Baked Potato Day, Potatoes O'Brien, And Funny Food Quotes
In The Food Almanac, Tom Fitzmorris of the newsletter The New Orleans Menu, notes food facts and sayings for Thursday, October, 27, 2011.
Today's Flavor
Today is National Baked Potato Day. The world's greatest food authorities love baked potatoes as well as the common man does. James Beard told me once, "Most people don't understand how good a perfect baked potato can be, without even any butter or salt. When it's very fresh and plucked at the perfect time, of course."
Paul Prudhomme said the same thing. When he was growing up, the kids in the big Prudhomme family went to the garden to pull up potatoes. When they had enough, they'd run inside to start cooking them. He said you could easily tell the difference between those and store-bought.
Few of us have enjoyed these brink-of-goodness revelations. But we still like our baked potatoes. Restaurants rarely serve them well, because it takes more than an hour to properly bake a potato, and it's only at its peak right as it comes out of the oven. As a result, baked potatoes in restaurants are usually overbaked, or kept at a decent state by being steamed rather than baked.
To bake potatoes at home, the starting point is critical: large russet potatoes, without any hint of green in the skin (lightly scratch the skin with your fingernail to check this). And no hint of sprouting, of course. While preheating the oven to 375 degrees, scrub them under cold running water. Then put them right on the oven rack in the center of the oven. If you have a convection oven, use the convection feature. Bake them for between an hour and an hour and fifteen minutes (longer for bigger potatoes). That temperature is lower than what most people use, but I prefer it because it allows a bit more margin for error, and it makes the skin better for eating. (I always eat the skin of a baked potato. Do you?)
Gourmet Gazetteer
Baked Mountain — Which sounds like a dessert to me, is in the lastplace you'd expect to find a feature with that name — in Alaska. Specifically, near the top of the Alaska Peninsula, in Katmai National Park and Preserve. Baked Mountain rises to 3,800 feet, nearly 2,000 feet higher than the bottom of the Valley Of Ten Thousand Smokes just two miles away. A fair-size glacier pours down that valley. Nothing baking around there. If you didn't come with food, you're in trouble: no towns, let alone restaurants, are anywhere within 75 miles.
Edible Dictionary
Potatoes O'Brien, n. — A potato casserole that has qualities of hash brown, Lyonnaise, and gratin potatoes, with (perhaps) onions and bell peppers added to the mix. It's a classic dish for using leftover baked or boiled potatoes. As such, there's a potluck aspect to the recipe. No two formulas are alike. It comes close to the truth to say that you can make O'Brien potatoes almost any way you want, as long as the potatoes are chopped up, and combined with a few other ingredients, and baked in a pan. Who is O'Brien? Nobody seems to know.
The Old Kitchen Sage Sez
If you're pressed for time and need baked potatoes, you can speed the process by starting the cooking process in a microwave oven. The formula is two minutes for each large potato in the microwave. Turn them over and repeat the nuking. Then finish the baking in a 400 degree oven for about a half hour.
Deft Dining Rule #644
Baked potatoes should only be ordered in restaurants where at least six baked potatoes can be seen on other tables.
Physiology of Eating
Today in 1975, the American Medical Association endorsed Dr. Henry Heimlich's method of delivering assistance to people choking on food. The rescuer puts his arms around the victim from behind, clasps his hands, positions this double fist right between the navel and the sternum, and gives a sudden, upward-diagonal jerk. This often pushes a blast of air from the lungs into the windpipe, blowing out the food caught in the throat. It can also crack a rib, but that's a lot less serious than the death that comes very quickly if the victim can't breathe. If you don't know how to do this, learn.
Annals of Popular Cuisine
Planet Hollywood opened its original New York location today in 1991. It got a lot of publicity because among its owners were Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and Demi Moore. A New York friend who should have known better told me he stood in line for two hours to eat in the place then. We had a Planet Hollywood in New Orleans for a while, but no more.
Food in Sho-Biz
John Cleese was born in England today in 1939. He was one of the original writers and performers in Monty Python's Flying Circus, but he may be even more famous as Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers, the insane show about a hotel pretending to be a first-class operation while failing at everything, especially food.
Annals of Etiquette
Emily Post was born today in 1872. She grew up amidst wealth and refinement in Baltimore and New York. In the summer, she spent her time (very appropriately) at Tuxedo Park, a New York resort developed by her father. She went on to write a newspaper column about manners, and Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage, published in 1922. The book is now in its 17th edition, currently being written by Emily Post's great-granddaughter-in-law Peggy Post.
James Cook, the British sea captain who discovered the Sandwich Islands (we now call it Hawaii, but still this qualifies the guy for a double food name award), was born today in 1728. He also discovered Australia and many other places in the South Pacific. That's why his name comes up more often in this department than any other . . . Actress and Donald Trump wife Marla Maples was born today in 1963 . . . Astronaut Michael Baker blasted off his life today in 1953.
Words to Eat By
"Bread that must be sliced with an axe is bread that is too nourishing." — American writer Fran Lebowitz, born today in 1950. She has a few other good food quotations:
"Breakfast cereals that come in the same colors as polyester leisure suits make oversleeping a virtue."
"Cheese that is compelled by law to append the word 'food' to its title does not go well with red wine or fruit."
"Large, naked, raw carrots are acceptable as food only to those who live in hutches eagerly awaiting Easter."
"My favorite animal is steak."
Words to Drink By
"Civilized adults do not take apple juice with dinner." — Fran Lebowitz.