Elements of the theory and practice of cookery

Select medium -sized potatoes, scrub them well, and dry them. Bake them in a shallow pan on the rack in a moderately hot oven until soft (usually about forty- five minutes). Turn them occasionally, that they may bake evenly. When soft, press them between the fin- gers, and break the skin to let the steam escape. Serve them folded in a napkin in an uncovered dish. Boiled Potatoes (^Put water to hoiL') Select potatoes uniform in size. Scrub or wash them, and if they are to be pared, pare them lengthwise, remove the "eyes" and any dark spots, and drop them into cold water. Put them into a kettle with enough boiling water to cover them.^ When they have boiled 1 To keep them from discoloring. The oxygen of the air forms with the potato a dark-colored substance. This acid also stains the paring-knife. 69 60 THEORY AND PRACTICE OF COOKERY twenty minutes, add salt, using one tablespoonful to six potatoes. When the potatoes can be pierced easily with a fork or kuitting-needle, drain off all the water, shake the kettle gently, sprinkle the potatoes with a little salt, cover the kettle with a cloth folded in several thicknesses, and let it stand in a warm place until the potatoes are served. Serve them uncovered. A Study of a White Potato 109. What is a potato? A root? let us see if by examining one we can find out. On its surface are Fig. 8. — Potato-plant little scars, called " eyes." If a potato be buried in the ground in mild weather, or kept in a warm, dark place. PLATE V. Cold Oatmeal molded and garnished with Sliced Bananas. Iodine Test for Starch. Diluted tincture of iodine in one test-tube, starch-paste stained by iodine in the other. FUEL FOODS: SOME STARCHY PLANTS 61 what happens ? It sprouts ; that is, the eyes send out green shoots that in time have leaves. These eyes, then, must be buds, and the potato a stem, not a root ; for, ordinarily, roots do not bud. A thickened under- ground stem like this of the potato, is a tuber. ^ Potato roots are slender and fibrous. Hold a thin slice of potato to the light. Is its sub- stance denser near the edges or at the centre ? Can you make out an appearance of network ? 110. Analysis of potato ; experiments to find out what a potato contains. — A. Pare and grate a piece of raw potato. Squeeze it in a piece of cheesecloth held over a bowl. Rinse what remains in the cloth with cold water, and squeeze it as dry as you can. What does it seem like ? B. Let the liquid in the bowl stand until a white sediment settles ; then pour it off carefully. Add a little water to the sedi- ment and boil it. Does it act like anything you have seen before? C. Mix one teaspoonful of cornstarch with one tablespoonful of cold water, add one-fourth cupful of boiling water, and stir until clear. Do the same with laundry starch. Dissolve about one teaspoonful of salt in one-fourth of a cupful of water ; do the same with one teaspoonful of sugar. Add a few drops of tincture of iodine to a test-tube of water. Pour a little of this iodine solu- tion into each of the starch pastes. What happens? Try a few drops in the salt solution. In the sugar solution. Has it the same effect on these as on the starch ? (Plate V.) Starch is turned blue by iodine. No other substance being affected in this way, iodine serves as a test for starch.