How Did The Irish Potato Get Its Name?

"I do not know. It was introduced into the Old World from the New by Sir Walter Raleigh and probably because it became so extensively cultivated in Ireland (forming a large part of the daily diet of the people) the name of Irish potato was given it."

What Are The Properties Of The Potato?

"The principal part of the potato is starch. It contains some waste material, and compared with other foods, a considerable amount of mineral matter, principally potash."

How Does The Starch Of A Potato Compare With That Of Other Foods?

"Very favorably. It is very similar to that of Indian corn but is not so fine as that of rice."

Is There Any Advantage In The Starch Granules Being Very Fine?

"Yes, the finer the starch granules the more easily digested, although that might not always be an advantage. The tissue forming part of a potato is very small, exclusive of the water the proteid or tissue forming element is not much more than one twentieth of the solid matter. It will be readily seen from this, that the potato contains three or four times too high a ratio of heat producing food to that of the tissue formers. It is essentially a fat forming or heat producing food."

Is This All It Has To Recommend It?

"It is not. Potato has special uses. It has in addition to the potash salts a small amount of citric acid. This is of but little importance of itself but the mineral matter altogether makes one of the best antiscorbutics known. By this is meant a food which counteracts certain diseases resulting from continual use of salted foods especially salt meats. The disease is seldom known outside of prisons and ships. At an earlier day, when voyages covered a period of several months scurvy was no uncommon disease on shipboard. It would seem only natural to associate the potato because of its potash salts with salted meats."

Are There Any Other Uses Of The Potato?

"It is possible that the salts of the potato are useful in keeping the blood alkaline. Theoretically the potato ought to be very valuable in all genito-urinary inflammations, where it is desirable that the urinary secretions be kept alkaline."

What About The Digestibility Of The Potato?

"If baked or boiled until mealy, it is quite digestible. If solid, or known as watery, the starch grains do not separate easily and is therefore rather indigestible."

Then, This Would Indicate That Fried Potatoes Are Not Wholesome?

"If previously boiled and allowed to become cold and solid and then fried, as is usually done, they are not easily digested and not wholesome food, because being somewhat soft and waxy, they are swallowed in lumps and do not dissolve readily."

Would Not Potato Chips Be Still Worse?

"I hardly think so, being crisp they are much less likely to be swallowed without mastication. Besides, frying them brown, dextrinizes the starch and if ground up fine enough in mastication, potato chips should be fairly digestible."

Don't The Fat Make Them In A Measure Indigestible?

"I am glad you asked that question, which would apply to many other foods but not to same extent to the potato, as both fats and starches are digested in the intestines and not in the stomach (further than what they are acted upon by the saliva), the fat would not therefore prevent digestion in the stomach as it would with fried meat or fried eggs. It would seem therefore that potatoes would be a good vehicle for the administration of fats. Usually fried potatoes are not sufficiently masticated and are a common cause of indigestion."

Doctor, New Potatoes Are Reputed To Be The Source Of Many Digestive Disturbances; Is This True, And If So, Why Is It?

"I suppose it is in a measure true. New potatoes are waxy and not easily dissolved. They might readily cause an irritation by remaining in the stomach too long, because they are in a degree insoluble. At any rate, new potatoes are not a desirable article of food, and it is a great deal safer for people in good health not to eat them at all or at least very sparingly."

What Is The Best Way To Cook Potatoes. Doctor?

"The method to be preferred above all others, is bak ing. Boiling is also a very good method, but if cooked this way, it is better to boil them with their skins on than to peel them. They should be put in cold water and the temperature gradually increased. The third method is frying a potato in thin, crisp slices, known as potato chips, but as some people will not tolerate fat, frying would be objectionable to those."

Then You Are Not A Great Enemy To The Frying Pan, Doctor?

"I am very sorry to give anyone that impression, because the frying pan is one of the greatest enemies of the human race. Potatoes are about the only thing that is permissible to fry at all, and this is only allowable for people in good health who will thoroughly masticate them in eating."

Doctor, I Perceive You Do Not Rate The Irishman's Friend As Highly As Some People. I Apprehend That You Will Be Severe On Potato Salad?

"Well, I can't conceive of salad without vinegar, and vinegar and potatoes are about as incompatible as dogs and cats. Potatoes require an alkaline medium for digestion, while vinegar is a fermented acid."

