The Pattern cook-book

ready. They are sliced rather thin or else cut with a vegetable spoon or into blocks or rhomboidal shapes. Let the pieces stand one hour in cold water. Have ready a frying-pan of very hot lard, dry the slices of potato quickly on a towel, and drop them into the lard. Take them out with a skimmer when done, and place them in a colander set on a tin plate in the open oven, to keep warm while the rest of the potatoes are frying. When all are done, sprinkle with salt, and serve very hot. When intended to garnish boiled or baked fish, the potatoes are cut in rather thick slices and then formed into pretty shapes with the vegetable cutter. FRIED POTATOES. Cut cold boiled potatoes into slices a quarter of an inch thick, and fry them in a frying-pan in a very little lard, browning both sides of the slices. Add more lard as needed, and season the potatoes with salt and pepper after frying. POTATO PUFF. Two cupfuls of cold mashed potato. Two eggs. Salt and pepper to taste. Two table-spoonfuls of butter. One tea-cupful of milk. Mash the potato well, and add the butter when melted. Stir to a white cream, and add the eggs beaten very lightly, and then the milk and the seasoning. Beat all well together, and bake in a deep dish until nicely browned. The potatoes should come from the oven light and puffy. LYONNAISE POTATOES. One pint of cold potatoes. One table-spoonful of butter. One table-spoonful of minced onion. One table-spoonful of chopped parsley. Salt and pepper to taste. The potatoes should be rather underdone to produce the best results. Cut them into dice, and season with salt and pepper. Fry the onion in the butter until yellow, add the potato, and stir with a fork until both are of a nice brown, being careful not to break the potatoes, A little more butter may be required, as no vegetables absorb so much butter as potatoes. When done, turn the potatoes out upon a hot dish, sprinkle the parsley over the top, and serve hot. TO COOK SMALL NEW POTATOES. It is often a question what to do with new potatoes that are very small. They are delicious cooked as described below, and for this purpose the smaller they are the better. Soak them one hour in cold water ; then rub off the skin with a coarse cloth, put them on the fire to boil, and when tender remove them from the fire and drain well. Then add to the potatoes enough milk to nearly cover them, and heat it to boiling. When the milk is hot, stir in one table-spoonful of butter rubbed to a cream with one table-spoonful of flour. Stir well to prevent the potatoes sticking to the stew-pan, being careful not to break them; and add salt and pepper, and more butter, if desired. Serve hot in a deep dish. The milk should be a thick cream and will prove a fine accompaniment for the potatoes. If preferred, the milk mav be heated in a farina kettle and thickened while the potatoes are draining, adding the latter when the gravy is ready. None of the potatoes should be larger than a small egg. SWEET POTATOES.