Missouri Home Maker's Conference. 583 



taste. The use to which such a classification is put is that, in 

 the case of the strong-flavored vegetables we are advised to 

 get rid of the excessive flavor by pouring off the water in which 

 the vegetable is cooked. This is the reason for the directions 

 given so frequently in vegetable cooking to parboil and discard 

 the water. Whenever this is done we can see the result will be 

 loss in flavor and food value. By taking advantage of the fact 

 that this flavor is volatile and cooking the vegetable with the 

 cover off a large amount of flavor may be gotten rid of without 

 any loss of food value. 



But what will we do with the liquor in which vegetables 

 have been cooked when it is present in large amount? If the 

 vegetable has enough flavor left in to be used without it this 

 liquor may be saved and used as a French woman does in making 

 the soups for which she is so famous. By far the most rational 

 way to use it and the way which is most likely to increase the 

 palatability and consequently the use of our vegetable foods, 

 is by concentrating and combining it with whatever sauce is 

 served over the vegetable itself. In this way we help to de- 

 velop the individual flavors of the different vegetables while 

 at the same time we are preserving the food value. 



Now let's look at the other methods used in the cooking 

 of vegetables from the same point of view. We may steam 

 them, in which case we are supplying moist heat just as we were 

 in boiling, only here, instead of surrounding the vegetables with 

 water at boiling temperature, we use stearn. Steam is not so 

 good a conductor of heat as water, as a consequence the time 

 required is much longer than in the case of boiling. In steam- 

 ing some of the volatile flavors are lost, but they do not seem 

 to escape to the same extent as they do in boiling in an un- 

 covered vessel. At the same time, since the vegetable is not 

 surrounded by liquid, all of the soluble materials are retained 

 or the amount which is cooked out is so small that it can be 

 very easily served with the vegetable itself. Those vegetables 

 which are exceedingly compact can be steamed to better ad- 

 vantage if finely divided. Some, of course, contain so much 

 cellulose that it is almost impossible to soften them at all by 

 steaming. The chief advantages are they need not be watched, 

 and when several things are being cooked at one time there is 

 an economy of fuel. 



Baking as a method of cooking vegetables is limited in its 

 use. Any vegetable to be baked successfully must fulfill two 



