76 THE BOOK OF VEGETABLES 



must now be done, and to about thirty firm middling- 

 sized heads you allow half a pound of salt. Mix the 

 salt lightly with the cabbage, covering the bottom of a 

 small oak barrel or cask with cabbage leaves, and pressing 

 the cut cabbage and salt jointly into the cask, either with 

 your hand, or, better still, a wooden pestle. When it is 

 quite full, place another layer of cabbage leaves on the 

 top, then a clean cloth, and after that the wooden cover, 

 with stones laid on it to make it heavier. Keep it in a 

 moderate temperature till it begins slightly to ferment, 

 and then put it in a cold cellar. If it appears not to be 

 juicy enough, boil salt and water together and pour it 

 over the cabbage. It is usual to strew carraway seeds 

 among the cabbage, and in many parts of Germany 

 sour apples or unripe grapes, which are said to be a 

 great improvement. It is usually made in October, and 

 is ready to eat in February." 



To dress Sauerkraut, it must be lightly pressed, and, if 

 very sour, washed. It should then be placed in a well- 

 tinned saucepan with as much water as will cover it, an 

 onion and a piece of lard or goose fat, and boiled slowly 

 for from three to four hours. Mix a little flour and butter 

 together, stir it up with the cabbage, take out the onion, 

 pour a glass of wine over it, and let it stew slowly a 

 little while longer. Some people add sugar and apples 

 to it. The great art in cooking it is that it should not 

 be greasy, and be neither too dry nor too liquid. 



Spinach 



Spinach seems to have been known, as a kitchen 

 vegetable in the fourteenth century, though it does not 

 appear to have been grown in English gardens before 

 the sixteenth. It soon won high favour and Gerard 

 said that " of all pot-herbs it maketh the greatest 

 diversitie of meats and salads." Parkinson said that 



