Virginia Cookery-book

Boil a doeen fine, white silver-skinned onions in several waters, to take out some of the pungent taste, and then peel them, and dry them off in a cloth until cold enough to handle, and slice them; have ready a good pint of grated bread-crumbs, a quarter of a pound of butter, and a teacupful of cream, or rich milk, if you have not cream. Distribute all these ingredients in layers of onion and seasoning alternately, with the addition of pepper and salt, and you will have a dish much admired, by gentlemen particularly. Finish off with a thick layer of breadcrumbs ; pour on the cup of cream lastly, and bake for three-quarters of an hour. To Boil Old Potatoes. Peel them and put them into boiling salt-water ; when done they must be taken out and pressed (separately) in a clean strong cloth until entirely free from water. Dress them with melted butter. Or, Put the potatoes in cold water, and when it nearly boils pour it off and put in cold salted water. This makes them mealy without cracking them. To Boil Irish Potatoes. The great secret of having nice potatoes is, first, to choose a good mealy variety, and then to cook them expeditiously, not leaving them waiting an hour or so in the kitchen, only to become sodden and waxy. Gardeners of late have shown so much enterprise in introducing improved varieties that it is hard to give the names of even a few of the best, and so we shall content ourselves with exhorting the house-keeper to be choice in her selection of the very best that her neighborhood affords, if she would display her culinary art to the best advantage. New potatoes need not be peeled, but washed clean, and the soft skin rubbed off with a rough towel, as scraping with a knife discolors them ; pour off the first water (which may be cold when you put the potatoes in) after they have boiled ten minutes in it ; then coyer them well with fresh water, boiling hot, into which you have thrown a table-spoonful of salt ; let them boil half an hour in a covered kettle ; then pour off the water, lift the lid of the kettle, and let the potatoes dry a few minutes. They are generally served with nothing but a little melted butter poured over them, but a very nice change is to take a gill of sweet milk and thicken it by rubbing into it mashed potato and a little flour until the sauce is of the consistence of very rich cream, then make it boiling-hot and pour over the potatoes after they are dished. Occasionally, too, a little chopped parsley may be added to this sauce to make another change. To Steam Potatoes Is one of the nicest ways of serving them, and nowadays most kitchens are supplied with the convenience of a regular steamer, with top fitting closely over a hot -water vessel, where not only potatoes but other vegetables may be carried through the steaming process. The time for steaming greatly depends upon the quality of the potato, so that no invariable rule can be given — an hour, I should say, is about the medium time to allow. If the potatoes are large and small put in the larger ones a few minutes in advance, so that they may be done at the same time. Mashed Potatoes Are either steamed or boiled, as suits your convenience. Do not let the potatoes be kept waiting, but put them in a convenient pan or bowl, and mash them up with your potato-masher as smooth as possible ; add a lump of butter and salt to the taste, with much or little milk or cream, as suits your taste or the condition of your dairy. If beaten up light, with plenty of cream, potatoes are a great delicacy; but for every-day use they may be much lU VIHUINIA COOKERY-BOOK. more economically served, and still be wholesome and palatable. Bakbd Potatoes