Mashed potato

“ Mashed potato left over may be used for cakes. Add an egg to a cupful and a half of potato and beat them well together until light; form it into cakes or balls; roll them in flour and sauté in butter, or spread the mixture in a layer one inch thick; cut it into strips or squares and sauté; or put it into a well-buttered border mold; cover with greased paper, and bake for [202] half an hour in a moderate oven. Let it stand in the mold for ten minutes; then turn onto a dish, and fill the center with any mince or with creamed fish. Mashed potato without egg will not hold its form when molded. ”

“ What would you think of the potato puff Norah makes out of left-over mashed potato?"
"Just the thing. I wouldn't have to boil the potatoes and peel them and mash them. Left-overs are always so convenient!"
"Then we must be sure to have mashed potato for dinner the night before the party, or there won't be any left over," said Mrs. Blair, laughing. "Now, write down this receipt; [Pg 198] only remember I am making it small for you; for the family you must take two cups or more of potato, and one egg."
POTATO PUFF
Mix the potato with the milk and salt and heat it, beating it well. ”

“ Mashed potato salad. To a quart or a little more of mashed potatoes add three tablespoonfuls of oil, a teaspoonful each of onion juice and salt, a dash of nutmeg, one half teaspoonful of pepper, a tablespoonful of pickled beets chopped fine, a tablespoonful of cucumber pickle chopped fine, and a tablespoonful of vinegar taken from the pickled-beet jar. Beat all together until the potato is light. The beet vinegar will color it pink. If a deeper color is wanted add a little more of the red vinegar. The potato should be a moist purée. ”

“ When they are pared, they should be baked in a dish, and oil of some kind added, to prevent their outsides from becoming burned.
MASHED POTATOES
Pare and boil or steam six or eight large potatoes. If boiled, drain when tender, and let set in the kettle for a few minutes, keeping them covered, shaking the kettle occasionally to prevent scorching. Mash with a wire potato masher, or, if convenient, press through a colander; add salt, a lump of butter, and sufficient hot milk to moisten thoroughly. Whip with the batter whip, or wooden spoon, until light and fluffy. ”

“ No. 23—POTATO DUMPLINGS FROM BOILED POTATOES.
Quantity for 6 Persons.
31⁄2 lbs. of boiled potatoes 11⁄2 cups of roll crumbs 1⁄2 roll cut into cubes 1⁄8 lb. of butter 3–4 eggs 1⁄2 tsp. of onion 1 pinch of pepper 1 heaping tbsp. of salt 1⁄2 cup of flour Salt water Preparation: The potatoes are boiled, peeled and grated when they are cooled off or mashed while still hot. When cold, the mashed potatoes are mixed well with roll crumbs, eggs, onion, pepper, salt, the 1⁄8 lb. of melted butter and the flour. The roll cubes are fried in butter crisp and yellow. ”

“ Cream potato is made by stirring cream into nicely mashed potato until of the desired consistency—snow potato by rubbing the potato through a colander or sieve, and allowing it to pile up in the dish in a snowy mass, and curly potato by rubbing it through a colander, letting it fall in long, white curls, in a pyramidal form, on the dish in which it is to be served, and then putting it in a hot oven till the surface is crisped. ”

“ There is no objection to mashing potatoes and adding milk, cream or butter, provided they are thoroughly masticated when eaten. If the potatoes are mashed, this should be so thoroughly done that not a lump is to be found.
Potatoes cooked in grease are an abomination. The grease ruins a part of the potato and makes the rest more difficult to digest. Potato chips, French fried potatoes and German fried potatoes are too hard to digest for people who live mostly indoors. They should be used very seldom. ”

“ Boil the potatoes carefully, drain from the water, mash fine, and to four good-sized potatoes add a heaping tablespoonful of butter, a tablespoonful or two of cream or rich milk and salt and pepper to taste. Serve at once. They must be freshly mashed and very hot to be eatable. The mashed potatoes maybe squeezed through a vegetable ricer, when they are called Potatoes à la Neige. ”

