A Handbook of Cookery for a Small House

by Jessie Conrad

VEGETABLES AND SALADS

Green Vegetables

Always boil without a lid on.

Always put straight into boiling water.

Never add salt or soda till the vegetables are in the water.

Never have green vegetables lying in cold water more than half an hour before they are to be cooked.

Cabbage, savoy, cauliflower should be steeped for ten minutes in a pan of cold water with a good tablespoonful of salt. Time to boil twenty-five to thirty minutes.

Potatoes must lie in cold water without salt.

Onions should never lie in water or be wet before being used.

Turnips, carrots, and parsnips should be washed but never allowed to lie in cold water.

Celery should be treated like cabbage.

Spinach, on the contrary, requires to be washed in seven different lots of cold water and only the last lot without salt.

Fresh beans or peas should never pass through any cold water.

134. Dry Vegetables

Haricot beans should be put to soak for at least twelve hours in cold water—pint of beans to three pints of cold water. No salt.

Dry peas (not split) the same.

133. Salads and Their Dressings

There are many green salads, and a salad is always a very welcome addition to a meal if there should be cold meat or fowl in any form. Lettuce, endive, watercress, corn salad, chicory or tomato, can be dressed as follows: Having washed and dried the salad (by means of a wire salad basket swung vigorously), place it in the salad bowl with a little chopped onion or several young spring onions according to the season. To two salad-spoonfuls of vinegar dissolve one salt-spoonful of salt and a little pepper, turn into the salad and add three salad-spoonfuls of best salad oil. Turn the salad over for five minutes with the spoon and fork. The bowl should then appear quite dry, the dressing having been taken up on the green salad. If dressing tomatoes alone, place the tomatoes which must be firm and sound in a large basin and pour over them some boiling water. The skin will then peel off easily leaving the fruit whole. Cut them into slices, put into a glass dish and sprinkle over them a little freshly chopped onion. Mix in a breakfast cup the oil and vinegar, salt and pepper (always taking care to add the oil last); stir well and pour over the tomatoes in the dish. It is best not to attempt to turn this salad as the tomatoes so easily get broken and the appearance of the salad is then spoiled. Sprinkle over all a little finely chopped parsley.

Potato Salad. Take some boiled potatoes, cut into slices not too thin and a little chopped onion. Place in a salad bowl. Mix the oil and vinegar as before directed only allow exactly double the quantity of dressing as the potatoes absorb it. Turn over well before serving.

Chicory as Salad. Will need the dressing prepared as for tomato.

Russian Salad. Any remains of cold beans, peas, carrots, beet-root, etc., with the addition of one hard-boiled egg, the white chopped separately from the yolk and added to the salad only after it is dressed. Put into a large basin all the cold vegetables it is intended to use together with a little finely chopped onion. Mix in a cup the raw yolk of one egg, two teaspoonfuls of cream if possible, two tablespoonfuls of vinegar, and three of oil, pepper, and salt. Work all together and add a teaspoonful of powdered sugar. Turn it into the vegetables and turn the salad very carefully once or twice. Sprinkle the chopped egg over all.

136. Asparagus

This delightful vegetable is a welcome and useful addition to either a lunch or dinner and can be served either hot or cold. If cold, then with a nice mayonnaise sauce or with oil and vinegar. If hot, then as follows: Prepare the asparagus, carefully cutting each stick slanting thus removing about an inch from each. (These short ends can be washed and put into stock to flavour it for asparagus soup. A few of the tops being added for the sake of appearance.) Boil in plenty of water till tender, strain carefully and serve with melted butter in which a few dry brown breadcrumbs have been added, or quite clear butter as desired. If any asparagus is left over from the meal it should be used in an omelette.

137. Indian Corn

Take the corn and after cutting the stump end close to the green leaf, put into a saucepan of boiling water sufficient to cover it and boil gently with a good piece of salt for four hours. When cooked, pare off the green leaves and serve on a clean serviette with melted butter in a sauce boat.

138. Salsify

Carefully wash and remove shoots from the salsify. Place it in boiling stock and boil till tender. Serve very hot in a vegetable dish either with a white sauce or with a little melted butter over it in two lots as they must not be crowded.

