Chef Juliette
Suet Dumpling
Boulettes au suif, poached beside salt beef, turn equal weights of flour and finely chopped suet into tender, rich dumplings. Keep the beef liquor at a bare tremble and the old garnish works beautifully at home.
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Pommes de Terre Maire
Created by Chef Juliette
Based on No. 2229, Pommes de Terre Maire, from Le Guide Culinaire (1907) by Auguste Escoffier
A quiet lesson in reduction: sliced boiled potatoes take up cream as it thickens, then a final uncooked spoonful restores the sauce's soft gloss, ready for roast chicken or veal.
Side Dishes
French
Comfort Food
Dinner Party
15 min
Active Time
35 min cook•50 min total
Yield4 servings
Pommes de Terre Maire (potatoes in reduced cream) is a lesson in reduction, not richness for its own sake. The potatoes enter the pan already tender, so the cream's work is to concentrate around them until it clings without boiling the slices into collapse. Before you touch a pan, know this: the final two minutes decide the dish.
The book gives Maire the same treatment as Pommes à la Crème. Unlike entries that leaned on a saucier, a stock never off the fire, or a salamander, this one assumes only freshly boiled potatoes, a wide sauté pan, and a cook free to watch the reduction. At home, six potatoes and one broad skillet reproduce that quick evaporation honestly, scaled for four. One cook, one stove, one evening.
The brigade's holding pans and batch service are scaffolding, so they can go. Boiling the potatoes whole, slicing them evenly, reducing the cream patiently, and loosening it with uncooked cream are the dish, so those steps stay. Watch the sauce rather than the clock, and stop while it coats every slice but still moves.
Pommes de Terre Maire belongs to the codified Parisian grand-kitchen repertoire rather than to a named regional potato tradition. In that canon, Maire is not a distinct garnish: the entry sends the cook directly to Pommes à la Crème, preserving the same sequence of boiled slices, reduced cream, and fresh cream at the finish. The method passed naturally to the bourgeois home table because its refinement comes from watching a pan, not from specialized equipment.
The technique, the tradition, and the story behind every dish.
Discover Culinary ExplorerIngredients
waxy potatoes
Quantity
6 medium, about 2 pounds (900 g)
scrubbed and left unpeeled
cold water
Quantity
10 cups (2.4 L / 2.4 kg)
fine sea salt for the cooking water
Quantity
1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g)
heavy cream
Quantity
1½ cups (360 ml / 355 g)
divide 1¼ cups for simmering and keep ¼ cup uncooked for finishing
fine sea salt
Quantity
¾ teaspoon (3.75 ml / 4.5 g)
freshly ground white pepper
Quantity
⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.3 g)
freshly grated nutmeg
Quantity
⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.25 g)
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| waxy potatoesscrubbed and left unpeeled | 6 medium, about 2 pounds (900 g) |
| cold water | 10 cups (2.4 L / 2.4 kg) |
| fine sea salt for the cooking water | 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 18 g) |
| heavy creamdivide 1¼ cups for simmering and keep ¼ cup uncooked for finishing | 1½ cups (360 ml / 355 g) |
| fine sea salt | ¾ teaspoon (3.75 ml / 4.5 g) |
| freshly ground white pepper | ⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.3 g) |
| freshly grated nutmeg | ⅛ teaspoon (0.6 ml / 0.25 g) |
Equipment Needed
- •4-quart saucepan
- •11- to 12-inch (28- to 30-cm) wide sauté pan
- •Thin-bladed knife
- •Flexible spatula
Instructions
- 1
Boil the potatoes
Put the scrubbed potatoes in a 4-quart saucepan with the cold water and the tablespoon of salt. Bring slowly to a boil, then lower the heat immediately and simmer gently for 20 to 25 minutes. They are ready when a thin knife reaches the centre cleanly but the skins remain intact. Don't let them tumble in a hard boil; split skins admit water and give the cream a sodden potato. If one begins to crack, test the others at once and lift out each potato as it becomes tender.
- 2
Peel and slice
Drain the potatoes and leave them uncovered for 5 minutes so their surface moisture escapes. Peel them while still warm, then cut them across into even ¼-inch (6 mm) slices. Work with a thin, sharp knife and lift the slices rather than pushing them into a heap. If an over-tender potato begins to crumble, let it cool for 10 minutes and cut it slightly thicker. Ça se rattrape. Do not rinse the slices, because their surface starch helps the cream cling.
- 3
Reduce with cream
Pour 1¼ cups (300 ml / 296 g) of the cream into a wide 11- to 12-inch sauté pan. Add the fine salt, white pepper, and nutmeg, then bring the cream just to a gentle simmer. Lay in the warm potato slices, no more than two layers deep, and simmer for 6 to 8 minutes. Shake the pan often and turn the slices once with a flexible spatula; stirring with a spoon breaks them. The cream is ready when it has reduced by roughly half, coats each slice, and leaves a slow-closing trail across the pan. If it tightens before the potatoes are evenly coated, take the pan off the heat and shake in 1 tablespoon (15 ml / 15 g) of the reserved cold cream. Ça se rattrape.
- 4
Loosen and serve
Take the pan off the heat and fold in the remaining reserved cream, about 3 tablespoons (45 ml / 44 g), by gently shaking the pan. This is the raw cream of the original method: cream kept uncooked until the finish, not a requirement to buy unpasteurized dairy. It should loosen the reduction into a soft, glossy coating with a little sauce gathering beneath the potatoes. Taste, adjust the seasoning only if needed, and transfer everything to a warm shallow serving dish. Serve immediately. À table!
Chef Tips
- •Choose waxy yellow or red potatoes that hold a clean slice after boiling. Floury baking potatoes collapse into the sauce, while very small new potatoes do not provide the broad slices this treatment expects.
- •Use heavy cream with at least 35 percent fat. Milk and half-and-half lack the body needed for a stable reduction, while crème fraîche brings acidity that changes the dish. Real cream, gentle heat, close attention.
- •The final cream must remain separate until the pan leaves the heat. It restores freshness and movement after the first portion has reduced; adding all the cream at once gives a heavy sauce without that clean finish.
- •Serve Pommes Maire beside roast chicken, veal, or a plainly roasted loin of pork. The cream already supplies the sauce, so the accompanying meat needs little more than its own juices.
Advance Preparation
- •The potatoes may be boiled and chilled unpeeled up to one day ahead. Peel and slice them cold, then let the slices lose their chill for 20 minutes before adding them to the cream.
- •Pommes Maire is best finished just before serving. If dinner waits, hold the pan off the heat for no more than 20 minutes, then warm it very gently and loosen the sauce with 1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 ml / 15 to 30 g) of additional cream.
Frequently Asked Questions
Nutrition Information
1 serving (about 290g)
Calories
475 calories
Total Fat
32 g
Saturated Fat
20 g
Trans Fat
1 g
Unsaturated Fat
10 g
Cholesterol
100 mg
Sodium
650 mg
Total Carbohydrates
42 g
Dietary Fiber
5 g
Sugars
4 g
Protein
7 g
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