1870. 



XEW ENGLAND FAEIMER. 



57 



tight paper bags till needed ; and soak in warm 

 water over night before using. Green beans and 

 peas taken from their pods and spread and dried, 

 and kept in the same manner are very nice. Many 

 persons can them ; but it is less trouble to preserve 

 them in this way, and they are equally as good. 



The most common of our vegetables, and that 

 which is the most useful, is the potato— the Irish 

 potato as it is called to distinguish it from the 

 sweet or Carolina potato ; but it is of American 

 origin. It was carried from Virginia to England 

 in 1556, by Sir Walter Raleigh, and from its re- 

 semblance to the Batatas, (afterward called sweet 

 potato) which had been long known there as a 

 dainty, it was given its name — slightly modified. 

 For many years it was only used in the prepara- 

 tion of sweet meats and comfits ; not until the lat- 

 ter part of the seventeenth century did it get into 

 use as an article of ordinary food. The first pota- 

 toes that were raised in New England grew in 

 Framingham, Mass. They were planted by Mar- 

 tha Buckminster Curtis, a famous "female mer- 

 chant" of Boston. 



The potato though not very nutritious, is easily 

 digested when properly cooked, and hence has be- 

 come almost as indispensable a portion of daily 

 food as wheaten bread. But the disease which 

 has infested certain species of the potato during 

 the past few years, has done much to check its 

 consumption, perhaps to our advantage, for it has 

 been plainly demonstrated that a diet of this veg- 

 etable is unfavorable to mental and moral devel- 

 opment; those who subsist mainly upon it, or 

 who partake of it freelj", — as the Irish in their 

 native country — are much below the average in in- 

 tellect and correct conduct. Still, used in connec- 

 tion with other vegetables, and as an accompani- 

 ment to lish and meats, in moderate quantities it 

 dees no harm. 



The best way to cook potatoes is unquestionably 

 the old-fashioned method of roasting them, rolled 

 in paper, under the ashes of a wood fire. Next to 

 this comes baking in a quick oven. They are 

 good boiled or fried, or— dis(/uisecl in some of the 

 one hundred and four ways in which a Yankee 

 has recently outwitted a Frenchman, who boasted 

 that he could cook an egg in greater variety than 

 he his favorite tuber. But Jonathan gained the 

 case and won a bet by a plurality of just one recipe. 



To boil potatoes : Fill a kettle with water just 

 sufficient to cover the potatoes,— and no moie 

 Heat the vrater till it boils. Throw in an even 

 teaspoonful of salt for a dozen common sized po- 

 tatoes. Have your potatoes washed clean, then 

 put them into the boiling water. Keep a brisk 

 fire, that they shall boil without cessation. At 

 the end of twenty minutes try them with a fork. 

 If nearly cooked, (while there is yet a bane in 

 them) turn off the water, leave off the kettle cover 

 and set them over the fire for five or ten minutes ; 

 or else take them from the kettle and lay them in 

 the stove oven for the same length of time. Cook- 



ed thus they will be dry and mealy. The salt not 

 only seasons them, but hardens their skin, so that 

 they are less liable to break in removing from the 

 kettle. If put into water that does not boil, or if 

 allowed to cease boiling they will be watery. 



Old potatoes (those that have been kept through 

 the winter) should be freed from tlieir sprouts, as 

 these secrete a poisonous juice in boiling. They 

 should also be pared and kept immersed in cold 

 water for an hour previous to boiling. Then if 

 boiled in salted water and dried as mentioned, on 

 the kettle or the stove oven, they will lose that 

 waxy appearance which generally characterizes 

 them. 



A nice way to prepare boiled potatoes for the 

 table is to dip them into beaten egg, sift over them 

 pounded cracker or dried bread crumbs, and then 

 brown them in the stove or range oven. 



Mashed potatoes are an excellent accompani- 

 ment to roast fowls or pork. For this dish boil 

 the potatoes till soft — from half an hour to forty 

 mintues, according to the time of the year— new 

 potatoes cook much sooner than old. Mash them 

 with a rolling-pin upon a moulding-board, or 

 pound them in a mortar. For a dozen potatoes 

 heat, while mashing them, a pint of milk or cream, 

 in which melt a square inch of butter and a little 

 salt. When the milk boils stir in the mashed po- 

 tatoes. Mix the whole thoroughly, then put it 

 into a crockery dish that it will fill to heaping; 

 smooth the top with a knife — and, if you please, 

 beat the yolks of two eggs and pour over it — but 

 it is very good without.- Set it into the stove or 

 range oven till browned— five minutes will sufl3ce 

 with a good oven — and then take it to the table in 

 the same dish. 



Baked potatoes, to be good, should be cooked 

 as quickly as possible without burning. They re- 

 quire an oven heated as for baking bread. Twenty 

 minutes should bake them, and they should be 

 eaten immediately— they become heavy as they 

 cool. 



Cold boiled potatoes sliced and fried in fresh 

 pork or beef fat are very desirable at breakfast. 

 Cut the slices evenly, a quarter of an inch thick, 

 and brown them well on both sides. Use as little 

 fat as will suflttce — supply it as it lessens. The fat 

 should be hot to begin with, and that to be sup- 

 plied also. Sprinkle the slices on both sides with 

 salt — a salt box with a perforated cover, like those 

 commonly used for pepper, is very convenient for 

 salting these as well as for flavoring meats while 

 cooking. 



Raw potatoes peeled and sliced verj' thin and 

 fried in salt pork fat are a very appetizing and 

 hearty dish. Heat the fat to boiling in a deep 

 kettle, and then drop m a quantity of slices, as 

 many as can be conveniently stirred about in the 

 kettle. Stir and turn them till they are browned. 

 Skim them into a colander to drain, and then take 

 them in a deep dish immediately to the table. 



Sweet potatoes are generally liked ; they have 



