Pommes boulangère explained

Pommes boulangère
Image Alt:Photograph of a plate of sliced and cooked potatoes
Alternate Name:Pommes à la boulangère
Country:France
Main Ingredient:Potatoes, onion and cooking liquid

French: '''Pommes boulangère''' or French: '''pommes à la boulangère''' – "baker's potatoes" – 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.[1]

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/writerCooking liquidAdditionsRef
James Beardunspecified bouillon[2]
Heston Blumenthallamb stock and white wine[3]
Paul Bocusewatertomatoes[4]
Daniel Bouludchicken stock[5]
Angela Hartnettchicken stock[6]
Jean-Christophe Novellichicken or vegetable stockblanched cabbage in the layers,
Red Leicester cheese to top		[7]
Jamie Olivervegetable stockParmesan cheese to top[8]
Jacques Pépinchicken stock[9]
Gordon Ramsaychicken stock[10]
Michel Roux, Jr.chicken stock[11]
Guy Savoychicken stock and white wine[12]
Delia Smithvegetable stock[13]
Patricia Wellswhite wine and chicken stockleeks[14]
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,[15] and Bobby Freeman in a 1997 book about Welsh cuisine gives a recipe for traditional Welsh: Teisen nionod (onion cake), which she describes as "the same dish as the French French: pommes boulangère".[16]

When diced bacon is added to the potatoes and onions, and the dish is topped with grated cheese before baking, it is known as French: pommes savoyarde (or alternatively as French: pommes Chambéry).[17]

Notes, references and sources

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Roux, p. 226; and Boulud, p. 84
  2. Beard, p. 136
  3. Blumenthal, p. 259
  4. Bocuse, p. 272
  5. Boulud, p. 84
  6. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/19/angela-hartnett-potatoes-boulangere-cavalo-nero-recipes "Angela Hartnett's potatoes boulangere"
  7. Novelli p. 190
  8. https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/potato-recipes/boulangere-potatoes/ "Boulangère potatoes"
  9. Pépin, p. 262
  10. Ramsay, p. 14
  11. Roux, p. 226
  12. Savoy, p. 128
  13. https://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/main-ingredient/potatoes/potatoes-boulangeres-with-rosemary "Potatoes boulangères with rosemary"
  14. Wells, pp. 124–125
  15. Turner, p. 7
  16. Freeman, p. 161
  17. Saulnier, pp. 210 and 212

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