The sophisticated potato

	The potato metamorphoses from rags to riches when it takes off its jacket and becomes that most delicate of purees which the French call "pomme mousseline". When you consider the skill and the energy you need to handle the potato masher and the whisk in order to serve an unctuous puree light as air, you'll soon realise that such a delicacy is beyond the grasp of our kitchen fork. They haven't been honoured with a chef’s hat but see how they work in the immense industrial laboratories. They choose their products with the greatest expertise. They know that for a potato to crumble well, without caking, it must disintegrate into a multitude of independent cells which do not split when pulverized.
	The starch which escapes is the enemy of good purees. It is eliminated with water after slicing and precooking of the potato rounds. As all good cookery books recommend, steaming is applied here. The potatoes are crushed, and mixed with a ready‑made powder. Pounded and ground, as in a mortar, the cells come apart. Then the puree is cooled, dried, sieved and protected against light, oxygen and humidity by hermetically‑sealed and opaque packaging. This whole display of knowledge leads us to the pinnacles of industrial savoir‑faire.
	The potato as a source of inspiration When the humble task of potato peeling is caught by Vincent van Gogh's lightning stroke of the brush, the gesture of the peasant woman from Nuenen becomes mystical. When it is caught by the stroke of Günter Grass'pen, it becomes Amanda Woyke's tour de force as she sculpts the victory of the potato over the millet in the spirals of her potato peelings. In our lands of plenty, the generous beauty of the all‑providing mother is revealed by other activities and far more so by her gift for tickling the taste buds than by her nimble handling of the potato peeler. In our day and age, potato peeling evokes little more than the image of the poor conscript doing his military service.
	To assist the flow of culinary imagination, Dutch industrialists simply offer potatoes peeled in advance. However, we know that once King Spud's jacket is off he becomes sensitive to air and to his own oxygen. His colour takes on a nasty greyish hue, and when he loses his natural protection, bacteria overpower him and proliferate. In our kitchen, peeling cannot, unfortunately, be done long before cooking starts. In the Land of Bintje, a sulphite treatment controls oxidation and refrigeration stops bacterial evolution.
	This is a well‑tested method, and actually a traditional one, which ensures that the product remains entirely fresh for four days. A more original method has been developed by a Dutch cooperative. When peeling is completed, the potatoes are precooked alternately in water and in steam. This is done with great precision because the texture and size of the tubers have to be taken into account. Potatoes which have a mealy flesh are steamed longer than those which have a firm texture. The blanched potatoes are vacuum‑packaged to prevent any exposure to oxygen, and then refrigerated. They keep without an anti‑oxidizing agent from seven to nine days.
	The most recent method for preserving peeled potatoes consists of sterilization immediately after peeling. * An old French copper coin ** The Maillard reaction is produced during the last cooking phase. When the moisture rate has fallen to 12 or 6% the reducing sugars risk caramelizing too much and giving the chips a nassty brown color.

Culural rites