Pommes boulangère

Pommes boulangère
Photograph of a plate of sliced and cooked potatoes
Pommes boulangère
Alternative namesPommes à la boulangère
Place of originFrance
Main ingredientsPotatoes, onion and cooking liquid

Pommes boulangère or pommes à la boulangère – "baker's potatoes"[n 1] – is a savoury dish of sliced potato and onion, cooked slowly in liquid in an oven.

Background

The name of the dish is said to derive from an old practice in French villages, where householders without their own ovens would take the prepared dish to the village bakery. After the baker had finished making his bread, the potato dish would cook slowly while the oven gradually died down.[2]

Ingredients and variations

The basic ingredients are potatoes, onions and cooking liquid. The dish, cooked slowly in a low oven, gradually absorbing the cooking liquid, has a crisp top layer of sliced potatoes, with a softer mixture of onion and potato beneath. It is usual to season it with some or all of garlic, herbs (particularly rosemary or sage), salt and pepper, and to top the dish with dabs of butter before cooking, but there are several published variations:

Cook/writer Cooking liquid Additions Ref
James Beard unspecified bouillon [3]
Heston Blumenthal lamb stock and white wine [4]
Paul Bocuse water tomatoes [5]
Daniel Boulud chicken stock [6]
Angela Hartnett chicken stock [7]
Jean-Christophe Novelli chicken or vegetable stock blanched cabbage in the layers,
Red Leicester cheese to top 		[8]
Jamie Oliver vegetable stock Parmesan cheese to top [9]
Jacques Pépin chicken stock [10]
Gordon Ramsay chicken stock [11]
Michel Roux, Jr. chicken stock [12]
Guy Savoy chicken stock and white wine [13]
Delia Smith vegetable stock [14]
Patricia Wells white wine and chicken stock leeks [15]

Despite the French name, the dish is not unique to France. The Yorkshire-born chef Brian Turner recalled in his memoirs (2000) being given an identical potato dish in his childhood,[16] and Bobby Freeman in a 1997 book about Welsh cuisine gives a recipe for traditional Teisen nionod (onion cake), which she describes as "the same dish as the French pommes boulangère".[17]

When diced bacon is added to the potatoes and onions, and the dish is topped with grated cheese before baking, it is known as pommes savoyarde (or alternatively as pommes Chambéry).[18]

Notes, references and sources

Notes

  1. ^ According to the Dictionnaire de l'Académie française the term derives from the old Picard word "boulenc" – "baker, maker of bread in ball".[1]

References

  1. ^ "boulanger, boulangère", Dictionnaire de l'Académie française. Retrieved 27 November 2022
  2. ^ Roux, p. 226; and Boulud, p. 84
  3. ^ Beard, p. 136
  4. ^ Blumenthal, p. 259
  5. ^ Bocuse, p. 272
  6. ^ Boulud, p. 84
  7. ^ "Angela Hartnett's potatoes boulangere", The Guardian, 19 November 2012
  8. ^ Novelli p. 190
  9. ^ "Boulangère potatoes", Jamie Oliver. Retrieved 27 November 2022
  10. ^ Pépin, p. 262
  11. ^ Ramsay, p. 14
  12. ^ Roux, p. 226
  13. ^ Savoy, p. 128
  14. ^ "Potatoes boulangères with rosemary", Deliaonline. Retrieved 27 November 2022
  15. ^ Wells, pp. 124–125
  16. ^ Turner, p. 7
  17. ^ Freeman, p. 161
  18. ^ Saulnier, pp. 210 and 212

Sources

  • Beard, James (1974). The Best of Beard. New York: Golden Press. ISBN 0307487172.
  • Blumenthal, Heston (2011). Heston Blumenthal at Home. London: Bloomsbury. OCLC 1335927951.
  • Bocuse, Paul (1982). Bocuse dans votre cuisine. Paris: Flammarion. ISBN 2082000869.
  • Boulud, Daniel (1999). Café Boulud Cookbook. New York: Scribner. OCLC 1193384062.
  • Freeman, Bobby (1997). Traditional Food from Wales. New York: Hippocrene. OCLC 1285848394.
  • Novelli, Jean-Christophe (2007). Everyday Novelli. London: Headline. ISBN 978-0755317172.
  • Pépin, Jacques (2000). Jacques Pépin's Simple and Healthy Cooking. London: Hi Marketing. ISBN 0875963625.
  • Ramsay, Gordon (2006). Gordon Ramsay's Sunday Lunch. London: Quadrille. ISBN 1844002802.
  • Roux, Michel Jr (2013). The French Kitchen: Recipes from the Master of French Cooking. San Francisco: Weldon Owen. OCLC 1319320336.
  • Saulnier, Louis (1978) [1923]. Le répertoire de la cuisine (fourteenth ed.). London: Jaeggi. OCLC 1086737491.
  • Savoy, Guy (1987). Vegetable Magic. London: Ebury. OCLC 1280845785.
  • Turner, Brian (2000). A Yorkshire Lad: My Life with Recipes. London: Headline. ISBN 0747273669.
  • Wells, Patricia (1990). Les 200 meuilleures recettes de bistrot. Paris: Lattès. ISBN 2253063045.