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CHAPTER XI: Potatoes

VEGETABLES CONTAINING MUCH STARCH POTATOES PREPARATION OF POTATOES FOR BOILING New potatoes: Scrape off the skin, scrub with a vegetable brush, then wash thoroughly. Old potatoes: Pare the potatoes, remove the eyes and, if they be large, cut them in halves, lengthwise; let lie in cold water--no salt--an hour or longer before cooking.

BOILED POTATOES Add a teaspoonful of salt to a generaous quart of boiling water; put in the potatoes and let cook until tender. It will take from twenty to thirty minutes. Drain thoroughly, sprinkle lightly with salt and shake the pan back and forth on the hot stove lid. If they cannot be served at once, move to the back of the range and cover with a cloth. Salt sprinkled on the hot, moist potato, on account of its affinity for water, tends to draw it out and make the potato mealy.

MELTING POTATOES Pare four or five potatoes of the same size and cook them in boiling, salted water; when done, drain, sprinkle with salt, and cover with a towel, to take up the moisture; then take the potatoes, one by one, and press each firmly in a towel, to give it a round shape, and set them, side by side, in a well-buttered baking dish; turn in consomme or milk and cream, half and half, to surround the potatoes to one-third their height. Set half a teaspoonful of butter on each potato, or brush over the tops generously with melted butter, and let bake from fifteen to twenty minutes or until the liquid is absorbed and the potatoes are browned a little on top.

MASHED POTATOES Boil the potatoes as above and pass through a vegetable press into a hot saucepan. For about a pint, or four or five potatoes, add two level tablespoonfuls of butter, a little hot milk (one-fourth a cup) and half a teaspoonful of salt. Beat with a perforated wooden spoon until very light and fluffy, then turn into a hot vegetable dish and serve at once. MASHED POTATO CAKES Roll mashed potato, left from a meal, in the hands into balls and flatten into cakes. Set to cook in a frying pan containing hot bacon fat or dripping; let brown on one side, then turn and brown the other side. The cakes may be patted down in a little flour before cooking. For baked cakes, set the cakes on a buttered dish, put a small piece of butter on the top of each and let cook in the oven until hot and lightly browned.

BAKED POTATOES Scrub the potatoes, either white or sweet, with a brush. Bake in a hot oven. The oven should be at a temperature that will render potatoes of medium size soft in about forty-five minutes. The skins should not be blackened. If the potatoes are to be eaten at once, take them from the oven to the dining-room. If there is to be a delay of five minutes, make two gashes in the top of each potato, one at right angles to the other. Gently squeeze the potato to let out the steam, partially wrap in a napkin and take to the table. POTATOES ANNA Butter the inside of two or three English muffin rings and set them on a baking sheet, also buttered. Fill the rings compactly with pared, raw potatoes, sliced very thin and dipped in melted butter, bacon fact, or dripping. Also season the potatoes with salt and pepper as they are set in place. Put half a teaspoonful of butter on the top of each ring of potatoes. Let cook on the floor of a hot oven about ten minutes, then with a spatula turn ring and potatoes together, and let cook ten minutes longer. With the oven at a proper temerature the potatoes will be browned on both sides and well cooked throughout in twenty minutes. Remove the potatoes and rings (with a spatula or broad knife) to the serving dish, then discard the rings. HASHED POTATO IN RAMEQUIN 3 or 4 cold, boiled potatoes 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of boiling 1/2 teaspoonful of salt water 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls of butter Chop the potatoes, sprinkling them with salt meanwhile. Butter a ramequin; into it put the potato disposing it evenly to the depth of an inch or more. Dot here and there with bits of butter, then pour in the water distributing it evenly over the potato. Let cook in the oven until hot throughout and a bit of potato here and there is lightly browned.

SAUTED POTATOES Cut the potatoes into halves, lengthwise. Have a little hot fat in a frying pan. The fat from bacon just cooked is preferable. Lay the potatoes in the fat and let cook until nicely browned, then turn and brown the other side. POTATOES AU GRATIN 2 cups of chopped, cooked potato cheese 1 1/2 cups of white sauce 2tablespoonfuls of melted butter 1 to 4 tablespoonfuls of grated Stir the potato and cheese into the sauce and turn the whole into a buttered au gratin dish; stir the crumbs into the butter and spread over the top. Set into a hot oven to brown the crumbs.

