Cassell's dictionary of cookery

One almost universal principle in cooking vegetables is the addition of salt to the water in which they are boiled ; and another almost as universal is that they should be put into boiling and not cold water. The quantity of salt that should be added will generally be found to be in the proportion of a good brimming table-spoonful of salt to half a gallon of water. Now, the whole of the following vegetables should be cooked by placing them in boiling water, salted in the proportion named. Turnips, cauliflowers, carrots, cabbages, artichokes (French), asparagus, French beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, parsnips, new potatoes, green peas, and vegetable marrow. The whole of these will of course vary as to time, according to their size and age. Old potatoes should be placed in cold water, and medium-aged potatoes in lukewarm water ; the reason, of course, why old potatoes are placed in cold water being that otherwise, the root being hard, the outside part of a large potato would be apt to get pulpy before the inside got soft. In cooking Jerusalem artichokes it seems to be an open question whether they should be placed in hot water or cold ; they should PRINCIPLES VEGETABLES. liii however, be treated like potatoes — when young and small, boiling water ; when old, cold water. Spinach is, again, a vegetable about which there is much dispute ; some cooks maintaining that the less water used the better the spinach ; some going even so far as to steam the spinach, and use no water at all ; others boiling the spinach till it is tender in an ordinary quantity of water, and then draining it, and rinsing it in cold water before pounding it in a mortar. My own opinion is, that the latter method is the preferable one ; it has also the advantage of being recommended by the late Mr. Francatelli. We next come to consider the principle of obtaining a good colour. Of course, if the vegetables, such as peas, are old and stale, and of a bad colour to start with, there is no way of making them green by cooking. However, it will often be found that quite young and fresh green peas — and we take peas merely as the type of a class — will turn yellow in boiling. The chief points to be considered for the purpose of avoiding a bad colour are — first, see that the water is boiling before the vegetables are put in ; secondly, do not shut in the steam. Consequently, whenever it is possible, let green vegetables boil in an open saucepan. Of course, when you have a shut stove and a hot-plate this is very easy; when, however, it is an open fire, care must be taken that in placing the lid half open, so that the steam may escape, at the same time the smoke is not sucked into the saucepan. Smoky vegetables are extremely disagreeable. To obtain a good colour for carrots, they must be lightly scraped, and not peeled. Another important point in cooking the majority of vegetables is to have plenty of water.