Pommes de Terre Macaire (Potato Cakes)

These fried cakes, inexplicably named for a malicious 19th-century stage character, are especially good with grilled lean meat. As homey as they are, they nonetheless appear in Escoffier’s Guide Culinaire, published at the opening of the 20th century. “Work this pulp with a fork,” Escoffier wrote, meaning that he wasn’t aiming at a refined, smooth purée…