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

as soon as the potatoes are tender enough to pierce with a fork, not when they are beginning to break, and they are drained, cover them with a cloth and keep them hot as long as you like. In about three or four minutes after they have been covered with the cloth they will begin to grow mealy, as the steam escapes; and you can keep them hot and mealy for three or four hours. It makes very little difference with potatoes, although with some kinds of vegetables it makes a decided difference, whether you boil them in hard or soft water. But as a rule soft water is best for boiling vegetables. You can always soften the water by putting a very little carbonate of soda in it, to counteract the extreme hardness of the water, which is caused by lime or mineral elements. The hardness of water slightly hardens the surface of vegetables, but it has an entirely different action on meats. It slightly hardens the surface--not enough to make the vegetable tough, by any means, but enough to retain all the juices and all the flavors. Do not have the potatoes tightly covered after they are cooked, because the steam will condense on the inside of the cover and fall back on the potatoes, thus making them watery. In serving potatoes on the table after they are cooked, do not put a cover on the dish; put a folded napkin over the potatoes. Do not put the dish cover on--it will have the same effect that it would have if you put the cover on the pot. The steam arising would condense, and fall back on the potatoes in the form of moisture, and make the potatoes watery. In baking potatoes, the same general principles apply. That is, at the moment when the potatoes are tender--and that of course depends upon the oven in which you bake them--the starch cells are ruptured and the moisture is at the point of escaping if you give it vent by slightly breaking the potato, then the potatoes will keep mealy