Young, tender, well flavored vegetables should be
cooked and served in the simplest manner. Inferior
specimens, like tough asparagus or celery which has
lost its crispness, by boiling, straining, and flavoring
may be made into palatable soup when they would be
worthless under simple treatment.
Vegetable
Soups
92 ' PRINCIPLES OF COOKER?.
Vegetable soups are of two types; — for one, the
vegetables are cooked till tender, cut in convenient
bits and added to a meat stock. For the other, by long
cooking in water a single vegetable or several together
are made into stock, and all that is soft enough is
rubbed through a strainer and then put with about an
equal quantity, according to the strength of each, of
TOMATO JELLY WITH BEETS.
Preparation
and
Digestibility-
meat stock or thin white sauce. Thick, pulpy stock,
like that from peas, beans, or potatoes, needs a much
thinner sauce than would celery or asparagus. Un-
less some thickening of flour is used, the solider por-
tions will settle, leaving the soup watery on top.
In one of the publications of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture the difference in digestibility
of the same food cooked in various ways is thus stated :
Whole peas soaked and cooked, 60 per cent digested;
VEGETABLES.
93
peas cooked a long time and strained, 82.5 per cent ;
pea flour cooked with milk, butter and eggs, 92 per
cent. This would seem to prove that the portion of
vegetable food considered undigestible can be reduced
by right methods of cooking.
Mashing is a form of preparation suited to squash,
turnip, parsnip, and potatoes. A seasoning of cream,
Mashing
INDIVIDUAL APPLE AND CELERY SALAD.
or butter, and salt and pepper, is usually added. Frit-
ters and croquettes usually have mashed vegetables
as their foundation, or small bits are mixed with a
thick cream sauce.
The white sauce is a useful additon to vegetables
since it increases their nutritive value and modifies
strong flavors. Almost any cooked vegetables may
thus be "creamed" or "scalloped" by adding both the
sauce and buttered crumbs and baking. This is an ex-
cellent way to reheat something left from a previous
day.
Creamed
Vegetable*
94 PRINCIPLES OF COOKERY.
salads Salad is a term belonging especially to a class of
uncooked vegetables and in all cases implies a vegeta-
ble foundation though meats or fish may be added.
The dressing of oil and vinegar is likewise of vegeta-
ble origin.
Here is another of our attempts to bring together
the five food principles in a single compound. Water
and mineral matter, protein, fat, and carbohydrate are
usually blended in fairly balanced proportions. This is
especially true of salads containing eggs, fish, or meat
and eaten with bread.
GRAINS
Page 37
Presented as published in 1910. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
Young, tender, well flavored vegetables should be cooked and served in the simplest manner. Inferior specimens, like tough asparagus or celery which has lost its crispness, by boiling, straining, and flavoring may be made into palatable soup when they would be worthless under simple treatment.
Vegetable Soups
Vegetable soups are of two types; — for one, the vegetables are cooked till tender, cut in convenient bits and added to a meat stock. For the other, by long cooking in water a single vegetable or several together are made into stock, and all that is soft enough is rubbed through a strainer and then put with about an equal quantity, according to the strength of each, of
TOMATO JELLY WITH BEETS.
Preparation
and
Digestibility-
meat stock or thin white sauce. Thick, pulpy stock, like that from peas, beans, or potatoes, needs a much thinner sauce than would celery or asparagus. Unless some thickening of flour is used, the solider portions will settle, leaving the soup watery on top.
In one of the publications of the United States Department of Agriculture the difference in digestibility of the same food cooked in various ways is thus stated : Whole peas soaked and cooked, 60 per cent digested;
peas cooked a long time and strained, 82.5 per cent ; pea flour cooked with milk, butter and eggs, 92 per cent. This would seem to prove that the portion of vegetable food considered undigestible can be reduced by right methods of cooking.
Mashing is a form of preparation suited to squash, turnip, parsnip, and potatoes. A seasoning of cream,
Mashing
INDIVIDUAL APPLE AND CELERY SALAD.
or butter, and salt and pepper, is usually added. Fritters and croquettes usually have mashed vegetables as their foundation, or small bits are mixed with a thick cream sauce.
The white sauce is a useful additon to vegetables since it increases their nutritive value and modifies strong flavors. Almost any cooked vegetables may thus be "creamed" or "scalloped" by adding both the sauce and buttered crumbs and baking. This is an excellent way to reheat something left from a previous day.
Creamed Vegetables
salads Salad is a term belonging especially to a class of
uncooked vegetables and in all cases implies a vegetable foundation though meats or fish may be added. The dressing of oil and vinegar is likewise of vegetable origin.
Here is another of our attempts to bring together the five food principles in a single compound. Water and mineral matter, protein, fat, and carbohydrate are usually blended in fairly balanced proportions. This is especially true of salads containing eggs, fish, or meat and eaten with bread.
GRAINS