POTATOES, MASHED.—­What may be termed high-class mashed potatoes are made by mashing up ordinary boiled potatoes with a little milk previously boiled, a little butter, and passing the whole through a wire sieve, when a little cream, butter and salt is added.

In private houses mashed potatoes are generally made from the remains of cold boiled potatoes, or when the cook, in boiling the potatoes, has made a failure.  Still, of course, potatoes are boiled often expressly for the purpose of being mashed.  This is often the case where old potatoes have to be cut into all sorts of shapes and sizes in order to get rid of the black spots.  As soon as the potatoes are boiled they are generally moistened in the saucepan with a little drop of milk.  It is undoubtedly an improvement, and also entails very little extra trouble, to boil the milk first.  There is a difference in flavour, which is very marked, between milk that has been boiled and raw milk.  Suppose you have coffee for breakfast, add boiling milk to one cup and raw milk to another, and then see how great a difference there will be in the flavour of the two.  A little butter should be added to mashed potatoes, but it is not really essential.  Mashed potatoes can be served in the shape of a mould, that is, they can be shaped in a mould and then browned in the oven.  If you serve mashed potatoes in an ordinary dish, and pile them up in the shape of a dome, the dish will look much prettier if you score it round with a fork and then place the dish in a fairly fierce even; the edges will brown, but be careful that they don’t get burnt black.

POTATOES, FRIED.—­The best lesson, if you wish to fry potatoes nicely, is to look in at the window of a fried fish shop, where every condition is fulfilled that is likely to lead to perfection.  The bath of oil is deep and smoking hot, and in sufficient quantity not to lose greatly in temperature on the introduction of the frying-basket containing the potatoes.  The potatoes must be cut up into small pieces, not much bigger in thickness than the little finger; these are plunged into the smoking hot oil, and as soon as they are slightly browned on the outside they are done.  They acquire a darker colour after they are removed from the oil, and the inside will go on cooking for several minutes.  It would be quite impossible to eat fried potatoes directly they are taken out of the fat, as they would burn the mouth terribly.  It is best to throw the fried potatoes into a cloth for a few seconds.

POTATO CHIPS.—­Potato chips are ordinary fried potatoes cut up when raw into little pieces about the size and thickness of a lucifer match.  They, of course, will cook very quickly.  They should be removed from the oil directly they begin to turn colour.