew pan, with sufficient fresh butter to form a sauce, shake them over the fire merely till the butter is melted, arrange them in a dish, pour the butter over them and stew a little fine salt upon them, serve as hot as possible. In Italy olive oil is employed instead of butter, and is really preferable.
You can combine the oil with the butter and it will keep the butter from browning and it will be better for you then straight butter,but butter tastes so good.
 
There's nothing like a bit of cool, fresh butter melting on a hot peeled potato! I don't even need salt with that. So delicious!! And the sensation of the cool butter and the hot piece of potato in your mouth is thrilling. The simple things are often the best!
Butter is awesome except if you are a Cardiologist.
 
That is refuted! Butter is not half as bad as we all thought over the decades! Now here people are advised to preferably eat butter instead of margarine, because butter is by far not as much processed as margarine and it has no evidenced effect on your cholesterol level. Isn't that good news?!
 
This simple recipe for potatoes is from "Civil War Recipes Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book".

New Potatoes A La Francaise

Skin, wash and wipe dry early potatoes; melt some butter in a stew pan; when it is quite hot place the potatoes in it, simmer them slowly, turn them occasionally, and when done take them up and place them in another stew pan, with sufficient fresh butter to form a sauce, shake them over the fire merely till the butter is melted, arrange them in a dish, pour the butter over them and stew a little fine salt upon them, serve as hot as possible. In Italy olive oil is employed instead of butter, and is really preferable.
They had olive oil in the US back then?
 
That is refuted! Butter is not half as bad as we all thought over the decades! Now here people are advised to preferably eat butter instead of margarine, because butter is by far not as much processed as margarine and it has no evidenced effect on your cholesterol level. Isn't that good news?!
I have heard, too that in moderation butter is healthier than margarine! But like anything else, there are conflicting views....look at eggs, one day they are healthy, the next not so much. I eat both as butter and eggs are delicious! And really, who is going to get out of life alive anyway?
 
If you ever prepare a goose, save the fat, works wonders on new potatoes. Cover with cold fat, bring to a boil cook until tender. Toss onto a paper towel and cover with salt and various peppers. Contrary to what you would think, the spuds do not taste or come across greasy.
 
By 1870 there were about 25, 000 Italian immigrants in America. They mostly came from Northern Italy.

From 1890 to 1915, 3 million Italians came to U.S. They were from all regions of Italy but mostly Southern Italy.

If you want to read on Italian Immigrants see:

http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/voices/italian_immigration.cfm

Several Italians fought in the Civil War. See:
http://www.civilwarhome.com/italian.html

The Franciscans who started the missions in Ca. planted olive trees when they first came. Over the past 150 years more trees have been planted and great interest in olives and olive oil.

Based on this information and that there were Italians here before war, I would believe olive oil was used in recipes.

This recipe is from 1867 and had the use of olive oil.
 
This simple recipe for potatoes is from "Civil War Recipes Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book".

New Potatoes A La Francaise

Skin, wash and wipe dry early potatoes; melt some butter in a stew pan; when it is quite hot place the potatoes in it, simmer them slowly, turn them occasionally, and when done take them up and place them in another stew pan, with sufficient fresh butter to form a sauce, shake them over the fire merely till the butter is melted, arrange them in a dish, pour the butter over them and stew a little fine salt upon them, serve as hot as possible. In Italy olive oil is employed instead of butter, and is really preferable.

Sounds very similar to something my dad makes with parsley and butter with cubed potatoes. He got the recipe from his grandmother, perhaps its a variation of this one. The parsley adds a pop of color and some additional flavor.

And incidentally they were growing olives in California as early as the 1840's! See the below -

THE OLIVE IN CALIFORNIA
As the Franciscans marched north, establishing missions in California, they also planted olive groves. Southern California saw the first olive trees. According to an account in Judith Taylor's book, The Olive in California, a visitor to Mission San Fernando in 1842 saw the mission buildings in ruins but the orchard with a good crop of olives. The visitor remarked that the mission probably had the biggest olive trees in the state. Subsequently in the past 150 years, trees have been planted in several waves along with interest in olives and olive oil. Many of these older groves (80-150 years old) still exist in California. Most are in Northern California. In Southern California population and housing pressure have put the farmers out of business. There are many isolated trees or fragments of old groves but the land is too expensive for olive growing. Income per acre is 10 times lower than other crops like wine grapes and even those can't compete with development potential. ~ http://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/history-olive

 
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