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Pommes de Terre Macaire
Created by Chef Juliette
Pommes de Terre Macaire turns baked potato and butter into one broad, deeply bronzed galette. Fork the pulp, never sieve it, because the craggy tenderness inside is the dish.
Pommes de Terre Macaire (a forked baked-potato galette) teaches a severe little truth: texture is the dish. Bake the potatoes until their pulp is dry and fluffy, work it with a fork and 1½ ounces of butter for each pound of pulp, then stop while it still holds ridges and small irregular crumbs. Sieve it and you lose Macaire before the pan ever gets hot.
The classical entry assumes Dutch potatoes understood by the market, hot baked potatoes arriving for service, clarified butter already waiting, and an omelet pan in practiced hands. At home, floury russets give the same dry pulp, while a 10-inch skillet and a flat plate handle the turn. Having a cook hold potatoes and butter for service is brigade scaffolding and can go; baking them now, keeping the exact butter ratio, working by fork, and browning in clarified butter are the dish and must stay. One cook, one stove, one evening.
Done properly, the galette arrives butter-gold at its edges and deeply bronzed across both faces, with a tender middle that still tastes unmistakably of baked potato. The turn is the only dramatic moment, and even a crack can be pressed together in the hot pan. Before you touch the pan, remember the step that decides everything: fork it, never sieve it.
Ingredients
floury baking potatoes, such as russets
Quantity
4 large, about 2½ lb (1.15 kg) total, to yield 2 lb (900 g) baked pulp
scrubbed and dried
unsalted butter
Quantity
6 tablespoons (90 ml / 85 g)
softened and cut into small pieces
clarified butter
Quantity
3 tablespoons (45 ml / 42 g)
divided
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| floury baking potatoes, such as russetsscrubbed and dried | 4 large, about 2½ lb (1.15 kg) total, to yield 2 lb (900 g) baked pulp |
| unsalted buttersoftened and cut into small pieces | 6 tablespoons (90 ml / 85 g) |
| clarified butterdivided | 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 42 g) |
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