POTATOES WARMED OVER IN MILK Melt three tablespoonfuls of butter in an agate frying-pan. Put in a cup and a half of sliced, cold, boiled potatoes. Sprinkle with about half a teaspoonful of salt, and turn carefully over and over, to mix them with the butter. When the butter is absorbed, turn in nearly three-fourths a cup of milk, cover and let cook, not too rapidly, until the milk is partly absorbed. LYONNAISE POTATOES 2 tablespoonfuls of butter or dripping dripping 2 cups of cold, boiled potatoes, 1/2 small onion, chopped fine in slices 2 tablespoonfuls of butter or 1/2 teaspoonful of salt Cook the onion in two tablespoonfuls of butter until softened and slightly browned. Skim the onion from the frying pan to free it from the butter. To the butter in the pan add two tablespoonfuls. Turn in the potatoes and cook until they are browned slightly, addiing the salt meanwhile. Add the cooked onion, and toss the onion and potato together thoroughly. Serve on a hot dish. POTATOES, AMERICAN STYLE 1 1/4 cups of cold, boiled pota- 1/4 teaspoonful of salt toes 1/4 teaspoonful of pepper 1 cup of milk 1 tablespoonful of butter 1 slice of onion creamed 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls of butter 1 yolk of egg 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls of flour Scald the milk with the onion, cream the 1 1/2 tablespoonfuls of butter and beat the flour into it; dilute with a little of the hot milk, then stir into the rest of the hot milk; let cook ten minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove the onion, add the potatoes, cut in slices, let become hot throughout, then carefully beat in the tablespoonful of butter, creamed and mixed with the beaten yolk. A little fine-chopped parsley sprinkled over the potato is a good variation.

SARATOGA POTATOES Select smooth potatoes of same size and long rather than round, and pare and cut them into thin, even slices. The slices must be of uniform thickness throughout, or they will not cook evenly. Cover the prepared potatoes with cold water to which a piece of ice has been added. Let stand an hour or longer, to become cold and crisp. Dry on a soft cloth, a few at a time, and cook at once in hot fat, keeping the slices separated with a skimmer. Take, for frying, fat that has not been previously used for frying. Cook to a pale straw color, drain on the skimmer, then on tissue paper. Keep hot at the mouth of the oven until all are cooked. Sprinkle with salt before serving. BREAKFAST CEREALS Cereals are in a dry form and much water needs to be added during cooking; they also contain considerable tough cellulose. A high degree of heat is needed, to soften the cellulose, or they may be cooked at a lower temperature, if the time of cooking be lengthened. Some "breakfast foods," as those to which the term "rolled" is applied, are partly "steam-cooked" and half an hour's cooking will generally suffice for these. Wheat germ meal and other similar preparations need an hour's cooking; oatmeal and corn meal call for six to eight hours and if cooked in a double boiler longer cooking is advisable. Rice boiled in water, as potatoes, will cook in about the same time as potatoes, from twenty to thirty minutes. It will take about forty-five minutes to cook rice in a double boiler. Salt -- a teaspoonful to a pint -- should be added to the water in which cereals are to be cooked. Proportion of water needed: Cereals containing a goodly proportion of gluten call for less water than those in which gluten is replaced by starch. In general four times the weight of the cereal in water is needed. Thus, one cup of cereal, weighing half a pound, would call for two pounds, or a quart, of water. When cooking Vitos and other cereals, rich in gluten, cut down the water to three or three and one-half cups.

METHOD OF COOKING CEREALS Turn the requisite quantity of boiling water -- as a pint -- into the upper part of a double boiler, add a teaspoonful of salt (to the pint) and wait until the water reboils; then stir vigorously while slowly turning half a cup of cereal into the water. Do not add the cereal fast enough to stop the boiling of the water. Stir and let boil five minutes, then set it into the lower part of the double boiler in which boiling water has been poured to one-third the height, cover the cereal and let cook over the boiling water the requisite time. Add boiling water to the outer kettle, as needed to surround the inner kettle, without its boiling over. Do not stir the cereal after the first five minutes. When cooked the cereal should be rather stiff. If it be soft and mushy, it is not readily masticated.