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Potatoes Boiled or Baked in Jackets
Wash clean (a brush is the best implement for cleaning potatoes), cut off the ends, let stand in cold water a few hours, put into boiling water, the larger ones first, and then in a short time adding the rest, cover, and keep boiling constantly; after fifteen minutes throw in another handful of salt and boil another fifteen minutes; try with a fork, and if it does not quite run through the potato, they are done (this is called "leaving a bone in them"). Drain, take to door or window and shake in open air to make them mealy; return to stove and allow to stand uncovered for a moment. Or, when washed, bake in a moderate oven fifty minutes; or, place in a steamer half an hour over water kept constantly boiling, serve immediately; or, wash and peel medium-sized ones, and bake in pan with roast meat, basting often with the drippings.
A single entry covering four methods for potatoes in their skins. The technique notes are more useful than the timings, which assume a woodstove and older, drier potato varieties.
- "A moderate oven"350F. Fifty minutes suits a medium russet; a large baking potato wants 60-75 minutes at that temperature, or about 45 at 425F if you want crisper skin.
- The soak, and whether to botherStanding in cold water a few hours draws out surface starch from the cut ends. The recipe gives no reason for it. With supermarket potatoes it is optional, and it will slow the boil slightly.
- Leaving a bone in themThis is the hinge of the boiling method. Pull the potatoes while the fork meets slight resistance at the center; residual heat finishes them during the drain and dry-off. Cooked until the fork slides through, skin-on potatoes waterlog and slump.
- Cutting off the endsThe recipe gives no reason; it may be to trim blemished ends, or to let steam escape rather than split the skin. Optional if you boil in the jacket, and unnecessary for baking, where a fork-prick vents the potato.
- Salt added halfwayNote the wording, "another handful of salt": the water was already salted, and this is a top-up at the halfway point. There is no need for the second addition; salt the water at the start and use enough to taste it clearly.
- Shaking in the open airThe point is evaporation, not fresh air. Drain hard, return the pan to low heat, and shake or leave uncovered for a minute or two until the surfaces go dull and floury. Covering them traps steam and softens the skins.
- SteamingHalf an hour holds up well for medium potatoes, and steaming is the most forgiving of the four methods because nothing waterlogs.
- Baked in the meat panPeeled potatoes basted with drippings do best in a hot roasting environment, 400-425F, turned two or three times. At 350F they brown slowly and soak up more fat in the meantime.
- YieldReckon on one medium potato per person as a side, two if they are small or the meal is plain.
Potatoes were often cooked in their skins in nineteenth-century American kitchens: peeling before cooking wasted food, and the skin held the potato together over uneven stove heat. The Dixie Cook Book was assembled in the 1880s from the same body of material as the Buckeye cookery books, and entries like this one bundle several methods into a single paragraph rather than setting them out as discrete recipes. The instruction to add the large potatoes first, then the rest, suits a market where potatoes came in whatever sizes the field gave; uniform graded produce is a much later development. The phrase "leaving a bone in them" appears in period sources for this stage of doneness, and "mealy" was a term of high praise for a boiled potato, which is why the shaking and drying step is treated as essential rather than optional.