Girl's home manual of cookery, home management, home nursing and laundry

Remove the stems from a dozen mushrooms, scrape and cut these in pieces. Peel the caps, leave whole if small, or break in pieces if large. Melt four tablespoons of butter or bacon fat, fry mushrooms three minutes, then add a little flour and sufficient stock or hot water to cover. Simmer ten minutes. Mushrooms should be cooked as soon as possible after they are picked. Otherwise before cooking soak ten minutes in well salted water. Mushrooms are often fried and served with bacon. Boiled Peas. Shell peas and place in cold water until ready to cook. Cook in a small quantity of boiling water. To each quart add a sprig of fresh mint, %4 tablespoon salt, 2 lumps of sugar. Boil gently from 20 to 40 minutes according to age. Drain and serve in a hot dish. If desired, they may be seasoned with salt, pepper and a little butter, or a sauce made of the water in which they are cooked. Boiled Cabbage, Spinach, Nettle Tops, or Other Greens Remove outer leaves, cut stalk end of cabbage in four, soak in salted water an hour, rinse thoroughly. The salt kills insects, which drop out if the greens are well washed. Cover with boiling salted water, boil quickly with lid off until the stalk is soft. Place in a colander, press with a plate to squeeze out the water. Serve in a hot dish cut in four or eight pieces. All greens are cooked in this way. They require plenty of soft water. Spinach and the tops of young nettles are particularly good. Care must be taken to drain well before serving. They may be served plain or chopped small (do this in a saucepan) and mixed with butter, pepper and salt. Cabbage boiled with fat meat becomes coated with fat and is very indigestible. LEGUMES Next to cereals the legumes are the most valuable vegetable food. The chief legumes used for food are beans, peas, lentils, peanuts. Composition and Value in Diet. Peas, beans and lentils contain the nourishment for the young plant. They are rich in protein, so that they may be used in place of meats. Legumes contain more protein than the best cuts of meat, but unless very carefully prepared they are far less digestible, so that less nutriment is absorbed. The protein found in legumes is called legumin. Legumes are substantial food, suitable for the robust, but on account of their tough cellulose skins (which pass through the intestinal tract unchanged) they are somewhat difficult to digest and should have this skin removed before being given to children or people with weak digestions. The protein of some legumes is especially rich in sulphur, and this helps to explain their tendency to produce flatulence. All pulses are rich in potash and _ lime, are rich in carbohydrates, but poor in fat with the exception of the peanut. General Rules for Cooking Dried Beans or Peas. Soften by soaking over night in soft water, since salts of lime found in hard water unites with the legumin (protein) in the beans or peas to form an insoluble compound. Soaking also removes most of the bitter principle in the seeds. Cook for several hours (seven to eight) in soft water. If hard water is used adda little bicarbonate of soda to throw down the lime. Proportions. % |b. beans. 1 quart water. % level tsp. cooking soda. Beans if eaten in moderation after being carefully prepared are a cheap and valuable food, and are good to use in combination with other foods. Prepared as soup, and sieved before serving, to remove skins, they make a nourishing, cheap dinner for school children. Baked Beans and Pork. 1% pints beans (yellow-eyed). ¥Y% tbsp. mustard. Y% lb. salt pork. y% tsp. baking soda. tb Spamsalt. 4 tsp. pepper. 2 tbsp. molasses, 1 cup boiling water. 3 tbsp. sugar (brown).