Potato286-* Starch.—(No. 448.)
Peel and wash a pound of full-grown potatoes, grate them on a bread-grater into a deep dish, containing a quart of clear water; stir it well up, and then pour it through a hair-sieve, and leave it ten minutes to settle, till the water is quite clear: then pour off the water, and put a quart of fresh water to it; stir it up, let it settle, and repeat this till the water is quite clear; you will at last find a fine white powder at the bottom of the vessel. (The criterion of this process being completed, is the purity of the water that comes from it after stirring it up.) Lay this on a sheet of paper in a hair-sieve to dry, either in the sun or before the fire, and it is ready for use, and in a well-stopped bottle will keep good for many months.
If this be well made, half an ounce (i. e. a table-spoonful) of it mixed with two table-spoonfuls of cold water, and stirred into a soup or sauce, just before you take it up, will thicken a pint of it to the consistence of cream.
Obs.—This preparation much resembles the “Indian arrow root,” and is a good substitute for it; it gives a fulness on the palate to gravies and sauces at hardly any expense, and by some is used to thicken melted butter instead of flour.
As it is perfectly tasteless, it will not alter the flavour of the most delicate broth, &c.
Of the Flour of Potatoes.
“A patent has been recently obtained at Paris, a gold medal bestowed, and other honorary distinctions granted, for the discovery and practice, on a large scale, of preparing from potatoes a fine flour; a sago, a flour equal to ground rice; and a semolina or paste, of which 1lb. is equal to 1 1/2lbs. of rice, 1 3/4lbs. of vermicelli, or, it is asserted, 8lbs. of raw potatoes.
“These preparations are found valuable to mix with wheaten flour for bread, to make biscuits, pastry, pie-crusts, and for all soups, gruels, and panada.
“Large engagements have been made for these preparations with the French marine, and military and other hospitals, with the approbation of the faculty.
[287]“An excellent bread, it is said, can be made of this flour, at half the cost of wheaten bread.
“Heat having been applied in these preparations, the articles will keep unchanged for years, and on board ship, to China and back; rats, mice, worms, and insects do not infect or destroy this flour.
“Simply mixed with cold water, they are in ten minutes fit for food, when fire and all other resource may be wanted; and twelve ounces are sufficient for a day’s sustenance, in case of necessity.
“The physicians and surgeons in the hospitals, in cases of great debility of the stomach, have employed these preparations with advantage.
“The point of this discovery is, the cheapness of preparation, and the conversion of a surplus growth of potatoes into a keeping stock, in an elegant, portable, and salubrious form.”