Lard actually means bacon in French, rather than the rendered pig fat that the word means in English. This can be confusing sometimes. The word for lard in French is saindoux. With all the potatoes in the garden, and the bacon curing process finally finished, I decided to give this recipe a try.
When I read the title of the recipe, I assumed it would be potatoes fried with bacon, similar to the last recipe of POMMES DE TERRE A LA MAITRE D’HOTEL, in which the potatoes are parboiled, and then fried until crisp in melted butter. But this recipe turns out to be potatoes cooked in a rich gravy.
Mashed potatoes and gravy was my favorite food when I was a child, so I found potatoes cooked in gravy just delightful. However, there was some disappointment among the children when it was discovered that we were actually NOT having fried potatoes for dinner. Afterwards, when pressed for an opinion, the general vote was that it turned out to be “good,” which can be considered a high compliment when coming from these three of particular taste and exacting standards. And, unfortunately, this dish had to be removed from Ethan last night before he made himself ill with a fourth helping.
POMMES DE TERRE AU LARD
Potatoes With Bacon
{My grandmother, Claudia Meraud, was born in Nice, France. She immigrated to the US after meeting my grandfather while he was stationed there as a US soldier in WW II. We spent several summers together, just the two of us, living with her sister in Nice. She passed along to me an old French cookbook titled title is La Cuisine: Guide Practique De La Ménagère by R. Blondeau, Chef de Cuisine. It originally belonged to my great-grandmother, Lucie Thomas, who was a native of St. Marie-aux-Mines in Alsace.
This cookbook was published in the 1930’s, and was written as a practical guide for a household cook before the days of the fridge and the food processor. The recipes are delicious, practical, and (of course) packed with good traditional nutrition.
I am creating translated versions of these antique recipes, re-written for the modern cook, and tested with home-grown and seasonal food.}
Toadstools And Fairy Rings 