139. New Potatoes

Carefully select potatoes about the same size, have them scraped and put into boiling water with a little piece of mint and some salt. Boil for fifteen to twenty minutes or until quite tender, turn into a vegetable dish and put a piece of butter the size of a walnut melted over the potatoes, and dust a little finely chopped parsley over them.

140. Potatoes Sautés

Take some potatoes which have been boiled and cut them into thin slices. Melt in a frying pan about an ounce of fresh butter and when this boils lay the potatoes in it, not on top of each other but perfectly flat, while the pan stands on the stove. Allow the potatoes to brown first one side and then the other. Dish with a slice into a vegetable dish and dust over with a little finely chopped parsley.

141. Mashed Potatoes

Boil the potatoes carefully, strain, and shake vigorously with the lid on. Break them up then and beat with a carving fork, with two ounces of fresh butter; then add fresh milk and continue beating till they attain the consistency of very thick cream. They will then be ready to serve with cutlets or as a bed for sausages.

142. Stuffed Potatoes

Peel your potatoes and cut the ends so that they are flat. Scrape the centre out of each potato leaving a wall of about a quarter of an inch thick all round. Mince finely any cold beef, mutton, or veal you may have by you with one large ring of Spanish onion chopped very small, pepper and salt, and a little mushroom if possible. Moisten slightly with a little meat juice. Fill in each potato with this mixture. Melt in a baking tin sufficient beef dripping, a quarter of a pound to every six or eight potatoes would be right, and when boiling, but not beyond boiling point, stand the potatoes in it. The baking tin should be small enough to allow the dripping to come well up the sides of the potatoes. Cook in a fairly quick oven from thirty to forty minutes. When cooked brush very lightly over the top with the beaten white of an egg. Dish very carefully so as not to take up the fat.

143. French Fried Potatoes

Cut your peeled potatoes into long strips about half an inch in thickness and leave them in the cold water. Melt about half a pound of tub lard (not bladder lard as this has always flour mixed with it which causes the things to burn in the frying pan). When the lard is hot, drop a small crumb into it and if the fat sizzles round it is ready for the potatoes. Put the pan over a brisk fire and drop the potatoes as you take them out of the water straight into the pan. If the pan is not large enough to take them all flat, cook in two lots.

144. Savoury Potatoes

Have the potatoes boiled and not broken. Cut into dice some fat bacon. Put a piece of butter into a small enamelled frying pan and when melted put the bacon fat into it and let it brown slightly. Pour over the potatoes in the dish and serve at once. This is a good way to serve potatoes with cold meat.

145. Potato Croquettes

Have ready about two or three breakfast-cups of nicely mashed potato. Form into either small round cakes or sausage-shaped ones. Roll in a plate of well-beaten egg and some fine crumbs made from rolled rusk crumbs; fry a light brown in some good dripping or lard, and serve piled up in a dish, garnished with a little fresh parsley.

146. Baked Potatoes

Cut your peeled potatoes in four pieces lengthwise. Melt in a baking tin half a pound of beef or veal dripping (mutton dripping will not do) on the top of the stove, and when boiling put the potatoes into it. Turn them once and only then sprinkle with a little salt. Place in a brisk oven and bake for twenty minutes or half an hour. Dish with a slice.

147. Green Peas

Put into a saucepan of boiling water half a vegetable dish of green peas. Add two lumps of loaf sugar, a small sprig of mint, a pinch of soda, and a flat teaspoonful of salt. Young peas should cook from twenty to thirty minutes over a clear fire with the saucepan lid off. Strain through a cullender and when dished sprinkle with a good dessertspoonful of powdered sugar; add a piece of butter about the size of a walnut and turn over with a spoon several times before serving.

Bottled peas treated in this manner very closely resemble fresh peas. They must be washed in three waters before cooking.

148. Scarlet Runner and Broad Beans

Have four pounds of beans, trim them all round with a knife to remove all the string and cut them lengthwise into thin slices. Do not put them into cold water. Have ready the saucepan three parts full of boiling water. Put in the beans with a little salt and a tiny piece of soda. Boil for twenty minutes if the beans are young and a little longer if they are not quite fresh. Strain into a cullender then into a vegetable dish.

Broad beans should be treated in the same way after shucking them. Add a piece of butter when dished and sprinkle over with a little chopped parsley.

