Chapter IX
.) The length of time required depends upon the size of the potato, forty-five minutes being the average time.
A potato is largely water. What is the temperature of the interior of the potato during the baking process?
Test by pressing firmly, protecting the fingers by a soft cloth; or insert a fork. When the potato is done, it yields to the pressure of the fingers. If the potatoes cannot be served at once, break the skin that the steam may escape, cover with a cloth, and keep them hot.
For convenience at the table, cut the potatoes in two lengthwise, loosen the content of each half with a fork, sprinkle with salt, and add a bit of butter, as much as one would add at the table.
_Potato on the half shell_ carries serving one step farther. Cut the baked potatoes in two lengthwise, remove the contents, mash lightly, add butter or butterine, milk, and salt, allowing a teaspoonful of butter, a tablespoonful of milk and a shake or two of salt to each potato. These measurements cannot be given with exactness, because potatoes vary in size. Beat this mixture well, replace lightly in each half shell, and brown the tops slightly. This is nothing more than mashed baked potato, prettily served.
Invent other variations of this dish, adding ingredients that are agreeable when mixed with the potato. The beaten white of an egg added, gives greater lightness to the mixture in the potato shell.
_Method 2._ The same as Method 1, except that the potatoes are pared before baking. A good method when the skins are not fair. A brown crust is formed on the potato, which is crisp and pleasant to eat. Large potatoes may be cut in two before baking, or even sliced.
What difference in length of baking will there be between Methods 1 and 2?
=2. Boiled potatoes.=
The only way to prevent the loss of nutrients in using this process is to boil the potatoes with the “jackets” on. This is the best way with new potatoes. This method with ripe and old potatoes gives a yellowish color to the surface and indeed throughout. It is a labor-saving method for the busy housewife, as the skin cracks and loosens at the end of the boiling process, and is easily removed.
If you choose to have a snow-white potato, it must be pared before boiling, and thus you deliberately waste the valuable mineral matter provided by nature. If your income permits this æsthetic pleasure, the mineral matter can of course be supplied in other vegetables. The woman who can spend but twenty to thirty cents per capita for food per day should boil the potatoes with the skins on and gratify her artistic sense in some other way.
The method of boiling is the same in either case, whether the potato is pared or not.
Have enough boiling water to cover the potatoes. Put the potatoes of uniform size one at a time into the kettle that the boiling may not stop. Allow a gentle boiling to continue until the potatoes are done. Why avoid rapid boiling? Test with a fork at the end of half an hour. When the potatoes are mellow, drain off the water, and set the kettle where the remaining moisture will steam off. Shake gently to hasten this process, and sprinkle the potatoes with salt. If they must stand before serving will you place a tin cover or a cloth over the kettle? Old potatoes, with a strong flavor, should be pared before boiling, or even soaked in cold water.
=3. Mashed potatoes.=——Some one devised this convenient method of serving, to save trouble at the table. Mashed potato can be very poor and unappetizing when wet and lumpy. Do not attempt it with new, poor, or old potatoes. See that the boiled potatoes are as dry as can be——every particle of water steamed away. Mash thoroughly with the wire masher, add butter or butterine, salt and milk in about the proportions given for potato in the half shell. Use a tablespoonful or so of cream if it is available. _Beat vigorously._ The mealiness of the potato and the vigorous beating are the secrets of success. The finished product should be light and somewhat moist,——_not wet_. Reheat in the kettle. Pile lightly in a hot dish and serve; or brown the top before serving.
_Potato puff._ (Soufflé.)——With your knowledge of mashed potato, can you not invent a potato puff?
=4. Escalloped potato.=——The name _escalloped_ is applied to any baked dish that is arranged in layers. Escalloped potato is a palatable dish and this is one of the most economical of methods.
Wash, pare, and slice the potatoes in 1/4-inch pieces. Slightly grease an earthen or enameled baking dish. Cover the bottom of the dish with a layer of the slices, sprinkle the slices lightly with flour, and put on two teaspoonfuls of butter, or butterine, in small bits. Continue until the dish is nearly full. Pour in milk to barely cover the potatoes, put a cover on the dish and set the dish in an oven of 380° F. Remove the cover in time to allow the top to brown. Allow rather more than half an hour for the baking.
=5. Creamed potatoes.=——_Method 1_, an _easy way_. Chop cold _baked_ potatoes with the chopper. Allow one tablespoonful of butter to 1 pint of chopped potato. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in the potatoes. Shake from the dredger the equivalent of a tablespoonful of flour, stirring the potato with one hand as you shake with the other. Pour in enough milk to barely cover the chopped potato. Set the saucepan in the coolest spot on the range; _or_ on the simmering burner of a gas range, upon an asbestos mat; _or_ turn all into an earthenware jar, or baking dish, and proceed as with escalloped potato. Allow the mixture to cook until it becomes creamy.
_Method 2_. Cut the cold potatoes in cubes, and heat in a thin white sauce. See