Boiled Spinach

Ingredients

• Spinach
• a little salt
• an ounce of butter
• a little pepper
• a small quantity of cream

Method

1. 1

   Wash the spinach in several waters, lifting it to leave grit behind.

2. 2

   Pack it into a saucepan with a little salt and boil quickly in its own juices until tender.

3. 3

   Press out excess water, chop small, and stir with butter, pepper, and salt over heat until hot.

4. 4

   For a superior method, squeeze dry, rub through a sieve, and stir with pepper, salt, butter, and cream.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The girl's own cookery book (1882) by Phillis Browne, page 49. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Spinach. — This is a very gritty vegetable. It needs to be washed in several waters, and should be lifted with 78 The Girl’s Own Cookery Book. both hands out of one pan of water into another in order to leave the grit behind. When clean take the leaves, one at a time, double them together, and tear away the stalk and fibre from the middle of each leaf. Celery. — Wash thoroughly, and cut away the root and the outer stalks. Peas and Windsor beans. — Shell these a short time before they are wanted. They will lose both colour and flavour if shelled long before being cooked. Dried vegetables, such as peas, haricot beans, and lentils, should be soaked over-night in cold water. Dis- coloured beans, or beans which float, should be thrown away. Vegetables after being prepared should be laid in cold water until they are to be boiled. It is, however, a mistake to leave them over long in water, as green vege- tables especially would deteriorate in quality if soaked. They should be well drained before being cooked. Green vegetables after being trimmed and cleansed should be put into plenty of fast-boiling salted water, without soda, and should be kept boiling quickly, the lid off the pan, till done. The only exceptions to this rule of quick boil- ing being green peas, beans, asparagus, cauliflower, and brocoli. The reason why the exceptions are made is that quick boiling might break the skins of the peas and beans, the heads of the asparagus, and the flower of the cauli- flower. Peas should not be put into salted water, a little sugar should be thrown into the water instead. Spinach is an exception to the general rule of boiling in plenty of water. This vegetable has so much water in its composition that it only needs to cook in as much water as hangs about it after washing. It should be packed into a large empty saucepan, a little salt should be sprinkled over it, and it should then be allowed to boil quickly in its own juices till tender. It will fall consider- ably in boiling, indeed we may calculate that when boiled it will occupy only one-tenth of the space which was needed for it before boiling. When tender the water should be pressed from it till it is as dry as possible. It may then be chopped small, put into a stewpan with an ounce of butter and a little pepper and salt, and stirred over the 79 How to Cook Vegetables. fire with a wooden spoon till hot. A superior method of ser\'ing it is to squeeze it in a cloth to free it from mois- ture, then rub it through a wire sieve and stir it over the fire with pepper, salt, butter, and a small quantity of cream

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.