Vegetables are most valuable food, and can easily
sustain life and promote health without the aid of
animal food, or (more properly speaking) butcher meat.
Vegetable food, however, generally requires the addition
of milk, butter, or cheese, which are animal foods.
Many vegetables, such as grain, beans, peas, lentils, etc.,
are highly nitrogenous or flesh-forming; they all contain
a large proportion of mineral substances, and many are
carbonaceous, or body-warming foods, in a high degree ;
so that in vegetable diet the wants of the body, under
ordinary circumstances, are all supplied. All green
vegetables are anti-scorbutic, or blood purifiers; they
help to dissolve other food in the stomach and assist
digestion, and, as they contain a great deal of water,
are particularly suitable to be used in hot weather. The
blood contains a great many mineral substances as well
as salts; and vegetables and water supply some of these
necessaries. Wheat contains more of the mineral matter
of which the bones are formed than any other food; and
all growing children should have a dietary consisting of
bread or food largely composed of flour.
When green vegetables, such as cabbage, leeks, etc.,
are not easily digested, or seem to disagree with the
stomach, let them be boiled half the necessary time,
the water in which they are being boiled should then be
thrown away and replaced with fresh boiling water, and
the requisite time completed ; by doing this, vegetables
will be found to agree with very delicate stomachs. The
58
COOKERY.
same process may be advantageously followed with
potatoes that are old and out of season, and will
remove the bitter taste and rather injurious juice
which their age engenders.
Vegetables require sufficient and very careful cooking,
their flavour and appearance being easily spoiled by want
of attention. Every country abounds with the vegetables
most suited to its climate, and they are so obviously
intended for the use of the inhabitants that it is
impossible to avoid the inference that they ought
to form a very large proportion of our diet. In hot
countries, extremely watery vegetables and fruits abound,
such as melons, pumpkins, etc., for the comfort and
pleasure of the inhabitants ; and in our own country, the
vegetables that are most abundant are precisely those that
are most valuable for our food. Fruits also ought to
enter largely into our diet. If ripe, they cannot be too
freely partaken of by all, the young especially ; and
when not quite ripe, subjected to some process of
cooking.
GREEN VEGETABLES-TO BOIL.
1 Cabbage.
Soak the cabbage (after it has been well washed and
the withered leaves removed from the outside) in salt
and water for one hour. This makes all insects come
out and freshens the cabbage. If the cabbage is large
and firm, cut the stalk across about 3 inches deep or
rather more, and then cut again in the opposite direction ;
this opens up the heart of the cabbage and allows the
water to penetrate ; have a saucepan with plenty of boil-
ing water, having in it a table-spoonful of salt, and a little
carbonate of soda the size of a pea, or a very little
VEGETABLES.
59
✪ Cabbage to Boil
Page 23 · 1 recipe record on this page
Presented as published in 1882. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Vegetables are most valuable food, and can easily sustain life and promote health without the aid of animal food, or (more properly speaking) butcher meat. Vegetable food, however, generally requires the addition of milk, butter, or cheese, which are animal foods. Many vegetables, such as grain, beans, peas, lentils, etc., are highly nitrogenous or flesh-forming; they all contain a large proportion of mineral substances, and many are carbonaceous, or body-warming foods, in a high degree ; so that in vegetable diet the wants of the body, under ordinary circumstances, are all supplied. All green vegetables are anti-scorbutic, or blood purifiers; they help to dissolve other food in the stomach and assist digestion, and, as they contain a great deal of water, are particularly suitable to be used in hot weather. The blood contains a great many mineral substances as well as salts; and vegetables and water supply some of these necessaries. Wheat contains more of the mineral matter of which the bones are formed than any other food; and all growing children should have a dietary consisting of bread or food largely composed of flour.
When green vegetables, such as cabbage, leeks, etc., are not easily digested, or seem to disagree with the stomach, let them be boiled half the necessary time, the water in which they are being boiled should then be thrown away and replaced with fresh boiling water, and the requisite time completed ; by doing this, vegetables will be found to agree with very delicate stomachs. The
same process may be advantageously followed with potatoes that are old and out of season, and will remove the bitter taste and rather injurious juice which their age engenders.
Vegetables require sufficient and very careful cooking, their flavour and appearance being easily spoiled by want of attention. Every country abounds with the vegetables most suited to its climate, and they are so obviously intended for the use of the inhabitants that it is impossible to avoid the inference that they ought to form a very large proportion of our diet. In hot countries, extremely watery vegetables and fruits abound, such as melons, pumpkins, etc., for the comfort and pleasure of the inhabitants ; and in our own country, the vegetables that are most abundant are precisely those that are most valuable for our food. Fruits also ought to enter largely into our diet. If ripe, they cannot be too freely partaken of by all, the young especially ; and when not quite ripe, subjected to some process of cooking.
GREEN VEGETABLES-TO BOIL.
1 Cabbage.
Soak the cabbage (after it has been well washed and the withered leaves removed from the outside) in salt and water for one hour. This makes all insects come out and freshens the cabbage. If the cabbage is large and firm, cut the stalk across about 3 inches deep or rather more, and then cut again in the opposite direction ; this opens up the heart of the cabbage and allows the water to penetrate ; have a saucepan with plenty of boiling water, having in it a table-spoonful of salt, and a little carbonate of soda the size of a pea, or a very little
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Cabbage to Boil