tablespoonfuls of flour, 1/2 pint of broth, 2 tablespoonfuls of vinegar.
_Mode_.--Put the butter and flour into a stewpan; stir over the fire
until the butter is of a nice brown colour, and add the broth and
vinegar; peel and cut the potatoes into long thin slices, lay them in
the gravy, and let them simmer gently until tender, which will be in
from 10 to 15 minutes, and serve very hot. A laurel-leaf simmered with
the potatoes is an improvement.
_Time_.--10 to 15 minutes.
_Seasonable_ at any time.
PRESERVING POTATOES.--In general, potatoes are stored or
preserved in pits, cellars, pies, or camps; but, whatever mode
is adopted, it is essential that the tubers be perfectly dry;
otherwise, they will surely rot; and a few rotten potatoes will
contaminate a whole mass. The pie, as it is called, consists of
a trench, lined and covered with straw; the potatoes in it being
piled in the shape of a house roof, to the height of about three
feet. The camps are shallow pits, filled and ridged up in a
similar manner, covered up with the excavated mould of the pit.
In Russia and Canada, the potato is preserved in boxes, in
houses or cellars, heated, when necessary, to a temperature one
or two degrees above the freezing-point, by stoves. To keep
potatoes for a considerable time, the best way is to place them
in thin layers on a platform suspended in an ice-cellar: there,
the temperature being always below that of active vegetation,
they will not sprout; while, not being above one or two degrees
below the freezing-point, the tubers will not be frostbitten.
Another mode is to scoop out the eyes with a very small scoop,
and keep the roots buried in earth; a third mode is to destroy
the vital principle, by kiln-drying, steaming, or scalding; a
fourth is to bury them so deep in dry soil, that no change of
temperature will reach them; and thus, being without air, they
will remain upwards of a year without vegetating.
POTATOES A LA MAITRE D'HOTEL.