COOKING CAULIFLOWEK. 199 



" To have any of the Brassicse in proper flavor 

 we must go to the German housewives and learn of 

 them to cook cabbage, cauliflower, etc., in earthen- 

 ware instead of metal. The German potters make 

 stout boilers, like huge bean-pots, that hold six or 

 eight cabbages, for restaurant cooking, and they 

 are quite a different vegetable treated in this way. 

 Try the experiment; put a cabbage in a stone jar 

 with plenty of water, cover tight and boil till tender. 

 I think it does not take as long to cook in this way 

 as in ordinary kettles, the steady mild heat soften- 

 ing the tissues more steadily than the open boiling. 

 And there is little or no smell to cabbage or onions 

 cooked in a close stone pot in the oven. A cabbage 

 baked in its own steam in such a pot and served 

 with hot vinegar and butter is a high -flavored 

 dish." 



A writer in the Rural New Yorker sums up the 

 prime requirements in cooking cauliflower as fol- 

 lows: 



" Four rules never to be deviated from may be 

 laid down : first, that the cauliflower is to be soaked 

 in salt and water for at least a half . hour before 

 cooking, in order to drive out any insects or worms 

 that may be lurking among the flowerets; second, 

 (if to be boiled) when ready for cooking the vege- 

 table is to be plunged into salted, thoroughly boil- 

 ing water; third, it is not to be cooked a moment 



