'Vitelotte', also called Vitelotte noire, Négresse or Truffe de Chine, is a gourmet French
variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of blue-violet
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
. It has been cultivated in France at least since the early nineteenth century.
Description
'Vitelotte' potatoes have a dark blue, almost black, skin and dark violet-blue flesh; they have a characteristic nutty flavour and smell of chestnuts. The colour is retained in cooking, and is due to natural pigments in the
anthocyanin group of
flavonoids. The plants mature late and, compared to modern varieties, are relatively low-yielding. The tubers are elongated with sunken eyes; they are thick-skinned, and thus keep well.
Etymology
The French word derives from the archaic french: vit, meaning "
penis
A penis (plural ''penises'' or ''penes'' () is the primary sexual organ that male animals use to inseminate females (or hermaphrodites) during copulation. Such organs occur in many animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate, but males d ...
" (modern French ), by analogy with the shape of the tuber. The first occurrence of the word is from 1812.
History
In early descriptions, vitelotte were not necessarily violet-coloured. In a source from 1817, six varieties of potato are listed as available at the market of
Les Halles; among them are both ''vitelotte'' and ''violette'' ("violet"). A treatise on agriculture published in 1863 lists five possible colours for the vitelotte: white, yellow, pink, red and violet. In 1873
Alexandre Dumas wrote in his ''Grand dictionnaire de cuisine'':
Gallery
File:PurplePeruvianPotatoes.jpg,
File:Pic3.Vitelotte.jpg, Whole and halved
File:Blaue Chips Schüssel.jpg, As potato crisps
File:Vitelotte-potato-leaves.jpg, Leaves and stalks showing violet colouring
References
{{Potato cultivars
Potato cultivars