Puree of French Beans

Ingredients

• full-sized beans
• a tablespoonful of flour
• a bunch of parsley and chives
• a good piece of butter
• moisten them with broth

Method

1. 1

   String the beans and boil them in salted water for a quarter of an hour.

2. 2

   Strain and cool in cold water.

3. 3

   Drain again, then put butter, salt, pepper, and flour in a saucepan.

4. 4

   Add the beans and moisten with broth, adding parsley and chives.

5. 5

   Simmer, then rub through a sieve to make a puree, warm with butter, and serve.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The thorough good cook (1895) by George Augustus Sala, page 197. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

Puree of French Beans. Take full-sized beans, string them ; put tlieni into boiling water, with a little salt, for a quarter of an hour ; strain and throw them into cold water to preserve their colour ; drain them a second time ; put a good piece of butter into a saucepan, with salt, pepper, a tablespoonfnl of Hour ; add the beans, and moisten them with broth; put in a bunch of parsley and chives ; let them simmer, and rub them through a sieve to make a puree ; warm this Avith a little butter, and serve. 35. White Haricot Beans, Brittany Fashion (a la Bretonne). Take one quart of fresh-shelled beans, have also two quarts of boiling water, in which you have placed tAvo ounces of butter and a little salt ; put in your beans and boil them about half an hour or till tender, drain quite dry upon a sieve, then put them into another stew-pan with a quarter of a pound of butter and a little pepper and salt, " toss " them a few minutes over the fire, and when very hot turn them out upon your dish, and serve. 36. Beans a la Foulette. First boil the beans, and then put them into a stew-pan with some butter, parsley chopped, green onions, mvl a little savoury ; shake them over the lire, add a little flour, a lump of sugar, and a little stock. When done, put in the yolks of three eggs, beaten up with a little milk. 37. Baked Beans. Soak a quart of dried beans overnight in cold water : drain off the water in the morning, and stew them for half an hour 366 THE THOBOUGH GOOD COOK. in a little Avater; put them in a deep dish with one pound of salt pork ; cut the rind in stripes, and jilace in the centre of the dish. The pork should be sunk a little below the surface of the beans. Bake for three hours and a half A lump of saleratus should be thrown in while the beans are stewing, and a pint of water added when they are put into the baking-dish. 38, Parsnips with Beans. Take two large parsnips, scrapie them clean, and boil them in water. When tender take them up, scrape all the soft into a saucepan, add to them four teaspoonfuls of cream, a piece of butter the size of a hen's egg, chop them Avell in a saucepan, and when they are quite thick, heap them up in the middle of the dish, with a ragout of French beans all round. 39. Parsnip Fritters, Boil, peel, and grate to a pulp two parsnij^s ; beat it up with four yolks and two Avhites of eggs, two tablespoonfuls each of cream and white wine, with a little grated nutmeg. Beat the whole till the batter is very light, then fry it, and serve the fritters up with orange- or lemon-juice and sugar, or with melted butter, white wine, and sugar. 40. Carrot Pie. Grate half a pound of the best part of a raw carrot and double the quantity of bread ; mix eight beaten yolks of eggs and four of the whites with half a pint of new milk, and melt half a pound of fresh butter with half a VEGETABLES. 367 pint of white wine, three Large spoonfuls of orange-flower water, a o-rated nutnieof, and siio'ar. Stir it, and if too thick, add more milk. Lay a puff-paste over the dish, and bake it an hour. Serve it with grated sugar. This pie will be made more delicious by substituting Naples biscuits and cream for the bread and milk, and by adding a glass of ratafia to the orange-flower water. Some cooks boil the carrot, but thereby its saccharine virtue is lost. 41. Marrow Fie. Grate as much bread as will fill a large breakfast-cup cpiite full. Put it into a jug and pour nearly a quart of boiling sweet milk or thin cream over it, and let it SAvell and soak Avhile you shred half a pound of marrow or suet, and beat up four lars^e or six small esrsfs. Have two ounces of raisins stoned, and two ounces of currants plumped. Sweeten the pudding to taste, and season it with a very little grated nutmeg and a teaspoonful of cinnamon in powder. Cover a stoneware flat dish on the edge with stri])es of puff-paste, and mark neatly as leaves. Bake the pie in this dish, or plainly in a deep dish. 42. Pumpkin Fie. Take a rii:)e pumpkin, and chip off the rind or skin ; halve it, and take out the seed and puffy part in the centre, which throw awa}'. Cut the pumpkin into small, thin slices ; fill a pie-dish therewith ; add a teaspoonful of spice and a tablespoonful of sugar, Avith a small quantity of water. Cover with a nice light paste, and bake in the ordinary way. Pumpkin pie is greatly improved by being eaten with 368 THE TIIOBOUGH GOOD COOK. clotted cream and sugar. An equal quantity of apples Avill make it a still more delicious pie. 43. Puree of Pumpkin. Cut a pumpkin into pieces, and l)oil it in salt and water ; tlirow away the water, and pass the pumpkin through a colander ; put into the saucepan a piece of butter, with a tablespoonful of flour

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