THE best way to cook potatoes is to bake them in their jackets in an oven of 450 degrees to 500 degrees Fahrenheit. This seems like a high temperature, but the potato inside does not get hotter than 212 degrees, and cooks by steam thoroughly. When the potato is taken out of the oven it must be pricked or broken at once, to permit the escape of the steam which has been generated in the cooking process, and which if not given egress, will condense into water and make the potato soggy and quite indigestible. If it is pricked with a fork it is best to warm the prongs for a few seconds before using in the first potato, to prevent, as much as possible, any condensation resulting from the hot steam coming into contact with the cold metal of the fork. It is easy to see that in this process there is no chance for loss and that if the potato is scraped out well from the skin (where lie many of the potash salts), pretty full potato value is secured. Never cut open a baked potato; always break it or it will'be not mealy, but soggy, and barely fit to eat.

The next best method - in point of economy - is to cook by steaming. Although the baking is a partial steaming process the actual steaming in the jackets not only renders the potato deliciously palatable, but the subsequent removal of the skins, before eating, if done carefully, does not carry away much of the valuable mineral salts. Steaming takes a little longer, but it is a good method of cooking, ensuring little waste not only with potatoes, but with all vegetables.

The process of boiling brings with it the question of boiling in the jackets, boiling without the jackets, the use of salt in the water, and the temperature at which to start the potatoes. The most approved method is that of boiling the potato in the jacket and of beginning the process with hot water. This takes less time, and preserves the flavor. Potatoes boiled without their jackets lose, of course, a great part of their mineral salts and tissue-making material, and they lose also much of the flavor which is imparted to them from the layer cut off in paring. If salt be added after fifteen minutes, when the potatoes are about half cooked, this may save some of the mineral matter and add a little to the flavor of the potatoes.

Because potatoes are so lacking in fat, proteid, and mineral matter, it has become an invariable rule, consciously or unconsciously, to eat them with meats, and to prepare them so as to introduce the food constituents they lack. Thus creamed potatoes and potato au gratin introduce fat and proteid, and make pretty well-proportioned dishes, though, of course, on account of the superabundance of starch, such dishes are not adapted to steady diet. Undoubtedly, like any other article of food the potato must be prepared attractively. It must not only look well, but must have a pleasant aroma.