370 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



country. That also requires neither sauce nor condiment of any sort to 

 make it palatable, for simply roasted it is a unique enjoyment. But 

 both the French " poularde " and the English first-class beef are expen- 

 sive, and therefore out of the reach of persons living on ordinary incomes. 

 A \ ast majority of people live on small incomes, and have to make a 

 virtue of necessity. They try to persuade themselves that imported 

 frozen meat is, after all, very nice. I have never found it so. The Italians 

 have their "agnello Pasquale," which would correspond to "sucking 

 lamb." That, too, requires no disguise ; it is one of the most delicious 

 meats, when simply roasted, that I have ever come across. 



Someone may perhaps ask, Is this a paper on the " cooking of vege- 

 tables " ? Yes ! and my object in writing the foregoing lines is to impress 

 upon the reader the necessity of devoting more attention to the art of 

 cookery, now that shiploads of comparatively inferior and flavourless 

 meats are imported. These meats may be nourishing enough, for all I 

 know ; but, besides the need of nourishment, the invitation to eat the 

 nourishing thing is very important, for to eat a thing with pleasure is a 

 great aid to digestion. I know that many people like these foreign meats ; 

 but I know also that many people like that abomination called "chicory " 

 mixed with their coffee, as if they drank coffee for the sake of its brown 

 colour, instead of for its aroma and its stimulating effect on the brain. 

 They have become so habituated to this particular adulteration that now 

 they think it very nice, and would rather have it in their coffee than not. 

 Indeed, they often get more chicory than coffee ! So it is w T ith these 

 flavourless foreign meats. The habit of pretending to like them makes 

 people end by really liking them. Mr. Peter Barr, in writing to the 

 ' Gardeners' Chronicle ' from South Africa, says : " The frozen meat 

 should be far superior to what is at present put on the table." He had a 

 piece of steak put before him that a knife could not cut, or his teeth 

 masticate, and had to give it up as a bad job. He adds that " if a man 

 wants to travel he must not be particular on the score of food, or he had 

 better stay at home," where he would not usually be better off, for either 

 beef or mutton ! 



After this preamble let me say something about the cooking of 



vegetables. 



In a former paper (published in this JouitNALof theR.H.S., Vol. xxii., 

 p. 55) I wrote something about the cooking of vegetables ; I shall therefore 

 not repeat the recipes therein included.* 



I do not think there are many vegetables which have a very distinct 

 flavour ; and the English mode of cooking them (by boiling) washes out 

 of them any little flavour they may have originally possessed. Cauli- 

 flowers, IVas, Asparagus, Globe Artichokes, and Jerusalem Artichokes 

 have each a distinct flavour, and would require little art to make them 

 [palatable ; but Brussels Sprouts, Turnips, Carrots, Vegetable Marrow, 

 Pumpkins, French Beans, Broad Beans, Knol Kohl, Cabbage, and Potatos 

 can all be much improved by certain modes of cooking, either with certain 

 lanoes, or with various meats or fish, besides certain condiments. 



Dr. BoilAvia'e previous article contained recipes for cooking Aubergines, Cabbage, 

 Cauliflower, Onions. Salsify, I'arsnips Vegetable Marrows, Gourds, Peas, Knol Kohl, 



Tomatos, and Potatos. 



