A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

starch cells in the new potatoes are not fully matured, in the old sprouted potatoes they are disorganized, especially as the little sprouts take up the nutritive properties which enable them to grow. But if you use ripe potatoes, before they are beginning to sprout, and pour the water off of them when they are tender and allow the steam to escape, you will be sure to have the potatoes mealy, unless they are watery potatoes; the ordinary market potatoes will be sure to be mealy. Now you can insure the escape of the steam by draining the potatoes and covering them with a towel folded several times; that is, draining off all the water as soon as the potatoes are tender enough to enable you to run a fork through them. Do not wait until they begin to break apart, because by that time the starch cells are being broken up, and the water will have begun to penetrate to the interior of the potato. After boiling the potatoes, either in cold or hot water, until they are tender, drain them and put a folded towel over them in the sauce pan. Set the sauce pan on the back part of the stove where the potatoes can not burn, or put it up on a brick on the back part of the stove. The potatoes may be peeled or not, as you choose; if you peel the potatoes in the most careful way, that is, cutting the thinnest possible skin off, you will waste at least an ounce in every pound. A very good way to peel potatoes is to take off just a little rim of the skin all around them and boil them; then if you want to peel them before they go to the table, it will be easy to strip off the two pieces of skin remaining. In order to save time I shall put the potatoes into boiling water enough to cover them, with a tablespoonful of salt. Take about a quart of water and a tablespoonful of salt. I have already said that