586 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



in which the vegetable is cooked, salt, and perhaps a little 

 pepper, is by far the simplest and by many considered the most 

 palatable way in which to serve them, and most certainly is 

 the method by which we develop to the greatest extent the 

 natural flavor of the vegetable. The fat used in this country 

 would be butter or oleomargarine. In Italy and the Medi- 

 terranean countries olive oil is much used for this purpose and 

 gives a most agreeable flavor to those who like it. Another 

 very common way of serving vegetables is by the addition of 

 cream sauce. This is very much overdone, and where the 

 same cream sauce is served over one or more vegetables it tends 

 to give them all the same flavor and hide the individual flavors 

 of the vegetables themselves. This can be in part obviated 

 by the use of liquor in which the vegetable is cooked in making 

 the cream sauce. 



An acid flavor improves certain vegetables, especially those 

 which contain large amounts of cellulose. This may be ob- 

 tained by the addition of small amounts of vinegar or lemon 

 juice to the butter sauce referred to above. This forms the 

 the so-called "maitre d'hotel" butter. 



Escalloping is a method which can be used in the original 

 preparation of vegetables or may be used as a means of reheating 

 and preparing for service left-over vegetables. By escalloping 

 we mean placing in a baking dish layers of the vegetable, alter- 

 nating with layers of cream sauce or some liquid. Over the 

 top we place a layer of buttered bread crumbs, which serve 

 the two purposes of keeping in the flavor and by their browning 

 developing the flavor which we specially like. Sometimes we 

 add to the cream sauce grated cheese and sprinkle over the 

 top grated cheese with or without bread crumbs. These are 

 known as the "au gratin" dishes. Some vegetables which 

 contain a large amount of starch are after the original cooking 

 put into the oven to brown the outside, for in this browning 

 starch is dextrinized and a certain amount of flavor is devel- 

 oped. Another way of bringing about this same result is by 

 reheating the vegetable in hot fat as in frying referred to above. 

 In this case the vegetable is coated on the outside with some 

 material such as egg, which prevents the absorption of fat. 

 A few vegetables such as eggplant may be sauted after having 

 been dipped in batter. 



Summarizing, we can state very briefly the principles 

 which should be observed in cooking vegetables whatever the 



