Pommes Anna
- Total Time
- 25 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 3large russet potatoes, washed but not peeled
- Butter
- Olive oil
- Kosher salt
- Well seasoned slope sided iron or non-stick pan, 8-10 inches wide. (An omelette pan is ideal.)
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat large knob of butter with a healthy drizzle of olive oil over medium low heat until butter melts and just starts to foam. Shut off heat under pan.
- Step 2
Using a sharp and stable Japanese mandolin — or the real French metal one if you’re lucky enough to have one — slice the potatoes into very thin but not paper-thin slices.
- Step 3
Arrange the slices tightly, careful shingling around the pan in concentric circles starting at the outer edge of the pan and working your way into the center. Season the first layer with a little salt. Repeat with each potato until you achieve three tight and gorgeous layers.
- Step 4
Turn the heat back on under the pan at medium. Drizzle the potatoes with a generous pour of olive oil and dot a few more pats of butter around the pan of potatoes. Season with salt. As the pan starts to sizzle, you will see the fat bubbling up and spitting a bit. Put a lid on the pan and seal tightly for a minute or two, giving the potatoes a little steam bath, helping to soften and cook the flesh. Remove the lid and swirl the pan with a little muscle to see if the potatoes are binding together as their starch begins to heat up. If they slip loosely all around the pan, tuck the slices back into the tight circle using a heat-proof rubber spatula and allow to sizzle and cook longer uncovered. Bump up the flame a little if the cooking sounds and looks listless — you want to hear sizzle. When you start to smell the potatoes turning golden and crisp — like the smell of toast — swirl the pan again to confirm that the potato layers have formed a cake, and then flip the pommes Anna and cook on the other side also until golden and crispy. Slide onto serving plate or cutting board, season with salt, and cut into wedges.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
mdurphy
Come on folks, let's get into the spirit of the recipe here! Ms Hamilton is making the point that cooking is not about "metrics" so much as the cook and her ingredients. Pay attention to how things look and feel and smell and you will be a better cook than if you always go by measurements (or, god forbid, what Google says). If it turns out to be a greasy pan of potato discs the first time, great. Play with it until you learn why, and then make it work the way you want. Cook!
Angela C.
I make a recipe similar to this, but in my oven. I put a little oil in my cast iron skillet, then arrange the potatoes like in this recipe. Add some slivers of onion and minced garlic between and on top of the potatoes, and top with about 2 slices of raw bacon, chopped, for 3-4 potatoes. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Bake at 425 for 35-40 minutes, until potatoes are tender and bacon is crisp. Pour 2 T. melted butter over the top, and return to oven for 5 minutes to crisp.
Pete
Doesn't anyone own a cuisinart anymore? 2 mm slicing disc works perfectly.
Jay Kaye
Use plates to slide it out of pan and flip. Very easy. Cook on high enough temp and it binds just fine. My cooking time is longer than the 25 minutes total suggested: approx 20-25 min first side; 10-15 on second side. Heavenly!
Caity
I'm sorry your husband didn't cook this dish properly...and that you let something so insignificant as a potato dish "ruin" your New Year's. Maybe try it again, say for a brunch, maybe? So if the dish doesn't turn out again, your life won't be ruined. ;)
Andi R
Hilarious Blud!
I make this in the oven as well, in a corningware shallow pie type baking pan. I put butter, salt and pepper on each layer, then top with heavy cream to come to a little less than halfway up the pan. Bake at 350 for an hour or so..beautiful, crispy throughout potato "pie." Cut into wedges and enjoy!
Annie
I love the easy way this woman cooks ... she just does it, by look and feel and I would eat at her table any day. Never mind meticulous measuring, she just gets it together. Bravo!
Harry
So what if you aren't cooking that much? Use a smaller pan and one potato--Yukon golds work fine. You can drop some leftover odds and ends on top to warm through if you want.
Annie
Absolutely, mdurphy! There is a cook on the food channel who drives me nuts, she measures to the enth degree. I will not name her because I do like her and have done some of her dishes (tho not as accurately measured). Clue - she lives in the Hamptons and her husband's name is Jeffrey and her most recent cookbook is a hit and refers to cooking for him. She's good but Lordie me, she drives me nutso watching her measure down to a single nut if it's called for.
