Boil sweet potatoes, peel and cut into long slices; place in an earthen dish; place lumps of butter or chicken-fat if desired on each side, and sprinkle with sugar. A little water or juice of half a lemon may be added. Bake until the sugar and fat have candied and the potatoes are brown.
DRIED BEANS
Look the beans over carefully to remove all dirt and pebbles, then wash clean. Soak them overnight in plenty of cold water. In the morning pour off the water and put them in a stew-pan with cold water enough to cover them generously. Let them come to the boiling point in this water, then drain. If the beans are old and hard, for each quart put a piece of soda about the size of a large bean in the water in which they are soaked overnight, also in the first water in which they are boiled.
The scalded and drained beans should be put back in the stew-pan and covered generously with boiling water. Add one tablespoon of salt for one quart of beans. They should now cook slowly, with the cover partially off the stew-pan until they have reached the required degree of tenderness. For stewed and baked beans the cooking must stop when the skins begin to crack. For beans served with a sauce they should cook until perfectly tender, but they must not be broken or mushy. For purées and soups they should be cooked until very soft.
SWEET SOUR BEANS AND LINZEN
Soak overnight and drain the beans, boil in salted water until tender; drain and prepare by adding salt and pepper to taste, thicken with one tablespoon of drippings in which has been browned one tablespoon of flour and some soup stock. If the beans are to be made sweet sour add two tablespoons of vinegar and two tablespoons of brown sugar; boil for a few minutes and serve.
BAKED BEANS WITH BRISKET OF BEEF
Wash, pick over and soak overnight in cold water, two cups of navy beans. In the morning, drain and cover with fresh water, heat slowly and let cook just below the boiling point until the skins burst. When done, drain beans and put in a pot with one and one-half pounds of brisket of beef. Mix one-half tablespoon of mustard; one teaspoon of salt, one tablespoon of molasses, two tablespoons of sugar, one-half cup of boiling water and pour over beans, and add enough more boiling water to cover them. Cover pot and bake slowly six or eight hours.
HARICOT BEANS AND BEEF
Wash two cups of haricot beans and leave them covered with two pints of water overnight. Next day brown one coarsely chopped onion in a little fat and put it with the beans and their water into a casserole or stew-jar.