Culinary jottings

CABBAGE (chmx) must be carefully washed, tlicir dead and bruised leaves removed, and their stalks trimmed neatly. They must then be soaked in salt and water, (cold) to get rid of insects, caterpillars, Sac. When satisfied that they are fit to cook, plunge them into boiling water with a tea-spoonful of salt, and a bit of soda and lift them as soon as your test with the skewer assures you that they are done. Pressure is now necessary to get rid of the water, and when thoroughly drained, they can be sent up. Cabbages however are better done in the steamer, by which process they do not absorb so much water, so do not require such careful draining. The flavour of all green vegetables, indeed, is more successfully developed by this system of cookery than by boiling. The only objection that may be urged is that their colour is rarely so bright. This may be overcome by placing a bag with wood ashes enclosed in it in the water. Vegetables should be carefully prepared as if for boiling, some salt should be sprinkled over their leaves, and they should be placed, dry, in the perforated receptacle that fits into the top of the steamer. Water should then be poured into the lower vessel, filling it not more than half full. The steamer should then be placed over a brisk fire. After steaming has set in, the contents of the receptacle should be examined now and then, and tested exactly as boiled vegetables are. I can strongly recommend Warren's vegetable steamer made of block- tin for this process. There are numerous methods of dressing greens, — after boiling or steaming them, — which ought to attract favourable attention, and I can assure you that with a very little trouble you can turn out a most excellent series of dishes, which will well repay you, and raise the lowly cabbage to a much higher position in your estimation than it at present may occupy. Before I pass to the fanciful styles in which cabbages can be dressed, I ought however to call attention to a bad habit that the native cook often indulges in. I mean that of chopping up a plain boiled cabbage before serving it. Setting aside the ugly appearance that the dish presents when thus maltreated, the chopping is a wasteful practice. The cut-up "cabbage dries quickly, and will hardly be found worth dressing up a second time ; whereas, if served whole, the portion that may be left after dinner, will remain nice and juicy, and will make a rechauffe in the form of a "puree with potatoes and butter for breakfast ; or, tossed in butter in the frying-pan with finely-minced herbs, it will be acceptable with the chop or kidney. Let a plainly cooked head of cabbage, therefore, be sent up simply divided into quarters, with a pat of fresh butter on the top of each, melting from the heat of the greens. 1. Here is a form of stewed cabbage (chou au jus) that — if the head be nice and young — is worthy of being eaten alone : — Take a savoy or any good sort of cabbage, pick it carefully, and let it soak in salt and water for an hour ; if a large head, you must divide it into quarters, and even a small head had better be similarly treated. When