CLASS III.—ROOTS.
DIVISION I.—MEALY ROOTS.
These are the potato, in its numerous varieties, the artichoke, the ground-nut, and the comfrey. Of these the potato is by far the most important.
Section A.—The Common Potato.
This may be roasted, baked, boiled, steamed, or fried. It is also made into puddings and pies. Roasting in the ashes is the best method of cooking it; frying by far the worst. I take this opportunity to enter my protest against all frying of food. Com. Nicholson, of revolutionary memory, would never, as his daughters inform me, have a frying-pan in his house.
The potato is best when well roasted in the ashes, but also excellent when baked, and very tolerable when boiled or steamed.
There are many ways of preparing the potato and cooking it. Some always pare it. It may be well to pare it late in the winter and in the spring, but not at other times. For, in paring, we lose a portion of the richest part of the potato, as in the case of paring the apple. There is much tact required to pare a potato properly, that is, thinly.
Receipt 1.—To boil a potato, see that the kettle is clean, the water pure and soft, and the potatoes clean. Put them in as soon as the water boils.[29] When they are soft, which can be determined by piercing them with a fork, pour off the water, and let them steam about five minutes.
Receipt 2.—To roast in the ashes, wash them clean, then dry them, then remove the heated embers and ashes quite to the bottom of the fire-place, and place them as closely together as possible, but not on top of each other. Cover as quickly as possible, and fill the crevices with hot embers and small coals. Let them be as nearly of a size as possible, and cover them to the depth of an inch. Then build a hot fire over them. They will be cooked in from half an hour to three quarters of an hour, according to the size and heat of the fire.
Receipt 3.—Baking potatoes in a stove or oven, is a process so generally known, that it hardly needs description.
Receipt 4.—Steaming is better than boiling. Some fry them; others stew them with vegetables for soup, etc.
Section B.—The Sweet Potato.
This was once confined to the Southern States, but it is now raised in tolerable perfection in New Jersey and on Long Island. It is richer than the common potato in saccharine matter, and probably more nutritious; but not, it is believed, quite so wholesome. Still it is a good article of food.
Receipt 1.—Roasting is the best process of cooking these. They may be prepared in the ashes or before a fire. The last process is most common. They cook in far less time than a common potato.
Receipt 2.—Baking and roasting by the fire are nearly or quite the same thing as respects the sweet potato. Steaming is a little different, and boiling greatly so. The boiled sweet potato is, however, a most excellent article.