American Cookery

page 11

in the fall, well dryed in the sun, kept from frost and dampness during the
winter, in the spring removed from the cellar to a dry loft, and spread thin,
and frequently stirred and dryed, or they will grow and be thereby injured for
cookery.

A roast Potatoe is brought on with roast Beef, a Steake, a Chop, or Fricassee;
good boiled with a boiled dish; make an excellent stuffing for a turkey, water
or wild fowl; make a good pie, and a good starch for many uses. All potatoes run
out, or depreciate in America; a fresh importation of the Spanish might restore
them to table use.

It would swell this treatise too much to say every thing that is useful, to
prepare a good table, but I may be pardoned by observing, that the Irish have
preserved a genuine mealy rich Potatoe, for a century, which takes rank of any
known in any other kingdom; and I have heard that they renew their feed by
planting and cultivating the Seed Ball, which grows on the tine. The manner of
their managing it to keep up the excellency of that root, would better suit a
treatise on agriculture and gardening than this--and be inserted in a book which
would be read by the farmer, instead of his aimiable daughter. If no one treats
on the subject, it may appear in the next edition.

Onions--The Medeira white is best in market, esteemed softer flavored, and not
so fiery, but the high red, round hard onions are the best; if you consult
cheapness, the largest are best; if you consult taste and softness, the very
smallest are the most delicate, and used at the first tables. Onions grow in the
richest, highest cultivated ground, and better and better year after year, on
the same ground.

Beets, grow on any ground, but best on loom, or light gravel grounds; the red is
the richest and best approved; the white has a sickish sweetness, which is
disliked by many.

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