DELMONICOS(V)            USENET Cookbook            DELMONICOS(V)

DELMONICO POTATOES

     DELMONICOS - A casserole of potatoes, rice, and cheese

     This recipe has been in my family for 100 years. The family
     legend was that it came from the Delmonico Hotel in New
     York, whose chef, Charles Ranhofer, had given it to my
     great-great grandfather under some circumstance in the
     1880's.  I recently managed to track down a cookbook by
     Ranhofer, published in 1893, and alas, it contains no recipe
     that even remotely resembles this one.

     Who knows? Maybe my great-grandmother got it from a newspa-
     per.  I guess it doesn't matter much. I've watched 4 genera-
     tions in my family grow fatter and happier eating these
     potatoes, so who cares where it came from `way back then.

INGREDIENTS (Serves 6)
     3 lb      potatoes (12-15 medium potatoes)
     1/3 cup   uncooked white rice
     6 Tbsp    butter
     6 Tbsp    flour
     3 cups    milk
     1 tsp     salt
     1/2 tsp   pepper
     2 lb      sharp cheddar cheese

PROCEDURE
          (1)  Boil the potatoes in salted water until they are
               cooked firm, about 20 or 30 minutes. Let them
               cool, then dice them into 1/2-inch cubes.

          (2)  Cook the rice in 1 cup of water with 1/4 tsp of
               salt. Cook until soft, about 20 minutes. Drain.

          (3)  Make 3 cups of medium white sauce: heat the milk
               in a saucepan; in another saucepan, melt butter
               and brown flour in it. When flour is brown, dump
               hot milk all at once into flour/butter mixture.
               Add salt and pepper, simmer for 10 minutes or
               more, stirring frequently.

          (4)  Into the white sauce, stir 1/2 pound of grated
               cheddar and the cooked rice. Mix well.

          (5)  Mix the sauce with the cold potatoes, then pour
               into a buttered baking dish.  Sprinkle generously
               with 1 1/2 pounds of cheddar. Bake 1 hour at 325
               deg. F.

          (6)  Let it cool, and put it in the refrigerator. Wait
               at least a day. Then reheat and serve.

NOTES
     My grandmother always peeled the potatoes when she made this
     recipe; I never do. I think that women of her generation
     were taught by their home economics teachers that unpeeled
     potatoes were a sign of moral decay.

     The most maddening thing about this recipe is how much
     better it tastes the second day. There is no reason why you
     can't eat it fresh out of the oven, but if you can muster
     the will power to put it aside after it has cooked and to
     let it wait a day, the flavor will improve dramatically.

RATING
     Difficulty: easy.  Time: 1 hour to prepare, 1 hour to cook,
     1 day to wait.  Precision: Approximate measurement OK.

CONTRIBUTOR
     Brian Reid
     DEC Western Research Laboratory, Palo Alto CA
     decwrl!reid    -or- reid@decwrl.DEC.COM
     From: ss@wang-inst (Sid Shapiro)
     Newsgroups: mod.recipes
     Subject: RECIPE: dill dip -- an appetizer
     Date: 16 Jan 86 08:34:01 GMT
     Organization: Wang Institute, Tyngsboro, MA
     Approved: reid@glacier.ARPA

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