Doctor, You Have Said That Potatoes Are Deficient In Tissue Forming Substance, It Would Seem Natural To Connect Them With Meat?

"Yes, the fact that potatoes are deficient in proteid and also in fat has led certain writers of large imagination to declare that the Irishman inseparably connects the pig and the potato, while the only necessary relation is the ease with which both can be raised. Many people get along very well who live principally on meat and potatoes, but eggs and butter or any other combination of fat and tissue food would probably dojust as well to balance the defects of the potato as meat. People who live principally on potatoes have soft flesh and little endurance."

Are There Any Other Uses For The Potato?

"Starch is manufactured from it extensively, both for food and for laundry purposes. Various fancy names are given to potato starch for the purpose of selling it. It is very similar to starch preparations of corn and is equally wholesome and valuable for food."

To What Do You Ascribe The Universal Popularity Of The Potato?

"Its cheapness and the ease with which it is raised, to-gether with the variety of ways in which it can be quickly cooked. These facts force its use until eating potatoes has become a fixed habit with the people, just for the same reason that where rice is easily raised, it is universally used as an indispensable food."

Then You Don't Think Much Of The Potato?

"That conclusion is not warranted in anything I have said, because the potato is really a valuable food, but not equal to the cereals. It should, therefore, have a minor place in our dietaries and I can not urge an extended use of it."

How Does The Sweet Potato Compare With The Irish Potato?

"Many people prefer the sweet potato. That is doubtless because it is sweet. Unlike the common potato it requires a warm climate and thrives best in tropical or semi-tropical countries."

In What Way Does It Differ From The Common Potato?

"It contains less starch but a large per cent of sugar and gum. It is also more solid and stringy and requires much longer time to cook."

I Suppose You Would Call It A Rich Food?

"Yes, it is both rich and heavy, for its particles do not separate so easily as most other starchy foods."

What Use Has It As A Food?

"It certainly makes a very cheap food in warm climates. It is said that in South Florida they need not plant them but once, in digging up a row of sweet potatoes, they cover a portion of the vines between the rows and keep them growing perpetually in that way. Owing to the fact of its large percentage of sugar, as well as starch, it is a great heat producer and would be a food suitable for persons of good digestion doing hard physical labor."

Do:Tor, I Suppose That More People Live On Rice Than Any Other Article Of Food?

"That is true. It is estimated that one third the people of the world live principally upon rice. In the United States, its use has never been so near universal as its merits deserve."

What Particular Value Has It?

"It contains all the necessary elements for supporting life, but some in too small proportion. It is not so rich in tissue forming food as wheat or oats, and it is urged that because of this deficiency, the rice eating people are not so well developed physically as Europeans or Americans. It is also claimed that they do not so readily recover from an injury or a disease as those who live on a diet containing more of tissue forming elements. To offset this, rice is very easily digested, has the finest starch cells and is altogether a desirable food."

Are The Rice Eating People More Healthy Than We?

"They are at least free from some of the diseases due to excessive consumption of meat, because it is extremely difficult to overload the system on a rice diet, although one might become too corpulent."

How Does Rice Compare With Potatoes?

"Rice is far superior as an article of food for ordinary use to potatoes, although potatoes are much preferred in this country."

From This, I Conclude That The Principal Objection To Rice Is That People Do Not Like It?

"Yes, that is a serious difficulty. People like what they are brought up on, and the matter of eating different foods is largely one of habit. It is supposed that potatoes are much cheaper than rice, yet if we estimate potatoes atone cent per pound, and rice at six the difference would be very small. Potatoes contain about seventy-six per cent of water, so that one pound of rice is equal to about four or five pounds of potatoes, and if the waste in peeling be deducted, considerably more would be required to equal a pound of rice, so that people who have both to buy, rice at some seasons would actually be the cheaper of the two."

How Can The Dislike For It Be Overcome?

"That must be done by cooking and flavoring. Different people like different flavors and individual taste should be considered. If nutmeg is agreeable, it may be added so that it changes the taste of the rice and makes it palatable."

How About Rice Pudding, Doctor?

"Well, instead of having rice pudding occasionally for desert it would be better to frequently make it a considerable portion of the meal, and by varying the methods of cooking and flavoring, the habit of eating rice could be as well established as that of potatoes. This would avoid the necessity for much of the meat or eggs ordinarily consumed, and insure much greater freedom from disease."