Now, however, the valuable qualities
of our excellent English Vegetables are again appreciated, and
pains are taken to cook them as well as to grow them.
If butter is needed in cooking vegetables only “ the best
butter ” should be used. The delicate flavour of vegetables
is entirely lost if inferior butter, or even too much of the best,
RULES FOR COOKING VEGETABLES 301
is used. Salt should be added with a very sparing- hand in
the kitchen, for, once in, it can never be got out of the vege-
table, and those who like more salt can please their taste
from the salt-cellars on the dinner table. When cheese is
used it generally contains sufficient salt for the vegetable,
without adding more. In these days of excellent Creameries
and Butter Dairies, and with the aid of the Parcel Post, any
family can be supplied with good butter at a reasonable
price. Good butter is so essential for good cookery, and
especially for vegetable cookery, that where expense has
to be considered it is better to economise in anything rather
than in butter. The sickening compound called Kitchen
Butter, but which is really adulterated fat, is, we hope, a thing
of the past. But, in vegetable cookery, even the best butter
must be most carefully used. Unless the vegetables are
actually fried in butter, the proper quantity of cold butter
should he stirred into the dish just before serving, so as
to avoid all danger of greasiness. Our native vegetables
should depend on their own natural flavour, escaping both
the drowning and soaking in water of English cooks, and the
lavish additions of butter and various flavourings of foreign
chefs.
Cold cooked vegetables should be set aside, as they may be
served again in various ways. Potatoes can he sliced as salad, or
mashed up with other vegetables as a puree. Any remains of
vegetables can be mixed with melted butter, dusted with
cheese, and baked ; or used as a puree with buttered eggs ;
or warmed up in the bain-marie, mixed with white sauce, and
served as a macedoine.
Several of the vegetables mentioned in these chapters are,
properly speaking, fruits, such as Chestnuts, Olives, Capsi-
cums, and even Aubergines, Marrows, Cucumbers, and Tomatoes.
But as recipes are given for cooking them as vegetables I have
thought it best to make no distinction.
302
POTATOES.
The Potato, the King of Vegetables, deserves a separate
section.
The Potato is capricious in its habits, and varies according
to the weather it has either enjoyed or suffered from. A crop
of the self-same Potato may be floury in one season, and waxy
and heavy in the next. The cook is often unjustly blamed for
the condition of the Potato, but no skill can change a waxy
Potato into a floury one. A wise cook will soon see if the
Potatoes sent in are floury or waxy, and will vary her method
of cooking accordingly. It cannot be too strongly impressed
upon the cook that Potatoes must he cooked in haste and eaten
at once. Very slow cooking, preceded by long soaking, and
followed by delay in serving, will spoil the finest Potatoes ever
sent to table. But, on the other hand, if Potatoes are cooked
“ at a gallop ” the outside will be a tasteless jelly and the
inside an uneatable stone.
Page 208
Presented as published in 1898. 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
Now, however, the valuable qualities of our excellent English Vegetables are again appreciated, and pains are taken to cook them as well as to grow them.
If butter is needed in cooking vegetables only “ the best butter ” should be used. The delicate flavour of vegetables is entirely lost if inferior butter, or even too much of the best,
is used. Salt should be added with a very sparing- hand in the kitchen, for, once in, it can never be got out of the vegetable, and those who like more salt can please their taste from the salt-cellars on the dinner table. When cheese is used it generally contains sufficient salt for the vegetable, without adding more. In these days of excellent Creameries and Butter Dairies, and with the aid of the Parcel Post, any family can be supplied with good butter at a reasonable price. Good butter is so essential for good cookery, and especially for vegetable cookery, that where expense has to be considered it is better to economise in anything rather than in butter. The sickening compound called Kitchen Butter, but which is really adulterated fat, is, we hope, a thing of the past. But, in vegetable cookery, even the best butter must be most carefully used. Unless the vegetables are actually fried in butter, the proper quantity of cold butter should he stirred into the dish just before serving, so as to avoid all danger of greasiness. Our native vegetables should depend on their own natural flavour, escaping both the drowning and soaking in water of English cooks, and the lavish additions of butter and various flavourings of foreign chefs.
Cold cooked vegetables should be set aside, as they may be served again in various ways. Potatoes can he sliced as salad, or mashed up with other vegetables as a puree. Any remains of vegetables can be mixed with melted butter, dusted with cheese, and baked ; or used as a puree with buttered eggs ; or warmed up in the bain-marie, mixed with white sauce, and served as a macedoine.
Several of the vegetables mentioned in these chapters are, properly speaking, fruits, such as Chestnuts, Olives, Capsicums, and even Aubergines, Marrows, Cucumbers, and Tomatoes. But as recipes are given for cooking them as vegetables I have thought it best to make no distinction.
The Potato, the King of Vegetables, deserves a separate section.
The Potato is capricious in its habits, and varies according to the weather it has either enjoyed or suffered from. A crop of the self-same Potato may be floury in one season, and waxy and heavy in the next. The cook is often unjustly blamed for the condition of the Potato, but no skill can change a waxy Potato into a floury one. A wise cook will soon see if the Potatoes sent in are floury or waxy, and will vary her method of cooking accordingly. It cannot be too strongly impressed upon the cook that Potatoes must he cooked in haste and eaten at once. Very slow cooking, preceded by long soaking, and followed by delay in serving, will spoil the finest Potatoes ever sent to table. But, on the other hand, if Potatoes are cooked “ at a gallop ” the outside will be a tasteless jelly and the inside an uneatable stone.