Vegetables put into bottles without being dressed, and entirely submitted to the action of heat in the water-bath, as before described, require to be prepared for use on being taken out of the bottles. This preparation will be made according to the season, and every one’s taste and inclination. Attention must be given to the washing of the vegetables when taken from the bottle; and to facilitate the taking them out, I fill the bottle with luke-warm water, and after having drained it of the first water, I wash the vegetables in a second water somewhat hotter, and having drained them, I then prepare them for a meat or vegetable soup.

§ XLVI.
French Beans.
(Haricots.)

I scald French beans (haricots verts,) as if they were fresh in water, with a little salt when not sufficiently dressed by the preserving process. This often happens to them as well as to artichokes, asparagus and cauliflowers. If sufficiently boiled, on being taken out of the bottles, I have only to wash them in hot water in order to prepare them afterwards for vegetable or meat soup.

I scald in the same way the beans of the haricot blanc; when sufficiently dressed, I take them from the fire and leave them in the boiling water, half an hour, and even an hour, in order to render them more tender: I then prepare them for soup.

§ XLVII.
Peas, Beans, &c.

Green peas are dressed in various ways. If they are ill cooked in the season, it is the cook who is blamed; but if they are not found good in winter, the fault is thrown on the person who has preserved them, though the fault most frequently arises from some of the substances employed; either from the bad butter, or the oil or rancid fat which is made use of through negligence or economy. At another time they are prepared two hours too soon. They are suffered to stick to the bottom of the saucepan when on the fire, and they are served smelling of the butter which is turned into oil with a burnt taste; or they are prepared without care and with too much precipitation. It is thus we see green peas brought to the table swimming in water; but every one has his way. The following is mine.

As soon as the peas have been washed and immediately afterwards drained (for neither this vegetable nor the windsor-bean must be suffered to remain in water, for that would take away their flavour), I put them on the fire in a saucepan with a morsel of good fresh butter. I add to them a bunch of parsley and chives. After having tossed them several times in butter, I dredge them with a little flour, and moisten them immediately afterwards with boiling water up to the level of the peas. I leave them thus to be boiled a good quarter of an hour, until very little sauce remains. Then I season them with salt and a little pepper, and leave them on the fire until they are stewed down; I then take them off the fire immediately, in order to add a piece of fresh butter as large as a nut, with a table spoonful of powder sugar for each bottle of peas. I toss them well without replacing them on the fire, until the butter is melted, and I serve them up in the shape of a pyramid upon a dish, which I take care to warm thoroughly. I have observed several times, that by adding sugar to the peas when upon the fire, and giving them only one boiling, the peas became hard and the sauce ran so that it could no longer bind the peas together. Thus great attention should be given to the not putting in the sugar and the last piece of butter until the moment of serving them up. This is the only way of dressing them well, for neither in summer nor winter ought any sauce to appear among the peas.

There is another mode of eating green peas and which may suit many persons; this consists in simply boiling the peas in water. When done, the water is drained off and the peas are tossed with a piece of good fresh butter, salt, pepper and sugar, all together over a very gentle fire, they are then served up directly upon a very hot dish. Care must be taken that the peas do not boil with the seasoning, otherwise the butter turns into oil, and the green peas are dissolved in the water.