Blud
One last spike in the heart of 2016! #NYEpotatoFail
Martin
I also remove the lid, dry it, then replace it as the moisture from the steam condenses on it. This makes the outside of the potatoes crispier. (as per this recipe:http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1015206-crisp-potato-cake-galette-de-...
Don L.
Not my first rodeo making this. Always used a plate to turn it over.
Annie
That's how I do it to Don. And that's how I learned from my Italian mama to flip a fritatta. The plate goes over the skillet, give the pan a flip over the plate, slide the potatoes (or fritatta) back into the skillet. What we see in the picture could be either the under or over side of the cake as both sides appear the same when all is done. Important point here, be sure to keep a steady medium heat, don't fool around turning it higher or you'll get a char.
Will
"Starting at the outer edge...and ending in the center" ? The photo clearly shows that the first slice was placed in the center of the pan.
marklee
I've always cooked Pommes Anna in a pre-heated cast iron skillet in a hot oven. Easy, and turns out perfect, and perfectly.
crs123
Please show some sense and responsibility! Lawsuits are a wasteful way to manage risk but maybe suing publishers of dangerous recipes is the only way to prevent their publication. Sure, you can eat raw meat and eggs without getting sick a few times. Or maybe a lot of times. But you, or some other poor reader who believes that a recipe published in a respected magazine has to be safe, is sooner or later going to get very sick eating raw meat and/or raw eggs. I just hope it's not a small child or old person whose life could be jeopardized.
John W
Flipping is so easy. It’s a quick easy recipe I make all the time and have never missed a flip. Practice a bit, it’s a cinch.
Julian D
Sorry to say, but this recipe is far inferior to Melissa Clark’s recipe of the same name. Clark’s is much more detailed and comes with a video explaining the essential step of pressing the potatoes with a 2nd pan at several stages in the process. Unfortunately I tried this recipe first and came out a total mess, the potatoes didn’t stick together at all. I then followed Clark’s instructions to the letter and I’m happy to say this time it came out perfect.
Judith
I made a smaller version. I think I needed a better ratio of oil to butter, but otherwise I like the dish. I did use a plate to flip and that worked very well!
Darlene
See comments by Angela C. 1 yr ago. Slightly different recipe baked in oven. Sounds even better and less "fussy" to make.
Rosa Estarellas
Has anyone tried this with sweet potatoes?
Vevettey
I added shallots! It was phenomenal!
Kris
Delicious! I use russet potatoes that I have cooked the day before in the oven. I always make extras so I can use them for frying.
CinZac
What is thin but not paper-thin? I don't have a mandolin and sliced "thin but not paper-thin" and the slices never stuck together.
courtney von drehle
That recipe was easy to follow and turned out quite well. I'm interested to add some things - garlic, herbs, sun dried tomatoes, anchovies. I think there could be quite a few variations that will be tasty.
Donna
Sliced my Potatoes easily on a French Metal Mandolin, but I sliced my finger peeling Yukon Gold Potatoes! been making these Potatoes for years.
Bev
I make this in a clay pot and bake at 425°. Sometimes I add crumbled blue cheese between the layers. My recipe refers to it as Potatoes Anna but kids renamed it Potatoes on a (Anna) Plate as I flip the final product on to a plate for serving.
Kat
Definitely failed on the first attempt at this. Pan was way too big -- fell apart on flip attempt. Next time I'll definitely do the plate sliding trick. They were delicious anyway, albeit messy.
Ola
I agree with the husband. I have been cooking for 35 years and I have never had a recipe turn out this bad. The potatoes came out a greasy mess.
Linda Loose
This looks absolutely wonderful. Can't wait to make it. However, why name this apples when it is really potatoes? Pommel is very different from pomme de terre. Just sayin...
Rita Hurault
Pommes are apples and pommes de terre are potatoes. I assume the name was shortened because pommes de terre anna is a bit unwieldy.
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