“ Put the puree into a very clean saucepan with the butter; stir it well over the fire until thoroughly hot, and it will then be ready to serve. A puree should be rather thinner than mashed potatoes, and is a delicious accompaniment to delicately broiled mutton cutlets. Cream or milk may be substituted for the broth when the latter is not at hand. A casserole of potatoes, which is often used for ragoûts instead of rice, is made by mashing potatoes rather thickly, placing them on a dish, and making an opening in the centre. ”

“ It is a mistaken notion, to boil potatoes in but little water, as they are sure to turn dark and taste strong. In cold weather they may be kept pared several days in a pan of water, by changing the water every day, and will be whiter. If you like mashed potatoes, take them up when barely done, sprinkle them with salt and mash them; put in a spoonful of cream and a small lump of butter; keep them hot till they are taken to table. ”

“ MASHED POTATOES.--If mashed potatoes are prepared properly, they are much relished by the majority of persons. However, to be most satisfactory, they should be cooked long enough not to be lumpy and then, after being mashed and softened with milk, they should be beaten until they are light and creamy. ”

“ When the skins crack in boiling, it is no proof that they are done, as too much fire under the pot will cause the skins of some potatoes to break while the inside is hard.
After March, when potatoes are old, it is best to pare them before boiling and to cut out all the blemishes. It is then better to mash them always before they are sent to table. Mash them when quite hot, using a potato-beetle for the purpose; add to them a piece of fresh butter, and a little salt, and, if convenient, some milk, which will greatly improve them. ”

“ They will not be mealy if they lie soaking in the water without boiling. They are more mealy to peel them as soon as tender, and then put back in the pot without any water, and set in a warm place where they will steam, with the lid of the pot off. Old and poor potatoes are best boiled till soft, then peeled and mashed fine, with a little salt, butter, and very little milk put in—then put into a dish, smoothed over with a knife, a little flour sprinkled over it, and put where it will brown. ”

“ For this reason scientific directors bid us beware of the water in which potatoes are boiled,—into which, it appears, the evil principle is drawn off; and they caution us not to shred them into stews without previously suffering the slices to lie for an hour or so in salt and water. These cautions are worth attention.
The most usual modes of preparing the potato for the table are by roasting or boiling. These processes are so simple that it is commonly supposed every cook understands them without special directions; and yet there is scarcely an uninstructed cook who can boil or roast a potato. ”

“ Peel and boil the potatoes till tender; then turn off the water and stand them on the back of the stove with a cover half over them, where they will keep hot while they get dry and floury, but [100] do not let them burn; shake the saucepan every little while. Heat the milk with the butter, salt, and pepper in it; mash the potatoes well, either with the wooden potato-masher or with a wire one, and put in the milk little by little. When they are all free from lumps, pile them lightly in the vegetable-dish as they are. Do not smooth them over the top. ”

“ They should be kept in the dark and covered so that frost cannot reach them. Every week until new potatoes come in, the old ones grow dearer, and it is more difficult to get them good. A rough skin is said to indicate a mealy potato, and a smooth skin a waxy one; but that is not a sure guide, and the best way is to boil a sample and watch the result. There are few potatoes that cannot be made good by appropriate cooking, but some are good anyhow. ”

“ Steamed potatoes probably lose less of their potash juices than when boiled; but this is uncertain, as the modicum of distilled water condensed upon the potato and continually renewed may wash away as much as the larger quantity of hard water in which the boiled potato is immersed.
Those who eat an abundance of fruit, of raw salads, and other vegetables supplying a sufficiency of potash to the blood, may peel and boil their potatoes; but the poor Irish peasant, who depends upon the potato for all his sustenance, requires that they shall supply him with potash. ”

“ Since her adventure at the Susan house, Grandma Padgett had taken care to put provisions in the carriage pockets. Then aunt Corinne, assisted by her nephew, got potatoes from the sack, wrapped them in wet wads of paper, and roasted them in the ashes. A potato so roasted may be served up with a scorched and hardened shell, but its heart is perfumed by all the odors of the woods. It tastes better than any other potato, and while the butter melts through it you wonder that people do not fire whole fields and bake the crop in hot earth before digging it, to store for winter. ”

