boiling water, so that when they are cooked, most of the water will be evaporated. Then salt them and add some cream. If no cream is at hand, use some butter. Cold boiled potatoes are very nice cut in slices, and fried on a griddle in drippings. The common way of roasting potatoes is improved by peeling them when raw, and then roasting them in a Dutch oven or cooking stove. It gives the outside a fine crisp, of which many are fond.
In boiling all vegetables, first put salt in the water, say a great spoonful to a gallon. It is important to select all of a similar size that all may cook alike. Never let your pot stop boiling till they are done, as it makes them water soaked.
The following may serve as some guide as to time for boiling. Potatoes require from half to three quarters of an hour, according to the size. Cabbage requires from an hour and a half to two hours; turnips one hour; carrots one hour; if quite old still more time; parsnips one hour and a half; squash, when cut up, half an hour; pumpkins cut up one hour; green corn one hour; beets from two to three hours; Lima
beans one hour; peas three quarters of an hour; if old, sugar and a little pearlash improve them; onions three quarters of an hour; asparagus half an hour; rice three quarters of an hour, pour off the water in thirty minutes and add some milk, and be sure and salt it enough. Hommony requires two quarts of water to one quart of hommony, and it must be boiled five hours. Eggs require three minutes when there are few eggs and much water, and four or five minutes when there are many eggs and little water. Eggs cook, in a tin boiler, in five or six minutes after the boiling water is poured on them, if the boiler is first scalded. Vegetables boil much sooner when young and tender, and judgment must be used in varying time. Always try all vegetables with a fork to see when they are done.
Coffee should boil not more than ten minutes. In making tea, first scald the teapot, then put in one teaspoonful of tea for each person, and be sure that the water boils when poured on. Tea is injured by standing long to draw.
In preparing vegetables for the table, always have the dishes to receive them warmed,
and never let any water remain in the bottom of the dish, and always wipe the edge of the dish clean with a damp cloth before carrying it to the table. Always contrive to have vegetables hot when carried to the table. If potatoes are old and watery, peel them before boiling; the moment they are done, pour off the water and hang them to dry a few minutes. Then empty them into a clean brown towel and shake them about in it. This makes them dry and mealy, as the towel absorbs much moisture from them. Potatoes are improved by mashing, putting in milk and butter and then baking them. Turnips when old and not sweet, are very much improved by mashing and squeezing the water out, and then adding a little white sugar. Be sure and squeeze the water thoroughly out of cabbage. Put your vegetables in nice order in the dishes, and set them on the table in a regular way.
In regard to cooking meats, very much depends, in roasting, on the size of the fire, on the heat of the weather, and on whether the meat is fresh killed or not; for meat cooks faster in warm than in cold weather, and fresh
killed meat is longer cooking than meat that has been kept. Of course much depends on the care and judgment of a cook, but as some calculation must be made beforehand, as to how much time each article will require, the following may be of service as a guide. Boil a chicken twenty-five minutes; a hen forty minutes; a small turkey an hour and a half; a large one two hours; a leg of mutton of nine lbs. two hours and a half; a neck two hours; a piece of lamb weighing five lbs. two hours; a half round of salt beef three hours; pickled pork, soak six hours, and boil a piece weighing seven or eight lbs. three hours and a half. Boil two pounds of bacon one hour and a half. To cook ham, soak it through the night, then put it in cold water, heat it slowly for an hour, then let it simmer gently four or five hours, if it weighs as much as fifteen pounds. Soak tongues over night, put them in cold water and boil them slowly four or five hours. Try with a fork to see when they are done.
All boiling of meats should be done by simmering, for a galloping boil takes out both