646 COOKING TOMATOES. 
the assistance of even a more celebrated character, to place before 
your readers the best mode of preparing this valuable crop for the table ? 
Most English cooks, I apprehend, think the boiling of potatoes 
rather unworthy much attention, hence we frequently find these roots 
but indifferently dressed. In Ireland, on the contrary, that potatoe 
fed population have brought the art of cooking them to great perfec- 
tion. — Guy says, 
" Leek to the Welch, to Dutchmen butter's dear, 
Of Irish swains potatoe is the cheer." 
The following accords with the Irish mode of preparing potatoes as 
food, and is from the pen of Benjamin Count Rumford, the eminent 
person above alluded to, whose successful exertions in the application 
of science to the purposes of ordinary life, have contributed much 
to the comforts of mankind. 
" The potatoes should be as much as possible of the same size, and 
small ones boiled separately ; they must be washed clean, and, with- 
out paring, put into a pot with cold water not sufficient to cover them 
as they will themselves produce a considerable quantity of fluid be- 
fore they boil ; they do not admit of being put into a vessel of boiling 
water like greens. If the potatoes are tolerably large, it will be ne- 
cessary, 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. During the 
boiling, throwing in a little salt occasionally is found a great improve- 
ment, and it is certain that the slower they are cooked the better. 
When boiled pour off the water, and evaporate the moisture, by re- 
placing the vessel, in which the potatoes were boiled, once more over 
the fire : this makes them remarkably dry and mealy." 
SOLANUM. 
April 25th, 1832. 
ARTICLE XV. 
ON THE METHOD OF COOKING TOMATOES. 
BY A CONSTANT READER. 
How desirable it would be that your excellent work sliould occasi- 
onally contain receijjts for the cookery of the many vegetables that 
have lately been introduced into our gardens, in the uses of which 
most people are totally ignorant. I am aware that the Gardeners 
