Serves six or eight persons.
Lima Beans
Wash the beans and put them on to cook in boiling salted water, to each quart of which one-eighth of a teaspoonful of soda has been added. If the quantity is small, put them into a small pail set into a larger pail of water. If the whole will fill a two-quart cooker-pail it will cook without the larger pail. Put them into a cooker for one and one-half hours or more.
Dried Lima Beans
Soak the beans over night, put them to boil in at least twice their bulk of salted water. Add one-fourth teaspoonful of soda to each quart of water. Boil, and put them into a cooker for three or four hours or more. Drain, add butter, pepper, and salt, and reheat them before serving, if necessary.
Dried Navy Beans
Soak one cupful of beans over night. In the morning drain off the water, add three quarts of boiling salted water and one teaspoonful of soda. Boil, and put them into the cooker for eight hours or more. When soft, drain them and add butter, pepper, and salt to taste. Or make pork and beans of them.
Serves five or six persons.
Chard
Put a pint of water and a teaspoonful of salt into a cooker-pail. When boiling add, little by little, the well-washed chard. If, after boiling two or three minutes, there is not enough water to cover the chard, add more boiling water. If a small amount of chard is cooked the pail or pan must be set into a cooker-pail of boiling water. Put it into a cooker for three hours or more. Drain in a colander and add salt, pepper, and butter to taste. Serve with slices of [hard-cooked eggs] as a garnish.