How to cook vegetables

First, I desire to bring into greater prominence vegetables which are nutritious and appetising, but which have somehow escaped popularity. There is no doubt that, both in its genius for adaptation and its skill in the preparation of comparatively little known vegetables, the Continent is far in advance of us. In many private and in public establishments, there is too often a weary monotony in the vegetable dishes which a wider culinary knowledge would have obviated. PREFACE. In this book will be found a large number of Continental and other recipes for vegetable cookery which should prove valuable to cooks and housewives who desire more frequent changes in this department of the table. Second, the object of the book is to show how vegetables can be made tempting and nourishing as food, in relation to diet and health. Whilst I cannot claim to be a convert to the tenets of strict vegetarianism, I fully admit that the people of this country consume an inordinate amount of meat, and that the health of the community at large would be very much improved if the consumption of meat were lessened, and that of vegetables increased. I am firmly convinced, too, that if the right methods are adopted to render vegetables more pleasing, palatable, and nourishing, they are sure to become more popular. So many healthful and body-building properties belong to well-cooked vegetables, and so delicious are they when prepared in the proper way, that it is both cheating the stomach and the palate to go on treating them in the haphazard, savourless manner unfortunately so common with the majority of English cooks. I have endeavoured, therefore, in the following pages, to deal fairly exhaustively with a wide range of vegetables, so as to provide those who abstain from animal food, for whatever reason, with a greater variety of dishes, most of which may, with advantage, be served as meat substitutes. I desire to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. E. Owen Greening, Agricultural and Horticultural Association, for the loan of most of the blocks used to illustrate vegetables in this work. My thanks are also due to Mons. A. Suzanne for permitting me to adapt a number of recipes from his work, entitled " la Cuisine Vegetarienne.” THERE is no doubt that, as a nation, we realize the dietetic value of vegetables to a far greater extent than our forefathers did. The excessive meat-eating of the Middle Ages, and even of later days, was seldom alleviated by either vegetables or fruit, although herbs, in a goodly variety, were used more than they are nowadays. This lack of vegetables was partly due to prevailing ignorance of the best means of growing them, which to-day is fast disappearing under modem methods of horticulture. Yet the fact remains, and we are not allowed to lose sight of it, that in spite of increased gardening knowledge, and a more intelligent acquaintance with dietetic food values, we have been universally condemned by better equipped nations for our methods of vegetable cookery.