Potatoes (boiled).
Pare them thin with a sharp knife. The starch or meal lies, in greatest quantities, nearest to the skin. Lay in clean cold water for one hour, if the potatoes are newly gathered. Old potatoes should be left in the water for several hours. If very old, they will be the better for soaking all night. New potatoes require half an hour for boiling, and the skins are rubbed off with a coarse cloth before they are cooked. Those stored for winter use should be boiled forty-five minutes.
Wipe each dry before dropping them into a kettle of boiling water, in which has been mixed a heaping tablespoonful of salt.
Boil steadily until a fork will go easily into the largest.
Turn off the water by tipping the pot over on its side in the sink, holding the top on with a thick cloth wrapped about your hand, and leaving room at the lowest edge of the cover for the water to escape, but not for a potato to slip through.
Set the pot uncovered on the range; sprinkle a tablespoonful of salt over the potatoes, shaking the pot as you do this, and leave it where they will dry off, but not scorch, for five minutes.
Mashed Potatoes.
Boil as directed in last receipt, and when the potatoes have been dried off, remove the pot to the sink, or table, break and whip them into powder with a four-tined fork, or a split spoon. When fine, add a great spoonful of butter, whipped in thoroughly, salting to taste as you go on.
Have ready a cup of milk almost boiling, and beat in until the potato is soft and smooth.
Heap in a deep dish for the table.