Parsnips and salsify may be stewed in the above manner, substituting a little chopped celery for the parsley.
STEWED BEANS, (French way.)—Take fresh young green beans, and string them. Do not split them; but merely cut them in half. It destroys the flavour of string-beans to divide them into small pieces. If very young, do not even cut them in half, but merely string them and leave them whole. Have by you a pan of cold water to drop the beans in, as you proceed. Then, having washed and drained them, put them into a stew-pan of boiling water, and let them boil twenty minutes or more, till they are all tender. Then drain them well. Afterwards melt two ounces of butter in a stew-pan, and then stir smoothly into it a tea-spoonful of flour, adding a little powdered mace and a salt-spoon of salt. When it comes to a boil, add a tea-cup of rich cream. Then put in the beans, and stir or shake them over the fire till they are all thoroughly heated. A moment before you take them from the fire, stir in the beaten yolks of two eggs, and send them hot to table.
For this dish, you must have beans enough to absorb nearly all the liquid. They must on no account float about in it, as it is intended for a seasoning, not a gravy.
Stewed beans will be improved by adding a small piece of cold ham, to be removed before they go to table. If ham is used, omit any salt in the seasoning, as the ham will make it quite salt enough.
TO STEW COLD POTATOES.—Take cold potatoes, (either white or sweet ones,) and cut them into round or circular slices. Have ready some nice gravy of roast beef, veal, or fresh pork, that has been left from the preceding day, and well skimmed. Care should every day be taken to save whatever gravy is left of roast meat, skimming off all the fat from the surface, and putting away the gravy in a covered vessel set in a cool place. The gravy of cold mutton or lamb is so like tallow that it is unfit to use in any sort of cookery, and should always be consigned to the crock of soap-fat.
Season the sliced potatoes slightly with pepper, and putting them into a skillet with the cold gravy among them, stew them in that only, without a drop of water. Let them stew but a quarter of an hour. They are nice at breakfast, done in this manner; sweet potatoes especially.