Culinary jottings

The '• Gr. C," says : — " After they have been carefully washed, put your potatoes, unpeeled, into a sauce-pan, filled with cold-water to the height of about an inch, then sprinkle them with salt, and place a wet cloth on the top of them. The sauce-pan should be then put on the fire, and in about half an hour, drawn upon the kitchener (at the side of the fire) to remain hot till the potatoes are wanted." Choose potatoes as much of a size as you can for boiling : do not boil a large and two small ones together if you can help it. "When potatoes are boiled in the ordinary fashion ; that is, placed in a sauce-pan with a due allowance of salt, and covered well with cold water, they should be lifted, and drained after half an hour's cooking, and then be returned to the hot, empty sauce-pan, covered with a wet cloth, and placed at the margin of the fire to keep hot, and to dry themselves thoroughly. In boiling potatoes in the ordinary method, it is a good thing to check the rate of cooking, every now and then, by adding a little cold water, and the time ought to be, — after boiling commences, — from eighteen to twenty minutes. '• Steamed potatoes" should be scraped, picked, and wiped, after having been set for five minutes or so in coldwater. Then place them in the steamer over boiling water, and let them steam till done : the time may vary from twenty to forty minutes : the fork (or a skewer) should go through them easily, if not, they are not done A minute in a fast oven will dry them if needful. New potatoes should be scrubbed, rubbed with a coarse cloth, and boiled or steamed according to taste : you cannot expect them to be very mealy, of course, and with some people their waxiness constitutes their chief charm. Having boiled or steamed our potato satisfactorily, let us see in how many ways we may serye it, presuming that we have turned it out as flourily as we could desire. First, of course, it may be sent up plainly, either in its skin, or crumbled in to the dish made hot to receive it. Secondly, it may be turned out upon a wire sieve, be nibbed through it with a wooden spoon, and dished plainly in that form as " potato-snow" pommes de terre rapées. Lastly, it may be mashed, and I maintain that true mashed potato can only be produced from a mealy tuber. A good way to mash potatoes is to break them up first in the dry hot sauce-pan in which they were boiled, working them well with a wooden spoon, and adding as much butter as you can spare, a little milk, and some salt. When fairly well mashed, to pass them through the sieve so as to catch the knots, and then to form them as you like, — browning the mould in front of the fire, or in the oven before serving. If you want to get a distinct taste, which many people fancy in mashed potatoes, try the following method : — when your potatoes are nicely boiled, and drained, turn them back into their sauce-pan, which, during the draining, you must rub lightly with garlic : go on as previously described, be liberal with your butter, and instead of the milk, add a little stock from the soup kettle. A dust of pepper, and a little nutmeg, will complete the puree, for remember that mashed potato abroad goes by the name of puree de pommes de terre, and is sent to table not nearly as stiffly moulded as ours.