Never allow vegetables of any kind to be prepared over night. It will be found that peas or beans will be hard, cabbage or other greens offensive, and potatoes become flabby.

149. Cauliflower

Take a young cauliflower with a firm head. Take off the thick outside leaves and cut a cross on the bottom of the stump. Stand it in boiling water with the flower uppermost allowing the water to come right over it. Add some salt and a tiny bit of soda. Boil until tender (from fifteen to twenty minutes). Dish without breaking, upright in the dish. Pour half a teacupful of clarified butter over the cauliflower and dust a few rolled breadcrumbs, which have been browned in the oven, over the top.

150. Boiled Onions and White Sauce

Cut eight Spanish onions into rings. Put them into a saucepan three parts full of boiling water with a dessertspoonful of salt and boil for one hour. Strain into a cullender.

Take two large tablespoonfuls of flour and mix smoothly with one and a half tablespoonfuls of butter. Add boiling milk to the paste, about half a pint, return it to the saucepan and stir till it boils; then turn the onions into the sauce and serve very hot.

151. Mushroom Rissoles

Cut half a pound of fresh mushrooms into very small pieces. Put into a small enamelled saucepan with one slice of Spanish onion chopped very fine, a pinch of salt and a little pepper. Add a little meat juice and a teacup of water and stew gently until the mushrooms have absorbed all the moisture. Turn out into a plate and allow to cool. Prepare some light paste, cut out with a teacup into rounds, brush the rims of each round with a little milk. Put a small teaspoonful of the mushrooms into each and fold over into lozenge shape. Take the shelf out of the oven while it is hot and lay upon it a sheet of paper (white) which has been previously buttered. As soon as the butter has melted lay the rissoles on and bake in quick oven from fifteen to twenty minutes. To be eaten hot.

152. Stuffed Tomatoes

Cut a thin slice off eight large tomatoes. Remove part of the inside with a teaspoon. Put half an ounce of fresh butter into a frying pan (must be fresh butter). Take one large rasher of bacon, fat and lean, and half a Spanish onion; chop very fine, add a pinch of mixed herbs, pepper and salt, and the inside of the tomatoes. Make the butter hot in the pan and place the tomatoes (the cut side downwards) in it and stand on the stove with the top on. Leave for one minute and a half. Turn them and place the stuffing in the corner of the pan. Cook both together in this way for ten minutes more taking care not to let burn. Take out the tomatoes with a slice and place on a fairly deep meat dish; fill them with the stuffing, having carefully taken it up with the slice so as to avoid grease. Pour over all about half a small teacupful of meat juice.

153. Bubble and Squeak

Chop lightly with a knife in a dish any cold greens and potatoes you may have left. Melt in an enamelled frying pan one ounce more or less of fresh butter. Turn the vegetables into it. While cooking use a large dinner fork to press the vegetables into a smooth paste, turning it over and over with the fork all the time to prevent it sticking to the pan. Vegetables so treated should work into a perfectly smooth, stiff paste and leave the pan as clean as when they went into it. Add a little pepper and salt.

Be careful to remove all stumps of cabbage before using.

154. To Use up Cold Vegetables

Cold boiled French beans, cold carrots, cabbage, and a little chopped onion may be put into an enamelled frying pan in which one and a half ounces of fresh butter has been melted. Fry the vegetables very lightly, not making them brown. Turn into a deep dish and pour a little meat gravy over them. This may be served as a dish by itself or with cold meat.

155. Spinach as a Separate Dish

Wash through several waters, into which a little salt has been added, four pounds of fresh spinach after having removed all stalks. The last water should be without salt. The spinach would have absorbed enough moisture to cook it in but nevertheless have ready a saucepan half full of boiling water and put the spinach into it. This will prevent a most disagreeable smell being emitted while the spinach is cooking. Boil for twenty minutes, keeping the spinach pressed down with a fork. It should then be quite tender; if it is not so, boil for five minutes longer. Strain through a cullender, pressing hard with a plate or wooden vegetable press to get all the water out; put into a bowl and beat well with a fork and then work it into another bowl through a hair sieve using a large wooden spoon. Then work in half a gill of cream, a small piece of butter and a little milk. The spinach ought then to have the consistency of thick cream. Put it into a dish and serve with croutons of lightly fried French roll or garnished with hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters.