Cookery for beginners

Cook in boiling water an hour and a half if young, three, four or five hours as their age increases. Drain, scrape off the skins, slice quickly with a sharp, knife; put into a vegetable dish, and pour over them a half a cupful of vinegar, with two tablespoonfuls of butter, heated to boiling, and a little salt and pepper. Let them stand three minutes covered in a warm place before serving. Green Peas. Shell and leave in very cold water fifteen minutes. Cook in plenty of boiling, salted water. They should be done in half an hour. Shake gently in a hot colander to get rid of the water; turn into a heated deep dish, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and stir in fast and lightly with a fork, two tablespoonfuls of butter. Eat while hot. String Beans. Do not cook these at all unless you are willing to take the trouble of "stringing" them. With a small sharp knife cut o£E the stem and blossom-tips, then trim away the tough fibres from the sides carefully, and cut each bean into inch-lengths. Lay in cold water for half an hour. Cook one hour in salted boiling water, or until the beans are tender. Drain, butter and season as you would peas. String beans half-trimmed and cut into slovenly, unequal lengths are a vulgar-looking, unpopular dish. Prepared as I have directed, they are comely, palatable and wholesome. Squash. Pare, quarter, take out the seeds, and lay in cold water for half an hour. Boil in hot salted water thirty minutes for summer squash ; twice as long if the " Hubbard " or other varieties of winter squash are used. Take up piece by piece, and squeeze gently in a clean cloth, put back into the empty dried pot, and mash quickly and smoothly with a wooden spoon. Stir in a heaping tablespoonful of butter for one large squash, or two small ones. Season with pepper and salt ; heat and stir until smoking hot, then dish and serve. Cauliflower. Trim off leaves and cut the stalk short. Lay in ice-cold water for half an hour. Tie it up in a bit of white netting. Put into a clean pot, cover deep with salted boiling water. Boil steadily, not hard, one hour and ten minutes. Before taking it from the fire, put a cupful of boiling water in a sauce-pan. Wet a heaping teaspoonful of corn-starch with cold water, and stir into the boiling until it thickens. Then add two tablespoonfuls of butter, and when this is well stirred in, the strained juice of a lemon. Remove the net from the cauliflower, lay in a deep dish, and pour over it the drawn butter made by the addition of the lemon juice into sauce tartare. Egg Plant Slice it crosswise, and about an inch thick; lay in strong salt water for one hour with a plate on the topmost slice to keep it under the brine. This will draw out the bitter taste. Put a cupful of pounded crackers into a flat dish and season with salt and pepper. Beat the yolks of two eggs in a shallow bowl. Wipe each slice of the egg plant dry^ dip it in the egg, and roll it over and over in the crumbs. Have ready heated in a fryingpan, some sweet lard, and fry the vegetables in it to a fine brown. As each slice is done, lay it in a hot colander set in the open oven, that every drop of grease may be dried off. Serve on a hot platter. Spinach. Wash very carefully, leaf by leaf, to get rid of sand and dust. Lay in very cold water until you are ready to cook it. Boil forty-five minutes; drain in a colander and chop fine in a wooden tray. Beat then three great tablespoonfuls of butter (this for a peck of spinach), a teaspoonful of white sugar, and half as much salt, with a little pepper. Whip all to a soft green mass and return to the empty pot. As you stir it over the fire add a cupful of rich milk — cream, if you have it — whip up hard and turn into a deep dish.