204 THE CAULIFLOWER. 



7. Stewed {Gardener''s Chronicle). — Cut up your 

 cauliflower into sprigs of convenient size to serve 

 with a tablespoon, and throw them into cold water 

 an hour before cooking. To stew them, have a 

 stout, iron stewpan, white-enamelled inside — an 

 ordinary tin saucepan or boiler will hardly do. Put 

 a large lump of butter into your stewpan as you 

 set it over a gentle fire; instead of butter you may 

 use the fat taken from the top of cold roast meat 

 gravy — that of beef or veal is preferable to that of 

 mutton. As the grease melts, stir into it an onion 

 cliopped very fine, and a little flour and water : con- 

 tinue stirring until the whole is nicely browned; 

 then put in your sprigged cauliflower, adding only 

 just enough water or broth to cook it; season lightly 

 with pepper and salt, and a very light dust of 

 grated nutmeg, if not disapproved; let it stew gently 

 till perfectly tender; when done the gravy should 

 be so reduced as to be no more in quantity than is 

 wanted to serve as sauce with the vegetable; for 

 this reason the salt must be used with great moder- 

 ation, otherwise, by concentration, the gravy would 

 be converted into brine; transfer the cauliflower 

 from the stewpan to a hot dish, and pour the 

 reduced gravy over it. 



Note that by this method nothing is lost. The 

 natui'al and nutritive juices of the vegetable, the 

 sugar and albumen, are retained instead of being 



