Potash. A raising agent used to make a baked mixture light. Baking powder consists of bicarbonate of soda (US: baking soda) and cream of tartar which, if mixed with flour or starch, assists pastry and cake doughs to rise, as when it meets moisture it produces carbon dioxide which aerates and lightens the dough.
Potatoes originated in South America, in Peru, from whence they have travelled around the world. Confronted with a potato it is difficult to tell whether it is a floury one or a waxy one. A way of testing this it take a bowl of brine (9½ cups water to 1 cup salt) and place a potato in it. If it sinks it is high in starch (floury) whereas if it floats, it will be waxy.
Potato chips (UK: crisps) are thin slices of potato deep fried and then sealed into a bag with any of a number of flavourings.
Potato flour is a slightly yellow flour made from whole potatoes simply peeled and cooked and then mashed and dried. It retains some of the fibres and the protein. Not to be confused with potato starch. In the east potato flour is ground very fine and often used to bind meat mixtures.
An indeterminate, potato-leafed variety of tomato which ripens to a pale creamy colour. Said to be the most reliable of the white tomatoes.
An orange-coloured yam plant which grows several bulbils about the size of a large thumb above the ground. They resemble tubers are very tasty. The underground tuber is not used. It is cultivated in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.
