Ignorance of the bare rudiments of vegetable cookery is the first great indictment. As a nation, we suffer enormously because of the cook’s indifference. Drastic methods of scraping and peeling, and vigorous boiling in plenty of hot water, is the prevailing English attitude towards vegetables in general, whether roots or greenstuff, when a more familiar knowledge of the composition of some of them would help, perhaps, to correct such unintelligent treatment. Vegetables arc not only specially rich in carbo- hydrates, but exceptionally so in antiscorbutic salts, notably potash and phosphates. It is largely the presence of these salts in vegetables, together with certain acids in fruits, which make both so particularly acceptable in summer menus. Potatoes, for instance, are chiefly valuable on account of their vegetable salts and acids, and the greater part of these are lost in the peeling and subsequent boiling— the usual 5 6 VEGETABLE COOKERY. English method of cooking — in spite of the fact that a cookery book has been written with 299 additional ways of serving this vegetable. Vegetables, unlike meat, are entirely lacking in the case of protective albumen which heat helps to harden upon the surface of joints, so that a great deal of their flavour evaporates during the cooking if this is ignorantly performed. One cause of the general decline in favour of parsnips, turnips, carrots, and similar roots, is due to their insipidity of taste. Much of this might be obviated by peeling or scraping them after cooking, as we do with beetroots. Green vegetables are even less nutritious than roots. The whole of their value depends upon the maintenance of their antiscorbutic salts, and their peculiar flavour, due to various essential oils. Here the English method sins still more deeply. Granted, that a certain amount of soaking in salt and water is necessary to kill the animal organisms which infest the cabbage tribe, the subsequent cooking, as prac- tised in this country, is bound to be inimical to the healthful vegetable salts. Plunging the greens into vast quantities of hot water, the prolonged and vigor- ous boiling of the vegetables, even the customary lifting of the saucepan lid, all tend to cause evapora- tion of the salts and acids, which, by their loss, create a marked deficiency of flavour. Green vegetables, on an average, contain 90 % of water. And yet we seethe them whilst cooking in still more water, though, for some unknown reason, we make use of the prin- ciple of conservation of flavour by cooking spinach, as a solitary exception, in a practically dry saucepan. There are plenty of other tender green vegetables which might be cut up and cooked after a similar method. Vegetarians have done much to improve the status of vegetable cookery in this country. They have been amongst the first to hail any new and improved method for cooking vegetables. VEGETABLE COOKERY. 7

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Ignorance of the bare rudiments of vegetable cookery is the first great indictment. As a nation, we suffer enormously because of the cook’s indifference. Drastic methods of scraping and peeling, and vigorous boiling in plenty of hot water, is the prevailing English attitude towards vegetables in general, whether roots or greenstuff, when a more familiar knowledge of the composition of some of them would help, perhaps, to correct such unintelligent treatment. Vegetables are not only specially rich in carbohydrates, but exceptionally so in antiscorbutic salts, notably potash and phosphates. It is largely the presence of these salts in vegetables, together with certain acids in fruits, which make both so particularly acceptable in summer menus. Potatoes, for instance, are chiefly valuable on account of their vegetable salts and acids, and the greater part of these are lost in the peeling and subsequent boiling— the usual English method of cooking — in spite of the fact that a cookery book has been written with 299 additional ways of serving this vegetable. Vegetables, unlike meat, are entirely lacking in the case of protective albumen which heat helps to harden upon the surface of joints, so that a great deal of their flavour evaporates during the cooking if this is ignorantly performed. One cause of the general decline in favour of parsnips, turnips, carrots, and similar roots, is due to their insipidity of taste. Much of this might be obviated by peeling or scraping them after cooking, as we do with beetroots. Green vegetables are even less nutritious than roots. The whole of their value depends upon the maintenance of their antiscorbutic salts, and their peculiar flavour, due to various essential oils. Here the English method sins still more deeply. Granted, that a certain amount of soaking in salt and water is necessary to kill the animal organisms which infest the cabbage tribe, the subsequent cooking, as practised in this country, is bound to be inimical to the healthful vegetable salts. Plunging the greens into vast quantities of hot water, the prolonged and vigorous boiling of the vegetables, even the customary lifting of the saucepan lid, all tend to cause evaporation of the salts and acids, which, by their loss, create a marked deficiency of flavour. Green vegetables, on an average, contain 90 % of water. And yet we seethe them whilst cooking in still more water, though, for some unknown reason, we make use of the principle of conservation of flavour by cooking spinach, as a solitary exception, in a practically dry saucepan. There are plenty of other tender green vegetables which might be cut up and cooked after a similar method. Vegetarians have done much to improve the status of vegetable cookery in this country. They have been amongst the first to hail any new and improved method for cooking vegetables.

How to cook vegetables