Of Food. 477 



Agriculture, I can recommend from my own experi- 

 ence : — 



On the Boiling of Potatoes, so as to be eaten as Bread. 



" There is nothing that would tend more to promote 

 the consumption of potatoes than to have the proper 

 mode of preparing them as food generally known. In 

 London, this is little attended to; whereas, in Lan- 

 cashire and Ireland, the boiling of potatoes is brought 

 to very great perfection indeed. When prepared in 

 the following manner, if the quality of the root is good, 

 they may be eaten as bread, — a practice not unusual in 

 Ireland. The potatoes should be, as much as possible, 

 of the same size, and the large and small ones boiled 

 separately. They must be washed clean, and, without 

 paring or scraping, put in a pot with cold water, not 

 sufficient to cover them, as they will produce them- 

 selves, before they boil, a considerable quantity of fluid. 

 They do not admit being put into a vessel of boiling 

 water like greens. If the potatoes are tolerably large, 

 it will be necessary, as soon as they begin to boil, to 

 throw in some cold water, and occasionally to repeat it, 

 till the potatoes are boiled to the heart (which will take 

 from half an hour to an hour and a quarter, according 

 to their size): they will otherwise crack, and burst to 

 pieces on the outside, whilst the inside will be nearly 

 in a crude state, and consequently very unpalatable and 

 unwholesome. During the boiling, throwing in a little 

 salt occasionally is found a great improvement; and 

 it is certain that the slower they are cooked, the better. 

 When boiled, pour off the water, and evaporate the 

 moisture, by replacing the vessel in which the potatoes 

 were boiled once more over the fire. This makes 



