Cookery for busy lives and small incomes

Place the potatoes with or without their skins in a steamer ; sprinkle them with salt. Keep the water under the steamer quickly boiling or the potatoes will get sodden. When nearly, but not quite cooked, remove the steamer from the saucepan and put it on a plate, peel the potatoes, if cooked in their skins, replace them in the steamer, and sprinkle with salt, cover with a cloth, and let them remain near the fire or inside the oven to finish cooking in their own steam. New Potatoes Scrape or rub the skins off according to their age, and cook like old potatoes. A sprig or two of mint gives a nice flavour to the potatoes. Mashed Potatoes When the potatoes are cooked, add dripping to them in the saucepan, with, if possible, a little milk, and pepper and salt to taste. Beat them up quickly with a fork. Pile in a vegetable dish and serve hot. Baked Potatoes Scrub and dry the potatoes and bake them for about an hour in a quick oven ; when soft, prick them with a fork to let the steam escape, or they will burst. Carrots These must be thoroughly but lightly scraped. Put them in boiling water to which salt has been added, in the proportion of one tablespoonful to every two quarts of water. Boil for an hour or more, according to their age and size ; if large, split them in halves or quarters. When served with boiled meat, cook them with it. Very young carrots will not take more than twent}'^ minutes to cook. Turnips Pare them rather thickly to get below the wood fibre. Cook like carrots, from half an hour to an hour, according to the age and kind of turnip. The turnip parings can be used to flavour soups. Parnips Cook like carrots. Cabbage Trim away the outer leaves, well wash the cabbage, and cut it in two, or in quarters, if very large. Put it in boiling water with salt, in the proportion of one table-spoonful to every two quarts, and boil for half an hour or longer, until tender. Drain in a colander and press out the water. Turnip Greens Cook according to the general directions for cooking green vegetables. Drain well. Leeks Skin and well wash them, tie them in bundles and cook according to the general directions for green vegetables. Vegetable Marrow If small, cook whole ; if large, cut in halves or quarters, according to the directions for cooking green vegetables. The marrow will have more flavour if the skin is left on. Nettles Young green nettles only should be used. Wash them and boil like other green vegetables. Green Peas Put them in boiling water with a little sugar and one or two sprigs of mint. Boil gently with the lid off the saucepan for about twenty minutes, according to their age. Drain well. French Beans Remove the strings and slice the beans, or cut them into diamond shapes. Boil according to general directions for cooking green vegetables for about twenty minutes or longer. Then drain well. A Cauliflower Boil according to general directions for cooking green vegetables, putting it in the water with the flower downwards. Cook for twenty minutes or more according to its age. Brussels Sprouts Trim them neatly, well wash them, and cook according to general directions for cooking green vegetables. They will take fifteen minutes or longer, according to their age. Spinach