The Proper Cooking of Potatoes
By Christian Union
Considering the universality of the use of the potato, it is greatly abused. God and the farmer send to us well-made potatoes, and our cooks spoil them. Potatoes from the same hill will be, under different managements, yellow, soggy, waxy lumps, or snowy, powdery balls, pleasant to look upon and delicious to eat. A good baked potato is a great delicacy, but the ordinary thing served up under that name is either burnt to a crisp, or shriveled and withered. A baked potato is utterly ruined by a few moments of overdoing, or standing after it is done. "That which at the right moment was plump with mealy richness, a quarter of an hour later shrivels and becomes watery;" and it is in this state baked potatoes are most frequently served. Next to bread, the potato is the greatest dependence we have in the larder, and a reform in cooking it would greatly improve our meals.