Pompano

Choice southern fish from I pound to 4 or 5 pounds in weight; shaped like the sunfish, or "pumpkin-seed fish," with very small scales, steel-gray color. It has a fine nutty flavor, which is best brought out by broiling. Served with maitre d'holel butter, lemon, fried parsley and fried potatoes.

Ponche (Fr)

Punch.

Popovers

Domestic name for a very light muffin made of 2 eggs, 2 cups milk, 2 cups flour, salt; a tablespoonful or two of melted butter may be added at option, but is not essential. The eggs whipped light are mixed with the milk and flour, the batter baked in buttered cups. The puffs rise high and hollow. Hot for breakfast. (See Albany Cakes).

Porgies

Small fish abundant in New York markets.

Porridge

Proper name of "mush," which is but a provincialism. Made of oatmeal, cornmeal, graham meal, fine hominy or grits, ground rice, farina, graham farina, cracked wheat, rolled oats, etc. Some of these need to be soaked in water for some hours before cooking. They are all made into porridge by simply boiling in the requisite quantity of water, and best if in a double kettle or bain-marie.

Porterhouse Cut

The best part of the loin of beef; the portion between the last rib and the hip bone. It is an American specialty, the name having originated in a hotel known as the, Porter House.

Porterhouse Steak

Steaks from the porterhouse cut of beef. They consist of a portion of the fillet or under-cut, a portion of the top loin; portion of the spine bone and little of the flank being therefore the best of the beef. The steaks are small and narrow at the rib end, and broader towards the butt.

Possum

See Oppossum.

Pot Age

See Soups. Potage, like English pottage, signifies a thick soup, and consomme a thin or clear. Soup includes all descriptions.

Potato Soups

See Soups.

Potato Salads

See Salads.

Pot Potato Pasty

A meat pie hiving a bottom and top crust of mashed potatoes instead of flour paste.

Potato Flour

Potato flour is extensively •manufactured in Germany, and is used by sausage makers, bakers, confectioners, and cooks for powdering purposes. Weaving establishments use it to give their goods a glossy appearance, and to size the threads in the woof. It is also used in the manufacture of starch, potato sugar, and white syrup.

Potato Starch

The potato starch which settles at the bottom of the tub of water in which large quantities of Saratoga chip potatoes are steeped is saleable to candy makers. It may be washed over again in clear water as starch does not dissolve in water that is cold; when settled again the water can be poured off and the starch then dried and powdered. It is used in shallow trays to receive the imprints of fancy bon-bons and creams, these being the moulds into which the new-made candy is poured.

Potato Poison

" No one should buy their potatoes of grocerymen who let them stand in front of their stores in the sun. Potatoes belong to the 'solanum' family, of which the deadly nightshade is one of its full brothers. All branches of the family contain more or less of that poisonous narcotic called 'solanine.' The bulb, or potato, contains the lesst of this, unless they are exposed to the sun, which rapidly develops this element." Potatoes which have been so exposed have an acrid, bitter taste and bite the palate like mustard. But they are not past recovery. Let them be buried in the earth two feet deep for several weeks and they come out equal to newly-dug tubers, well-flavored and wholesome.