For this reason scientific directors bid us beware of the water in
which potatoes are boiled-into which, it appears, the evil principle
is drawn off; and they caution us not to shred them into stews without
previously suffering the slices to lie for an hour or so in salt and
water. These cautions are worth attention.
The most usual modes of preparing the potato for the table are by
roasting or boiling. These processes are so simple that it is commonly
supposed every cook understands them without special directions; and
yet there is scarcely an uninstructed cook who can boil or roast a
potato.
A good roasted potato is a delicacy worth a dozen compositions of the
cook-book; yet when we ask for it, what burnt, shriveled abortions are
presented to us! Biddy rushes to her potato-basket and pours out two
dozen of different sizes, some having in them three times the amount
of matter of others. These being washed, she tumbles them into her
oven at a leisure interval, and there lets them lie till it is time
to serve breakfast, whenever that may be. As a result, if the largest
are cooked, the smallest are presented in cinders, and the intermediate
sizes are withered and watery.
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