The mode of preparing the world-renowned Saratoga fried potatoes is no longer a secret. It is as follows:
Peel eight good-sized potatoes; slice very thin; use slicing-machine, when available, as this makes the pieces of uniform thickness. Let them remain half-an-hour in a quart of cold water, in which a tablespoonful of salt has been dissolved, and lay in a sieve to drain, after which mop them over with a dry cloth. Put a pound of lard in a spider or stewpan, and when this is almost, but not quite, smoking hot, put in the potatoes, stirring constantly to prevent the slices from adhering, and when they become a light brown, dip out with a strainer ladle.
[If preferred, cut the potatoes in bits an inch in length, and of the same width, treating as above.]
Salsify or Oyster Plant.
The best way I have yet found to cook this finely flavored and highly delicious vegetable is: First, wash clean, but do not remove the skin. Put the roots in more than enough boiling water to cover them; boil until quite soft; remove the skin; mash; add butter, and season with pepper and salt; make into the size of oysters, and dip in thin egg batter; fry a light brown. If the plant is first put into cold water to boil, and the skin scraped or removed, the delicate flavor of the oyster—which constitutes its chief merit—will be entirely dissipated and lost.
Egg Plant.
There is no more delicate and finely-flavored esculent to be found in our markets than the egg plant, when cooked in the right manner. Properly prepared, it is a most toothsome dish; if badly cooked, it is anything but attractive. Of all the varieties, the long purple is decidedly the best. Cut in slices, less than one-fourth an inch in thickness; sprinkle with salt, and let the slices lie in a colander half-an-hour or longer, to drain. Next parboil for a few minutes, and drain off the water; season with salt and pepper, and dip in egg batter, or beaten egg, and fry in sweet lard mixed with a little butter, until the slices are a light brown. Serve hot.
To Boil Green Corn.
Green corn should be put in hot water, with a handful of salt, and boiled slowly for half-an-hour, or five minutes longer. The minute the corn is done, pour off the water and let it remain hot. All vegetables are injured by allowing them to remain in the water after they are cooked.