FOOD AND FEEDING. 391 



eaten with salt and pepper. It will be greatly improved at small cost 

 by the addition of a bit of butter, or of melted butter with parsley, 

 or if an onion or two have been sliced and stewed with the haricots. 

 A better dish still may be made by putting all, or part, after boiling, 

 into a shallow frying-pan and lightly frying for a few minutes with a 

 little lard and some sliced onions. With a few slices of bacon added, 

 a comparatively luxurious and highly nutritive meal may be made. 

 But there is still in the saucepan, after boiling, a residue of value, 

 which the French peasant's wife, who turns everything to account, 

 utilizes in a manner quite incomprehensible to the Englishwoman. 

 The water in which dried haricots have stewed, and also that in 

 which green French beans have been boiled, contain a proportion of 

 nutritious matter. The Frenchwoman always preserves this liquor 

 carefully, cuts and fries some onions, adds these and some thick slices 

 of bread, a little salt and pepper with a pot-herb or two from the 

 corner of the garden, and thus serves hot an agreeable and useful 

 croUte au pot. It ought to be added that the haricots so largely 

 used by the working classes throughout Europe are not precisely 

 either " red " or " white," but some cheaper local varieties, known as 

 haricots du pays. These, I am assured on good authority, could be 

 supplied here at about twopence a pound, their quality as food being 

 not inferior to other kinds. 



But haricots let them be the fine white Soissons are good enough 

 to be welcome at any table. A roast leg or shoulder of mutton should 

 be garnished by a pint boiled as just directed, lying in the gravy of the 

 dish ; and some persons think that, with a good supply of the meat 

 gravy, and a little salt and pepper, " the haricots are by no means the 

 worst part of the mutton." Then with a smooth puree of mild onions, 

 which have been previously sliced, fried brown, and stewed, served 

 freely as sauce, our leg of mutton and haricots become the gigot d la 

 bretonne well known to all lovers of wholesome and savory cookery. 

 Next, white haricots stewed until soft, made into a rather thick pur'ee, 

 delicately flavored by adding a small portion of white puree of onions 

 (not browned by frying as in the preceding sauce), produce an admi- 

 rable garnish for the center of a dish of small cutlets, or an entree of 

 fowl, etc. Again, the same haricot puree blended with a veal stock, 

 well flavored with fresh vegetables, furnishes an admirable and nutri- 

 tious white soup. The red haricots in like manner with a beef stock 

 make a superlative brown soup, which, with the addition of portions 

 of game, especially of hare, forms, for those who do not despise econ- 

 omy in cuisine where the result attained is excellent, a soup which in 

 texture and in flavor would by many persons not be distinguishable 

 from a common puree of game itself. Stewed haricots also furnish, 

 when cold, an admirable salad, improved by adding slices of tomato, 

 etc., the oil supplying the one element in which the bean is deficient ; 

 and a perfectly nutritious food is produced for those who can digest it 



