Carefully select potatoes about the same size, have them scraped and put into boiling water with a little piece of mint and some salt. Boil for fifteen to twenty minutes or until quite tender, turn into a vegetable dish and put a piece of butter the size of a walnut melted over the potatoes, and dust a little finely chopped parsley over them.
140. Potatoes Sautés
Take some potatoes which have been boiled and cut them into thin slices. Melt in a frying pan about an ounce of fresh butter and when this boils lay the potatoes in it, not on top of each other but perfectly flat, while the pan stands on the stove. Allow the potatoes to brown first one side and then the other. Dish with a slice into a vegetable dish and dust over with a little finely chopped parsley.
141. Mashed Potatoes
Boil the potatoes carefully, strain, and shake vigorously with the lid on. Break them up then and beat with a carving fork, with two ounces of fresh butter; then add fresh milk and continue beating till they attain the consistency of very thick cream. They will then be ready to serve with cutlets or as a bed for sausages.
142. Stuffed Potatoes
Peel your potatoes and cut the ends so that they are flat. Scrape the centre out of each potato leaving a wall of about a quarter of an inch thick all round. Mince finely any cold beef, mutton, or veal you may have by you with one large ring of Spanish onion chopped very small, pepper and salt, and a little mushroom if possible. Moisten slightly with a little meat juice. Fill in each potato with this mixture. Melt in a baking tin sufficient beef dripping, a quarter of a pound to every six or eight potatoes would be right, and when boiling, but not beyond boiling point, stand the potatoes in it. The baking tin should be small enough to allow the dripping to come well up the sides of the potatoes. Cook in a fairly quick oven from thirty to forty minutes. When cooked brush very lightly over the top with the beaten white of an egg. Dish very carefully so as not to take up the fat.
143. French Fried Potatoes
Cut your peeled potatoes into long strips about half an inch in thickness and leave them in the cold water. Melt about half a pound of tub lard (not bladder lard as this has always flour mixed with it which causes the things to burn in the frying pan). When the lard is hot, drop a small crumb into it and if the fat sizzles round it is ready for the potatoes. Put the pan over a brisk fire and drop the potatoes as you take them out of the water straight into the pan. If the pan is not large enough to take them all flat, cook in two lots.