Small new potatoes are an extreme in one direction.  They should be thrown into boiling water, and are generally cooked in about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour.  Large old potatoes should be put into cold water and, as we have stated, the water should not be allowed to boil too soon, and it will take very often an hour to boil them properly.  Between these two extremes there is a gradually ascending scale which must be left to the judgment of the cook.  It is as impossible to lay down any hard-and-fast line with regard to time in boiling potatoes as it would be to say at what exact point in the thermometer between freezing and 80 degrees in the shade a man should put on his top coat.

If we may be allowed the expression, “old new” potatoes should be thrown into neither boiling water nor cold water, but lukewarm water.  Again, in boiling potatoes, especially in the case of old ones, some little allowance must be made for the time of year.  In winter, they require longer time, and we may here mention the fact that it is very important that potatoes, after they are dug, should not be left out of doors and exposed to a hard frost, as in this case a chemical change takes place in which the starch is converted into sugar.

When potatoes are boiled in their jackets sufficiently, which fact is generally tested by sticking a steel fork into them, they should be strained off, and allowed to get dry for a few minutes in the saucepan, which should be removed from the fire, as at times the potatoes are apt to stick and burn.

When large potatoes are peeled before they are boiled, we should endeavour to send them to table floury, and this is often said to be the test of a really good cook.  After the water has been strained off from the potatoes, a dry cloth should be placed under the lid of the saucepan, and the lid should only be placed half on, i.e., it should not be fitted down tight.  It is also as well to give the saucepan now and then a shake, but do not overdo the shaking and break them.  About five or ten minutes is generally sufficient.

POTATOES, STEAMED.—­Potatoes can be steamed in their jackets, and it is a more economical method than peeling.  It should be remembered, however, that steam is hotter than boiling water.  If plain water is underneath and boils furiously, and the steam is well shut in, they will cook very quickly; but if, as is generally the case, something else is in the saucepan under the steamer, boiling gently, this does not apply.  We refer to the ordinary steamer met with in private houses, and not to the ones used in the large hotels and restaurants.

POTATOES, BAKED.—­When potatoes are baked in the oven in their jackets the larger they are the better.  The oven must not be too fierce, and ample time should be allowed.  Baked potatoes require quite two hours.  This only refers to those baked in their jackets.  When potatoes are cut up and baked in a tin they require some kind of fat, which, of course, in vegetarian cookery must be either oil or butter.