What The History Podcast

The Tichborne Identity and Monsieur Potato

Suzie examines the strange case of the Tichborne Claimant and Trevor shares the story of an unsung hero, Antoine-Augustin Parmentier.

WHAT THE HISTORY?

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Sources:

THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT

The State Library of New South Wales 2011, The Tichborne case: a Victorian melodrama. Viewed 27^th October 2016 http://www2.sl.nsw.gov.au/archive/discover_collections/history_nation/justice/felons/tichborne/index.html

Wikipedia 2016, Tichborne case. Viewed 28^th October 2016 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tichborne_case

PS check out the movie The Tichborne Claimant released in 1998 and directed by David Yates…if you can find this movie, let us know!!!!!

ANTIONE-AUGUSTIN PARMENTIER

Antoine Augustin Parmentier (Geni.com)

A pharmacist famous for his potatoes (The Pharmaceutical Journal)

The French and Their Acceptance of the Potato (The Historic Foodie’s Blog)

Spud Sunday: Vive La Spud (The Daily Spud)

Antoine-Augustin Parmentier (Wikipedia)

POTATOES PARMENTIER

800g of Potatoes

Salt for parboiling said potatoes

2 cloves of lightly crushed garlic

3 separate tablespoons of melted butter

2 tablespoons of chopped parsley

2 tablespoons of chopped coriander

2 tablespoons of chopped mint

Half a teaspoon of lemon zest

A squeeze of lemon juice (you can work out how lemony you want it)

Coarse salt (again, depends on how salty you like it)

Freshly ground black pepper (up to you)

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees celsius, scrub the potatoes but do not peel them, chop them into approx 1cm cubes then rinse them in cold water.

Put the potatoes in a saucepan with 2 ¼ cups of water, 1 ½ teaspoons of salt and the garlic cloves.  Bring to a boil over a medium-high heat, then lower the heat and let them simmer for 2 minutes.  Drain them, remove the garlic and return the potatoes to the saucepan then let them sit (off the heat) covered by a tea towel for about 5 minutes to let them dry out.

Toss the potato cubes in 2 tablespoons of butter and then spread the cubes in a single layer onto baking trays.  Roast them in the oven for 30 minutes or until golden and crispy.  Give the trays a shake about half way through.

Once the potatoes are cooked, mix the parsley, coriander and mint with the remaining butter and the lemon zest and toss the potatoes with the mixture.

Add the coarse salt, the black pepper and lemon juice to your preferred taste and then serve

Other stuff:

The word history in the opening theme has been extracted from…

History Never Repeats – Split Enz (1981)

History Repeating – Propellerheads feat: Miss Shirley Bassey (1998)

Flame Trees – Cold Chisel (1984)

You’re History – Shakespeare’s Sister (1989)

Centuries – Fall Out Boy (2015)

All music used under fair use provisions.