The High Cost of Peeling

They come wrapped in cellophane, frozen or dehydrated, under the generic label of "foods of convenience"--peas without pods, corn without cobs, potatoes without skins. What price convenience? Last week one amateur gourmet, who likes to cook himself, watched a housewife of his acquaintance brooding over the shelves at a Miami supermarket and launched into a Socratic dialogue: "How much do potatoes cost? About a nickel a pound. Right?"

"Right."

"Well, here are these potatoes in a box, see. 'Home fries.' they're called. A convenience food. No peeling. No cutting. O.K., you read the directions. You put 'em in the pan and you cover 'em with water. Get it? You're boiling 'em. Then you brown 'em and serve 'em. Right?"

"Right."

"You know what they cost you? Sixty cents a pound. That's what it figures out to. Convenience foods, eh? Remember you still had to boil 'em. You've paid somebody 55-c- a pound for peeling your potatoes for you. For that kind of dough, I'll peel anybody's potatoes."

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