ROUND THE TABLE

What are called potato chips are simply potatoes cut in spiral parings, and fried secundum - cur tern. The potato being of coui’se properly peeled before the parings are cut.

The remains of boiled potatoes can be dressed in a variety of ways. Cut up into quarters, and with a white sauce, or plain melted butter with minced parsley put over them, they make a very nice dish.

Cold mashed potatoes a I’Anglaise may be used in the following way :

Stir an egg or two into your potatoes ; add a few finely powdered spices, pepper and salt to taste, and some minced parsley ; mix well, and roll the mixture into balls, or any shape yon like ; cover with fine bread crumbs, fry a nice golden colour, and serve garnished with fried parsley. This dish can be varied ad infinitum, by either inserting in the middle of each ball, or incor- porating with the mixture, any of the following : The flesh of fowls or game, or of any kind of fish, lobsters, crabs, &c., all finely minced. If you have some very rich stock, moisten the minced meat or fish with it, and your dish will be improved ; only, in that case, you must put a small portion of the mixture in each ball, and not mix it up with the potatoes.

The above combinations can be erected into a more im- posing dish by placing the minced fish or meat in a pie dish, covering it over with potatoes, and then baking the same until the top is of the desired colour ; in this case, how- ever, a regular ragout should be made for the animal part of the dish, and the potatoes play only second fiddle.

There are numerous other modes of treating potatoes, either alone or in combination with various meats and vegetables, but cookery — even of potatoes — has, like art, no end.

VEGETABLES.

Before I proceed farther, I would wish to impress strongly upon the minds of operators that all vegetables cannot be too carefully cleaned and washed, and that every leaf or speck the least tainted or discoloured must be thrown aside.

It is better to steam greens, cabbages, and the like, for in that case the squeezing process is no longer necessary to free them from a superabundance of water, and this is a very great advantage for those who like their food to look nice, and who yet will have their cabbage plainly cooked without any further dressing. A fair sprinkling of salt should be applied to the vegetables before they are put into the steamer. Pepper, sjDices, sweet herbs, onions, &c., can be advantageously added to the water, thereby producing a savoury steam wherewith to cook the vegetables and improve their taste.

The form of dressing greens, however, which usually obtains, is that of boiling them in water ; but, then those who know how to cook have various cunning ways of pre- paring them for the table after they have been boiled. Here are some of these :

1 . Take a young cabbage or savoy, remove the outer leaves, and cut it in four or more “ quarters.” Lay them in cold water, with a good handful of salt, for two or three hours. Then throw them into boiling water to boil from fifteen to twenty minutes, after which put them on a sieve to drain thoroughly. Take a piece of the fat of bacon. Mince it very fine, adding to it the least bit of shallot or onion and sweet herbs, pepper and spices according to taste. Put it all in a saucepan, and as soon as the minced bacon is melted lay your pieces of cabbage in it, and add a sufficient quantity of hot stock or broth, or even plain water, to half cover them. Let the whole simmer till thoroughly done, when you carefully remove the pieces