Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Vegetables, To Make Tender. — When pease, French beans, and similar vegetables are old, or when the water in which they are to be boiled is hard, a very small piece of soda may be thrown in with them, and this will serve to make them tender and of a good color. If too much soda is put in the taste of the vegetables will be entirely spoiled. Vegetables, Keeping of. — When it is necessary to keep vegetables for a day or two, spread them out on a cellar floor, or keep them in a perfectly dry, cool situation, but not exposed to currents of air. Be careful that each kind of vegetable is kept away from the other kinds, to prevent deterioration in flavor. Examine them daily to ascertain that they are not withering. Carrots, turnips, beets, parsnips, potatoes, and beans keep best in dry sand or earth in a cellar. The mould which hangs about them should be left upon them, and if any sprouts appear, they should be carefully removed. Cabbages, if spread out on earth in a cool cellar, will keep good for two or three months. Celery and leeks also may be kept for two or three months in a cellar, in boxes filled with earth. The stalk ends of asparagus and cucumbers, on the contrary, should be placed in about two inches of cold water. Store onions should be hung in a cool, dry place. Vegetables should not be washed or placed in water until a short time before they are to be used. Vegetables Preserved by Drying. —A convenient method of preparing desiccated vegetables, as practised largely in some countries, consists in drying them for a short time and then exposing them to a slow heat in ovens. When soaked for cooking, pease, roots, potatoes, beets, corn, and other vegetables swell out and show very little change in their esculent properties. A modification of this process consists in placing the vegetables, after being sun-dried, in paper bags, which are pasted . up at the mouth, and then covered with sand, and heated till perfectly crisp, but not burned or materially altered in color. Vegetable Essences, To Extract. — The flavor of various herbs may be extracted as follows : Pick the leaves, and put them in a warm place for an hour or two. Fill a large, widemouthed bottle with them, and pour upon them wine, brandy, spirits of wine, or vinegar. Let them soak for a fortnight. Strain the liquor, and put it into small bottles for use. Vegetable Cutters. — By means of these little instruments, which can be bought in any house-furnishing store, vegetables are cut into fanciful shapes, to tfie great improvement in appear- Vegetable Curry Artichokes ance of those dishes in which vegetables form an important feature.