Can a cheap potato become a luxury? The Afro-American (Baltimore) column closed with potato puffs, a hotel-kitchen showpiece, and walked readers through the chemistry as capable students of kitchen science. Lower-caste cooks labored in dominant-caste dining rooms they could not enter as guests. Mastering that refinement in their own kitchens quietly crossed a caste line. Read together, the column's recipes stretched every penny without changing who owned the land. Where does household skill end and sovereignty begin?
[Side Bar]
Some cooks called these soufflés. The column turned pommes soufflées, a French restaurant technique, into plain home work for the humblest tuber.
Potato Puffs
Ingredients
Peeled potatoes
Ice water
Deep fat
Directions
Slice the potatoes very thin and soak in ice water until chilled. Plunge in a wire basket into deep fat (150 degrees F., as printed) for fifteen seconds. Remove and cool. Return to fat heated to 375 degrees F. and fry until puffed and golden brown. The first short frying seals the slices, retaining the moisture. After cooling, the second frying creates steam inside, which expands the potato, making the puff. Afro-American October 1, 1932, 15.