THE COOKING- OF VEGETABLES. 



371 



The Potato is now the national vegetable ; few people, high or low, 

 think of sitting down to dinner without Potatos in some form. Potatos 

 should be boiled in their skins, as otherwise the boiling water will wash 

 out their flavour. They can be served in their "jackets," or peeled after 

 boiling, and kept warm till served. When a joint of beef, mutton, or 

 pork, or a fowl is baked, a good way of cooking Potatos is this : — Peel as 

 many Potatos as you require ; cut them in halves lengthways, and arrange 

 them, cut side downwards, in a baking-dish ; over each put a dab of lard 

 or dripping and some pepper and salt ; pour into the dish a small cupful 

 of water or stock, place the joint or fowl over the cut Potatos, and bake 

 the whole. 



There are two ways of cooking Potatos which are very nice. 



(a) Peel a number of raw Potatos ; cut them into slices of about half 

 an inch thick ; cut the slices again into bars of similar thickness and fry 

 them of a golden colour in plenty of boiling lard. There are not many 

 things nicer than a grilled juicy mutton chop (if you can get it !) served 

 with Potatos, fried as above, and piping hot. 



(b) Boil the Potatos in their skins ; peel and slice them crossways ; 

 then toss them in a frying-pan with plenty of butter, finely chopped 

 Parsley, and a couple of spoonfuls of good stock, previously thickened 

 with a little flour, pepper, and salt, and a squeeze of lemon -juice. The 

 French call a somewhat similar dish maltre cVhotel Potatos. To be 

 served very hot with meat or fried fish. 



There is an Irish dish made with Potatos and Cabbage which, if 

 properly made, is extremely nice. It is called "Kale-cannon," and is made 

 thus : Steam some floury Potatos in their skins ; put them through a 

 squeezer; then steam some small and choice Cabbage and squeeze out its 

 water in a piece of muslin and chop it up finely. Put a good bit of 

 butter in a saucepan, add the Potatos and the Cabbage, half a teacupful 

 of cream, and some salt. Stir up the whole on the fire so as to amalga- 

 mate the ingredients thoroughly, and serve hot, to be eaten with meat ; 

 or you can turn the whole into a buttered pudding-dish, dust the top with 

 Parmesan cheese, and bake in a hot oven till the surface acquires a nice 

 brown colour, and serve as second course. 



One should have some notion of making sauces to add to cooked 

 vegetables. There are two sauces which should be handy for culinary 

 purposes in order to give flavour to flavourless though nourishing viands, 

 and both can practically be made out of the same materials. Continental 

 chefs are formidably extravagant in making their foundation stock for 

 sauces. In an Italian cookery book before me entitled " II Re de' Cuochi ' 

 (The King of Cooks), large pieces of beef and veal and a fowl are boiled 

 down with several ingredients for making a stock of first-class consistency 

 to be used as a foundation for all sorts of sauces. But a fair foundation 

 for sauces can be made as follows : Prepare a couple of sheep's trotters 

 chopped in pieces, some bits of ham and bacon ; any left fowl or game 

 bones, and a pound of steak cut in small pieces ; then cut up an Onion 

 and fry it brown in butter in a saucepan, add all the above prepared 

 meats, and in addition half a Carrot and half a Turnip sliced, a clove of 

 Garlic, a couple of bay-leaves, and some parsley-leaves ; cover the whole 

 with good ordinary stock, and bring it to a boil ; skim the surface of 



