I like flambe recipes because they are, after all, about setting food on fire when presenting it to the diners. Who wouldn’t love the combination of drama and danger involved in that?

Fanny Farmer’s New Book of Cookery, from 1921, includes three flambe recipes, and they’re all for what is essentially sweet potato hash. This makes the flambe element a bit of a head-scratcher–why set these dishes on fire instead of mashed potatoes, or peas, or anything else?

The recipes are reprinted below. The first has the cook saute cubed sweet potato until browned, then make some sugar syrup. A small amount of that goes into a chafing dish with the potatoes, a few spices, and a quarter-cup of brandy. The brandy is lit and then the potatoes are tossed until the fire goes out. This last part is happening at the table, so be careful with that tossing.

The second recipe has the cook slice sweet potatoes lengthwise, parboil them, and then saute until browned. Once in the serving dish rum is added and lit.

The third dish is another variation on the other two. Peeled sweet potatoes are boiled until soft, then sliced and sautéed until brown. The pieces are put on a serving platter, brandy is poured on, a fire is lit, and then the cook bastes the potatoes until the brandy burns itself out. 

Sweet Potatoes, Brulé
Cut three medium-sized cold boiled sweet potatoes in one-third-inch slices and sauté in butter until delicately browned. Put one-fourth cup sugar and one tablespoon boiling water in small saucepan, place on range, bring to the boiling point and let boil until of the consistency of a thick syrup. Put one-half tablespoon syrup in chafing dish, add potatoes, sprinkle with salt, paprika and a few grains cayenne. Add one-fourth cup brandy, put lighted match to brandy, and as soon as brandy begins to burn, toss potatoes (using a fork and spoon) until brandy stops burning.

Sautéd Sweet Potatoes with Rum
Wash and pare medium-sized sweet potatoes, and cut in one-third-inch slices, lengthwise. Parboil in boiling salted water eight minutes, drain and sauté in butter until well browned on both sides. Remove to a hot serving dish, pour over Jamaica rum and light when sending to table.

Sweet Potatoes, Flambant
Wash and pare large sweet potatoes. Cook in boiling salted water until soft, drain, cut in one-fourth-inch slices lengthwise and trim in oblong shapes of uniform size. Sprinkle with salt and sauté until browned. Arrange pieces overlapping one another on a silver platter and pour over and around brandy. Light liquor and baste, using brandy in dish until it stops burning.

Source: A New Book of Cookery, by Fannie Merritt Farmer, Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1921, pages 191-2.