Les Pommes de Terre

The arrival of the potato in the eighteenth century as an alternative starch to replace the ubiquitous chestnut gave this new vegetable an important place in the family meals, not only as part of la soupe but being combined with eggs and cheese or eaten as a vegetable. In any event there is plenty of evidence that potatoes prepared in one way or another were eaten at least once a day.

As a vegetable they were for the most part plainly boiled, or baked in their jackets under la braise of the wood fire. But someone soon found that to sauter them in goose or duck fat made a wonderful combination. You do not find in the region quite the roast potatoes prepared in the English manner – although goose fat does make the best English roast potatoes of all – but instead delicious variants, the best known being.