The Cooking Manual of Practical Directions for Economical Every-Day Cookery

not be given to the children. 215. =Boiled Eggs.=--Eggs are usually spoiled in cooking; if they are plunged into boiling water, and maintained at the boiling point, the effect is to harden the albumen while the yolk remains almost raw, and make them totally unfit for digestion. A good way to cook them is to place them over the fire in cold water, bring them slowly to a boil, and then at once set the vessel containing them back from the fire, and let the eggs stand in the water about one minute if they are to be soft, and two minutes, or longer, if they are to be hard. Poor eggs cooked in this way are superior in flavor and digestibility to new-laid eggs boiled rapidly. One minute is quite long enough to boil them if they are wanted in their best condition. 216. =Baked Potatoes.=--Potatoes for baking should be of equal and medium size, with smooth skins; they should be well washed with a brush or cloth, and put into a quick oven; they will bake in from twenty to thirty-five minutes, according to variety and ripeness; as soon as you find they yield readily when pressed between the fingers, they are done; and should be served at once, _uncovered_. If they stand they grow heavy, and if you put them in a covered dish you will make them watery. 217. =Boiled Potatoes.=--Potatoes for children's use should be very carefully boiled; and if not used as soon as they are done, should be kept hot and dry, by pouring off the water, covering them with a dry cloth, and setting them on the back of the stove. After washing them thoroughly, pare them entirely, or take off one ring around each; if they are new, put them over the fire in hot water; if they are old, put them on in cold water; in either case, add a tablespoonful of salt, and boil them from fifteen to thirty minutes, as they require, until you can pierce them easily with a fork; then drain off all the water, cover