Food and health

Thirty minutes. Asparagus, peas, potatoes of medium size, summer squash, tomatoes. Forty-five minutes. Young beets and carrots, onions, young parsnips, medium potatoes baked, sweet potatoes boiled. One hour. String and shelled beans, cauliflower, oyster plant ; winter squash, steamed or baked ; young turnips. Two hours. Old carrots, beets, and turnips. Six to eight hours {or more). Dried beans, lentils, and peas, baked in the oven, with water added. Stewed celery. (A green vegetable.) Stalks of celery, too tough or coarse for serving uncooked, are delicious when stewed. The process is simple. Wash, scrape, and cut the stalks crosswise. Place them in a stewpan, barely cover with hot water, adding a teaspoonful of salt to a pint of celery. Cook gently for half an hour or until the celery is tender. Use the liquid remaining in making a sauce, adding some milk to make the necessary amount of liquid. Three fourths of a cup of sauce is enough for a pint of celery. (See page 64.) Cabbage. The method given makes cabbage a delicious and attractive vegetable, as delicate as cauliflower; and the odor in the kitchen is not noticeable. Select a small cabbage, with the ribs in the leaves not too thick. Prepare the cabbage before washing it by cutting out the stalks from below with a sharp knife. Separate the leaves. Have ready the largest kettle available, nearly full of rapidly boiling water. Drop in one dabbage leaf at a time, pressing each one down with a long-handled spoon or skimmer. Do this so slowly that the water does not stop boiling. Leave the kettle uncovered, and allow the cabbage to cook from 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of the leaf stalks. Remove the leaves with a long-handled skimmer, putting them into a colander standing on a plate. Immediately pour the hot water down the sink drain, turn on the cold water to flush away the odor, and fill the kettle with cold water. While the cabbage is cooking, you have made a pint of butter sauce, adding a teaspoonful of salt, and have prepared 1 cup of buttered crumbs. Cut the cabbage leaves slightly, placing them in a baking dish ;' pour the sauce over them, sprinkle the crumbs on the top, and brown the crumbs in the oven. Courtesy of New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell University. Fig. 104. — Baked beans. The beans are thoroughly cooked, but firm and whole. Baked beans. (A nitrogenous vegetable and a meat substitute.) This dish, known in old days in New England, was baked to perfection in the old brick oven. Baked beans seem difiicult of digestion for some people. The mustard is supposed to be helpful, and adds something to the flavor. If the molasses is omitted, or but a small amount used, and if butter takes the place of pork or suet, the beans seem more digestible. In different parts of New England the dish is varied. Some people prefer rather dry baked beans ; others wish them moist and very sweet. What and how much, I quart of white beans I teaspoonful of soda i lb. salt pork or more, or 4 tablespoonfuls of beef fat or butter substitute Molasses, from two tablespoonfuls to \ cup, or none I teaspoonful of mustard Utensils. A kettle. A covered bean pot.