478 Of Food. 



them remarkably dry and mealy. They should be 

 brought to the table with the skins on, and eaten with a 

 little salt, as bread. Nothing but experience can sat- 

 isfy any one how superior the potato is, thus prepared, 

 if the sort is good and mealy. Some prefer roasting 

 potatoes ; but the mode above detailed, extracted partly 

 from the interesting paper of Samuel Hayes, Esq., 

 of Avondale, in Ireland (Report on the Culture of 

 Potatoes, p. 103), and partly from the Lancashire re- 

 printed Report (p. 63), and other communications to 

 the Board, is at least equal, if not superior. Some 

 have tried boiling potatoes in steam, thinking by that 

 process that they must imbibe less water. But immer- 

 sion in water causes the discharge of a certain sub- 

 stance, which the steam alone is incapable of doing, 

 and by retaining which the flavour of the root is in- 

 jured, and they afterwards become dry by being put 

 over the fire a second time without water. With a little 

 butter, or milk, or fish, they make an excellent mess." 



These directions are so clear that it is hardly possi- 

 ble to mistake them ; and those who follow them ex- 

 actly will find their potatoes surprisingly improved, and 

 will be convinced that the manner of boiling them is a 

 matter of much greater importance than has hitherto 

 been imagined. 



Were this method of boiling potatoes generally 

 known in countries where these vegetables are only 

 beginning to make their way into common use, — as 

 in Bavaria, for instance, — I have no doubt but it 

 would contribute more than any thing else to their 

 speedy introduction. 



The following account of an experiment, lately made 



