OCTOBER 185 



pound of Apples to every pound of Quince pulp, and 

 three-quarters of a pound of sugar to every pound of 

 fruit. Boil for three hours. 



We find the ripe Beans of the Scarlet Eunners very 

 good if well boiled, and then served with a little of the 

 water and a good bit of fresh butter stirred in just 

 before dishing up. Many years ago Mr. Bright, in the 

 * Lancashire Garden/ wrote : ' One excellent vegetable I 

 have generally grown I would recommend to anyone 

 who has space to spare the French White Haricot. It 

 is not often seen with us, though it is so very common in 

 France. It is a species of French Bean, of which you 

 eat the white bean itself instead of slicing up the pod. I 

 suspect that, taking England through, there are very few 

 gardens where the White Haricot is found.' This was 

 true nearly twenty years ago, but the astonishing thing 

 is that it is true still. It is wonderful how rarely the 

 Haricot blanc is to be seen at English tables. Is this 

 the fault of the gardener or the cook ? I suspect both. 

 It is very disheartening to grow vegetables the cook does 

 not know how to use. English housekeepers, so extrava- 

 gant about many things, are often curiously economical 

 on the subject of butter. To use that horrid, fatty, adul- 

 terated stuff called 'kitchen butter' with vegetables is 

 fatal ; it must be good fresh butter. There are only 

 two economies that generally rather wasteful people try 

 to practise one is in coals, and the other is in butter. 

 Neither makes much difference in the year, and many 

 other things could be so well done without. Compared 

 to the expense of wine and meat, they are really nothing 

 at all. Vegetables should not be cooked in butter except 

 when really fried ; they should be boiled, and drained, and 

 warmed up, and cold butter stirred in just before serving. 

 Vegetables should not look or taste greasy, or rice either. 



In the autumn those who keep fowls always have- 



