316 FRENCH COOKERY OF VEGETABLES 



flavour a puree of Peas, White Beans, Lentils, Celery, 

 etc. Among the peasantry, where soup is the staple 

 food, a piece of bacon or a sausage is cooked in the water 

 with the vegetables and served afterwards as a meat 

 course ; half the quantity of vegetables as a puree, 

 the remainder left whole and placed around the bacon 

 or sausage. 



THE POTATO. 



Having disposed of the vegetable in its uses for 

 soup we will now deal with it in its more important 

 form, and start with the Potato, on which, from a 

 culinary point of view, volumes could be written. 



There are said to be five hundred different ways 

 of preparing this tuber, which in England is known only 

 as boiled, steamed or mashed. Fried should also be 

 added to the list in the opinion of the uninitiated in 

 the mysteries of good cooking but the sodden or 

 burnt specimens supplied by the average English cook 

 are not worthy of the qualification. Yet nothing is 

 simpler than to fry Potatoes. Let us then proceed to 

 explain this matter of frying which seems as little 

 understood as the making of an omelette. To com- 

 mence operations take a frying pan and place it on the 

 stove to warm. In a second or two drop in the lard 

 or dripping that is to become the liquid that will 

 change the raw material into the fried or souffle article. 

 This fat must boil before it is of any use, and in 

 order to ascertain if the requisite degree of heat is 

 reached it is only necessary to watch for the liquid to 



