GREEN OR STRING BEANS.—
Take young and tender beans, the seeds just forming in the pods. Take off the string with a knife, leaving no bits of string adhering to the beans, either at top or bottom. Do not split them. Cut each bean into three pieces, not more, and as you cut them throw them into a pan of cold water, kept beside you for the purpose. The old-fashioned way is now obsolete of cutting them into dice or diamonds, or of splitting them. The more they are cut up (beside the trouble and time wasted,) the more the water gets through them when cooking; the more tasteless they become, and the more difficult they are to drain. We have never met with beans that, when cut small, had not a puddle of greasy water in the bottom of the dish, and sometimes the water was all through the dish, and the beans floating in it. Shame on such bean-cooking! When the beans are all ready for the pot, throw them into boiling water very slightly salted, and they will generally be done in half an hour after they have come to a boil. Transfer them to a sieve; and press, and drain them well, till no water is left about them. Then put them into a deep dish, mix them with fresh butter, and dredge them with black pepper.
LIMA BEANS.—
Shell the lima beans into a pan of cold water. Let them lie in it an hour. Put them in boiling water, little more than enough to cover them, and boil them till soft and tender. When done, drain and serve them up in a deep dish, adding among them a good piece of butter. The Lima beans now raised in North America have become coarse and white, requiring a renewal of fresh stock or new seeds from Peru. They will then be green and delicate again, as formerly.
SWEET POTATOS.—
Choose the sweet potatos large, and nearly of the same size, then you can either boil or roast them. When small they should always be boiled; as, when baked or roasted, the skin becomes so thick and hard, that it takes up nearly the whole potato. Wash them very clean, and cut off a bit from each end. Put them into a large pot of boiling water without salt, and boil them steadily for at least an hour. Probe them with a narrow-bladed sharp knife, and if it does not easily penetrate all through the largest potato, (in at one side and out at the other) continue the boiling till all are soft throughout. Then take them up, peel them, and keep them warm till sent to table.
To Bake Sweet Potatos they should all be large. Wash them, dry them, and cut off the ends. Then bake them in an oven, lying side by side, not piling one on another. Or else (which is better) roast them in hot ashes. They will not be done in less than an hour and a half, perhaps longer. Then wipe them clean, and serve them up in the skins. Eat them from the skins, with cold butter and a tea-spoon.