Anise can be roasted or boiled, but the Italians, with whom it's an enduring favorite, prefer it raw, and so do we. Artichokes. Pick out firm, compact heads of plump globe shape. When they're getting old, tough and tasteless the leaves turn brown- ish, wither, begin to loosen and stand out from the head. The bot- tom is the meatiest part, but there's a tasty little bite at the base of each leaf. In season, artichokes, most of which are shipped from California, are a good buy and make a nice change from the usual run of vegetables. They can be stuffed in all sorts of ways but we hke them best plain boiled and dipped leaf by leaf into a saucer of melted butter or olive oil with lemon juice or red wine vinegar, salt and plenty of fresh-ground pepper✪ Boiled Artichokes. Small, or baby artichokes are the last that grow and Italians preserve them. In 1936 the Mayor of New York City smashed a market racket which had forced up the cost of these tiny ones to even more than that of the big globes. Jerusalem Artichokes. These knobby little fellows are not at all like their big leafy brothers. How they ever came to be called "artichoke" we can't imagine, for Jerusalems are just the root of the old American sunflower, or girasol, which sounds like Jerusa- lem. They're cooked like potatoes, but are harder to pare on ac- count of their irregular shape. They must be smooth of skin, firm, even in color, and dry, for damp, flabby ones will be soggy and watery when cooked. Asparagus. As with wild strawberries, small wild asparagus is tastier than tame, but it's hard to come by commercially, so this serves only to illustrate the fact that you don't have to buy the biggest California stalks of asparagus; you'll get better value out of the small uneven-sized ones grown closer to home and sold by weight at half the big bunched rate. And this small green asparagus should be done pioneer style, cut up small and creamed in plenty of milk. Of the two colors of asparagus, green and blanched white, the green is by far the tastier, and the only good canned asparagus RABBIT FOOD I45 we know consists of the green tips only — although the obese whole white stalks cost more, because of the waste. The less there is of woody stalk, the better. The U. S. Depart- ment of Agriculture says ** green asparagus should be green for al- most its entire length" and adds that the blanched kind **is said to be somewhat milder in flavor." "Said to be" is right — it's of- ten so mild you can't even taste it! All asparagus must be fresh, with heads compact, and stalks un- wilted. Beans. Some marketers who know their onions don't know beans. But "snap" is the other name for "string" or fresh green beans, and that's all the clue we need. Whether green, yellow or wax, they've got to be as full of snap as a cranberry and as nearly string- less as possible. The way to test that is to break one in half — if it pops and exudes juice, buy it, but if it bends and is held together by too woody a string, leave it for Mrs. Astor's butler.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Anise can be roasted or boiled, but the Italians, with whom it's an enduring favorite, prefer it raw, and so do we. Artichokes. Pick out firm, compact heads of plump globe shape. When they're getting old, tough and tasteless the leaves turn brownish, wither, begin to loosen and stand out from the head. The bottom is the meatiest part, but there's a tasty little bite at the base of each leaf. In season, artichokes, most of which are shipped from California, are a good buy and make a nice change from the usual run of vegetables. They can be stuffed in all sorts of ways but we like them best plain boiled and dipped leaf by leaf into a saucer of melted butter or olive oil with lemon juice or red wine vinegar, salt and plenty of fresh-ground pepper. Small, or baby artichokes are the last that grow and Italians preserve them. In 1936 the Mayor of New York City smashed a market racket which had forced up the cost of these tiny ones to even more than that of the big globes. Jerusalem Artichokes. These knobby little fellows are not at all like their big leafy brothers. How they ever came to be called "artichoke" we can't imagine, for Jerusalems are just the root of the old American sunflower, or girasol, which sounds like Jerusalem. They're cooked like potatoes, but are harder to pare on account of their irregular shape. They must be smooth of skin, firm, even in color, and dry, for damp, flabby ones will be soggy and watery when cooked. Asparagus. As with wild strawberries, small wild asparagus is tastier than tame, but it's hard to come by commercially, so this serves only to illustrate the fact that you don't have to buy the biggest California stalks of asparagus; you'll get better value out of the small uneven-sized ones grown closer to home and sold by weight at half the big bunched rate. And this small green asparagus should be done pioneer style, cut up small and creamed in plenty of milk. Of the two colors of asparagus, green and blanched white, the green is by far the tastier, and the only good canned asparagus we know consists of the green tips only — although the obese whole white stalks cost more, because of the waste. The less there is of woody stalk, the better. The U. S. Department of Agriculture says "green asparagus should be green for almost its entire length" and adds that the blanched kind "is said to be somewhat milder in flavor." "Said to be" is right — it's often so mild you can't even taste it! All asparagus must be fresh, with heads compact, and stalks unwilted. Beans. Some marketers who know their onions don't know beans. But "snap" is the other name for "string" or fresh green beans, and that's all the clue we need. Whether green, yellow or wax, they've got to be as full of snap as a cranberry and as nearly stringless as possible. The way to test that is to break one in half — if it pops and exudes juice, buy it, but if it bends and is held together by too woody a string, leave it for Mrs. Astor's butler.

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