A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House

tub lard, place over a quick fire taking care not to let it burn, and when it is ready (which is easily found out by dropping one piece of potato into the fat--it should sizzle at once), take the potatoes out of the water by hand and drop straight into the boiling lard. Turn carefully from time to time with a knife blade. Remove them with a slice into a vegetable dish in which there is a strainer (stone for preference), and place in the oven with an open door till required; but serve as soon as possible. Never put the cover on the dish or allow the oven door to be shut as the potatoes would not then keep quite crisp. Never add salt till ready in the dish, when a little should be sprinkled over the potatoes. For straw potatoes proceed in the same way; only these will require less time for cooking and will need to be cut very much thinner and smaller. For soufflé potatoes cut them into thin slices and dry them on a clean cloth. Lay them in a little milk for a moment and then put them into the boiling fat straight out of the milk. If these directions are carefully followed there should be a crisp brown bubble on each side of the slice of the potato. These also must not be covered or have the oven door closed on them. There is also another simple way of treating an old potato. Often toward the end of the year when one’s potatoes run large and we are anxious to give a dish a dainty appearance we find that the large potato served whole looks clumsy. If the potatoes are carefully peeled and any unsightly blemishes are removed such as the eye or as so often happens there are bluey patches due to a bruise perhaps on the potatoes otherwise perfectly sound, the following hint may be found both useful and economical. Take a stout teaspoon and scoop spoonfuls from the _outside_ of a big potato. (The broken remains can be used in