“ The best part of a potato, or the most nutritious, is next to the skin, therefore they should be pared very thinly, if at all; then, if old, the cores should be cut out, thrown into cold water salted a little, and boiled until soft enough for a fork to pierce through easily; drain immediately, and replace the kettle on the fire with the cover partly removed, until they are completely dried. New potatoes should be put into boiling water, and when partly done salted a little. They should be prepared just in time for cooking by scraping off the thin outside skin. ”

“ The raw potatoes are peeled, grated and pressed dry in a cloth. Bring the milk to boil, pour in the farina slowly and boil it 3 to 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Mix the grated potato with the boiling farina, yolks of eggs, salt and beaten whites of eggs. Fry the roll cubes in butter very crisp. Rinse your hands in cold water, make dumplings from the mixture with the roll cubes in the center. While the dumplings are being made the salt water is brought to boil and t'he dumplings are put in for 15 to 20 minutes. ”

“ Many of these varieties are now disappearing, the “white,” “kidney,” and “round” potatoes being preferred to all others. The potato contains large quantities of water (75 per cent.) , and less flesh and force-producing matters than any other plant cultivated for human food. It is therefore not adapted for consumption as a principal article of diet, and should only be employed as an addition to more nutritious kinds of food. It contains a variety of mineral matters, which also render it valuable as an article of diet. ”

“ Steaming, roasting, and baking are much better methods for cooking potatoes than boiling, for reasons already given. Very old potatoes are best stewed or mashed. When withered or wilted, they are freshened by standing in cold water for an hour or so before cooking. If diseased or badly sprouted, potatoes are wholly unfit for food. ”

“ Just at the moment when potatoes are done they should be immediately taken from the fire and served at once. The potato is capable of being made into a variety of dishes, and when properly prepared has a delicate flavor which is very acceptable to most people. It is one of the most easily digested forms of starch-containing food. ”

“ For about a quart of potatoes, put two ounces of butter in a frying-pan on the fire, and when melted put as much onion as you please, either sliced or chopped, into the pan, and fry it till about half done, when add the potatoes and again two ounces of butter; salt, pepper, and stir and toss gently till the potatoes are all fried of a fine, light-brown color. It may require more butter, as no vegetable absorbs more than potatoes. ”

“ Salt and pepper.
2 eggs, yolks and whites beaten separately.
Whip up the potatoes, while hot, with a silver fork, instead of using the potato-beetle. This is, by the way, a much better method of mashing potato than that usually adopted. The potato is dried of all superfluous moisture, made whiter and lighter than by pounding. When it is fine and mealy, beat in the cream, the butter, salt, pepper, and whip up to a creamy heap before mixing in, with few dexterous strokes, the whites, which should be first whipped stiff. Pile irregularly upon a buttered pie-dish; brown quickly in the oven ”

“ Instead of slicing or dicing cold boiled potatoes (in the usual manner) to be fried, if they be cut in lengthwise sections like an orange (one potato should make about 8 pieces) and fried quickly in enough hot fat to prevent burning, they can scarcely be distinguished from raw potatoes cut in the same manner and fried in deep fat, and are much easier to prepare. They should be served at once.
Another manner of preparing potatoes is to slice raw potatoes as thinly as possible on a "slaw-cutter," place in a fry-pan with a couple of tablespoonfuls of a mixture of butter and sweet drippings. ”

“ When forming part of a mixed diet, no substance is more wholesome than the potato. Even the wild potato found in the Yellowstone Country is thought one of the best of edible wild roots.
Boiled Potatoes.—To retain the highest amount of nourishment, potatoes should be boiled with their skins on. When so treated, they are twice as rich in potassa salts as those which have first been peeled. It is a good plan to place them in the oven or on top of the range after boiling them, thereby allowing all surplus moisture to escape. ”