How to Serve Potatoes

A great deal of ignorance is often shown by excellent housekeepers in putting potatoes on the table. The usual practice of bringing them up in a porcelain or deep dish, with a close-fitting cover, would utterly destroy the best potatoes in ten minutes, however carefully cooked. They should be placed in a wooden dish, or served in a porcelain dish with towels above and below to absorb the moisture.

Potatoes (Stuffed)

Five medium-sized potatoes, 1/2 oz. butter, 1 tablespoonful grated cheese, pepper, salt, and yolk of 1 egg.

Bake the potatoes in their skins, and when done cut off a small slice from one end, scoup out the inside, and rub through a wire sieve. Add to it 1/2 an oz. butter, 1 tablespoonful grated cheese, pepper, salt, and the yolk of an egg. Mix well, refill the skins, fit on the slices which were cut off, and put into the oven again for 10 minutes before serving.

Lyonnaise Potatoes

Into a saucepan put a large lump of butter and a small onion finely chopped, and when the onion is fried to an amber color, throw in slices of cold boiled potatoes, which must be thoroughly stirred until they are turning brown; at this moment put in a spoonful of finely chopped parsley, and as soon as it is cooked, drain through a colander, so that the potatoes retain the moisture of the butter, and many particles of parsley.

Potatoes (Sautees au Beurre)

Cut with a vegetable cutter into small balls about the size of a marble; put them in a stewpan with plenty of butter and a good sprinkling of salt; keep the saucepan covered, and shake it occasionally until they are quite done, which will be in about an hour.

Savory Potatoes

Peel as many potatoes as you require. Put them in a pie-dish with a goodsized onion chopped fine, 1/2 teaspoonful of dried sage powdered, 2 oz. butter and 2 tablespoonfuls olive oil, and enough water to cover the bottom, of the dish. Pepper and salt to taste, and bake in a slow oven.

Saratoga Potatoes

Saratoga chips are prepared in thin, paper-like slices (a slaw-cutter is required for this), and crisped, but not burned, in hot fat. The secret of preparing them properly lies in cutting them first in the thinnest slices possible, and soaking them for at least 1 hour in cold salt water. The last process draws the starch out of the potato, and is positively necessary to success. Before frying, each piece must be thoroughly dried on a towel. When taken out of the fat they may be drained on a sieve a moment in a very hot oven or over the stove, then cooled quickly in a draft.

Potatoes (Virginia Style)

Slice as for Saratoga potatoes, but thicker, soak in cold water, drain, and fry in covered pan with 2 or 3 spoonfuls of suet, turning brown before they are put in. Salt and pepper thickly while cooking at leisure.

Potato Pancakes

Grate 8 large potatoes in a porcelain bowl, add 4 eggs, not beaten, 1 teacup flour, 1/2 cup milk and 1 even teaspoonful baking-powder; stir all lightly together, taking care not to beat the eggs up too much. Fry the same as ordinary pancakes, but longer, to cook thoroughly.

Potatoes (a la Creme)

Slice the potatoes as for frying and soak in cold water 1/2 hour. Parboil in a frying-pan, pour the water off and let them stand on the fire uncovered till the steam is driven off; brown 1 spoonful of butter or fat and pour over them a minute after; then cover the potatoes with milk, in which they should boil till done. Salt and pepper while cooking and watch lest they burn. There should be just milk enough when done for a creamy gravy, thickened by the starch of the potatoes.

Potato Balls

Four large, mealy potatoes, cold; mash them in a pan with 2 tablespoonfuls of melted butter, a pinch of salt, a little pepper, 1 tablespoonful of cream and the beaten yolk of 1 egg; rub it together for about 5 minutes, or until very smooth; shape the mixture into balls about the size of a walnut or small roils, dip them into an egg well beaten and then into the finest sifted bread crumbs; fry them in boiling lard.

Potato Croquettes

Boil 1 dozen potatoes, strain and mash well; add 2 yolks of eggs, beat well and season. When cold, mould in the shape of long corks and dip each piece into beaten eggs; then roll in crumbs and fry a golden brown.

Scalloped Potatoes

Cut 4 good-sized boiled or steamed potatoes into dice; put 2 tablespoonfuls of butter in a frying-pan, and, when melted, add 2 tablespoonfuls of flour; mix until smooth; then add 1 pint of milk, and stir continually until it boils; add a teaspoonful of salt and 3 dashes of black pepper; take from the fire. Put a layer of this sauce in the bottom of a baking-dish, then a layer of potatoes, then another layer of sauce, and so on until all is used, having the last layer sauce; sprinkle the top lightly with bread crumbs and put in the oven for 15 minutes to brown. Serve in the dish in which it was baked.