Potatoes, to Boil
INGREDIENTS for dish for 5 persons.-10 or 12 potatoes; to spoonful of salt. AVERAGE COST, 3d. INGREDIENTS for dish for 5 persons.—10 or 12 potatoes; to each 1/2 gallon of water allow 1 heaped tablespoonful of salt. AVERAGE COST, 3d.
Choose potatoes of an equal size , pare them, take out all the eyes and specks, and each 1/2 gallon of water allow 1 heaped table- BOILED POTATOES. as they are peeled, throw them into cold water. Put them into a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover them, with salt in the above proportion, and let them boil gently until tender. Ascertain when they are done by thrusting a fork in them, and take them up the moment they feel 3 185 soft through; for if they are left in the 0 21 water afterwards, they become waxy or 070 watery. Drain away the water, put the 0 saucepan by the side of the fire, with the lid partially removed, to allow the steam to escape, and let the potatoes get thoroughly dry, and do not allow them to get burnt. Their superfluous moisture will
A plain method of boiling potatoes from cold salted water, with the drying-off step that makes the difference between floury and sodden.
- The hinge: dry them offDraining is not the end. Return the pan to low heat with the lid ajar for two or three minutes so the surface moisture steams away; that is what gives a dry, floury potato rather than a wet one.
- QuantitiesOne heaped tablespoon of salt to each half-gallon (4 imperial pints, roughly 2.3 litres) of water. That is a firm brine by modern habit but it seasons the potato through; reduce to a rounded teaspoon per quart if you prefer.
- "3d." and the stray figuresThe average cost of threepence is the book's own costing note; the scattered digits are stray figures from adjacent columns in the page and have no bearing on the cooking.
- Start in cold waterCold water brought up gently is correct for whole peeled potatoes: dropping them into boiling water cooks the outside to mush before the centre softens.
- Choose one variety, one sizeChoose one size -- The instruction to pick potatoes of equal size matters more than it sounds: mixed sizes risk some breaking up before others are cooked through. The book says nothing about variety, but a floury type (Maris Piper, russet, King Edward) suits this treatment; waxy potatoes will not go dry and mealy however long you steam them.
- TimingNo time is given because it depends on size. Medium peeled potatoes take roughly 15-20 minutes at a gentle simmer. Test with a fork or skewer and lift them out the moment they yield, as directed.
- Don't hold them in the waterThe warning about waxiness is accurate: potatoes left sitting in cooling cooking water reabsorb it and turn heavy. Drain immediately.
- YieldTen to twelve potatoes for five people, that is, about two apiece in the original's reckoning.
Boiled potatoes were a staple instruction in the Victorian English kitchen, and Mrs Beeton's household books treat the method as a matter of technique rather than a dish. By the middle of the nineteenth century the potato had become an everyday starch on British tables, and a dry, floury texture that would break under a fork and absorb gravy was commonly preferred, in contrast to the firmer waxy potato favoured in much continental cooking. The insistence on peeling into cold water is practical rather than fussy: cut potato browns quickly as its exposed surface oxidises, and cooks of the period knew the effect long before anyone could name the chemistry. The final drying by the side of the fire, lid ajar, belongs to range cookery, where a pan could be moved off the hot plate onto gentler heat.