When they are to be plainly served as a vegetable, it is best to remove the lid of the saucepan a few minutes before dishing up, and so reduce the liquor to the desired strength.
When required for frying they should be strained as soon as tender, and spread over a plate to dry. They may then be fried in butter or oil.
Always make a point of tasting them before sending to table, for if not sufficiently salted they are very insipid.
All spices, herbs, etc., boiled with the beans for flavouring purposes, should be tied in a small piece of muslin, which may at any moment be easily removed.
Haricot bean pulp, which will be found frequently mentioned in the following recipes, is made by boiling the beans until tender and rather dry, and then rubbing them through a wire sieve with a wooden spoon.
Lentils.
Next in usefulness to the haricot bean comes the German lentil. This must not be confounded with the Egyptian lentil, which closely resembles the split pea; for not only is the former double the price of the latter, but I may add double its worth also, at least from a culinary point of view.
In vegetarian cookery the lentil takes the place of the dark meats of the flesh-eaters' dietary, such as beef and mutton, the haricot bean supplying a substitute for the white, such as veal, chicken, etc.
The liquor in which lentils have been boiled forms a rich foundation for dark sauces, also a delicious and nourishing beverage, in flavour resembling beef-tea, can be obtained from them (see [Recipe No. 12]).
Besides being darker in colour, the flavour of lentils is much more pronounced than that of haricots.