THE CHEMISTRY OF COOKERY. 217 



no jackets. Should potatoes be peeled before cooking, or should they 

 be boiled in their jackets ? I say most decidedly in jackets, and will 

 state my reasons. From 53 to 56 per cent of the above-stated saline 

 constituents of the potato is potash, and potash is an important con- 

 stituent of blood — so important that in Norway, where scurvy once 

 prevailed very seriously, it has been banished since the introduction 

 of the potato, and, according to Lang and other good authorities, it is 

 owing to the use of this vegetable by a people who formerly were in- 

 sufficiently supplied with saline vegetable food. 



Potash salts are freely soluble in water, and I find that the water 

 in which potatoes have been boiled contains potash, as may be proved 

 by boiling it down to concentrate, then filtering and adding the usual 

 potash test, platinum chloride. 



It is evident that the skin of the potato must resist this passage of 

 the potash into the water, though it may not fully prevent it. The 

 bursting of the skin only occurs at quite the latter stage of the cook- 

 ery. The greatest practical authorities on the potato, Irishmen, ap- 

 pear to be unanimous. I do not remember to have seen a pre-peeled 

 potato in Ireland. I find that I can at once detect by the difference of 

 flavor whether a potato has been boiled with or without its jacket, and 

 this difference is evidently saline. 



These considerations lead to another conclusion, viz., that baked 

 potatoes, and fried potatoes, or potatoes cooked in such a manner so 

 as to be eaten with their own broth, as in Irish stew (in which cases 

 the previous peeling does no mischief), are preferable to boiled pota- 

 toes. Steamed j^otatoes probably lose less of their potash juices than 

 when boiled ; but this is uncertain, as the modicum of distilled water 

 condensed upon the potato and continually renewed may wash away 

 as much as the larger quantity of hard water in which the boiled 

 potato is immersed. 



Those who eat an abundance of fruit, of raw salads, and other 

 vegetables supplying a sufficiency of potash to the blood, may peel 

 and boil their potatoes ; but the poor Irish peasant who depends upon 

 the potato for all his sustenance requires that they shall supply him 

 with potash. 



When traveling in Ireland (I explored that country rather ex- 

 haustively when editing the fourth edition of " Murray's Hand-book "), 

 I was surprised at the absence of fruit-trees in the small farms where 

 one might expect them to abound. On speaking of this, the reason 

 given was that all trees are the landlord's property ; that if a tenant 

 should plant them they would suggest luxury and prosperity, and 

 therefore a rise of rent ; or, otherwise stated, the tenant would be fined 

 for thus improving the value of his holding. This was before the 

 passing of the Land Act, which we may hope will put an end to such 

 legalized brigandage. "With the abolition of rack-renting, the Irish 

 peasant may grow and eat fruit ; may even taste jam without fear and 



