588 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The latest aim in cooking vegetables is to cook them so as to pre- 

 serve certain nutriments which have hitherto been wasted. It is 

 claimed that by the old methods the soluble salts contained in green 

 vegetables are lost in boiling; and the only way to prevent this is to 

 utilize the liquid in which the vegetables are cooked. The waste is in 

 the saline constituents. 



I have been told that the ancient inhabitants of India used to cook i 

 most of their food in vegetable-juice, because they thought so much 

 of the nourishment found in the liquid. This method — to some extent 

 at any rate — is sound in theory, and there is no doubt that a good 

 deal of nutriment is wasted in the cooking of all kinds of foods for | 

 want of better knowledge. The chief aim in the newest methods of 

 vegetable cookery is that not only the salts, but also the organic 

 matter, much of which is lost by the older methods, should be as much 

 as possible preserved. 



The most common methods of cooking vegetables are boiling, | 

 steaming, stewing, frying, baking, and braising. With but few excep- 

 tions all green vegetables should be cooked in boiling water, which 

 must be kept boiling all the time to preserve the colour. They must 

 be thoroughly drained when cooked and then dished up. It is of course 

 essential that the vegetables to be cooked should be properly washed and 

 cleansed, and whenever possible they should be cooked on the same day. 

 Long soaking in water is not to be recommended. Strongly flavoured 

 vegetables, such as cabbages, should be cooked in plenty of water. 

 The late M. Alexis Soyer strongly advised that all green vegetables 

 should not be boiled in hard water, which, he says, shrivels them up, ; 

 and in it they take much longer to cook than in soft water. 



From a health point of view vegetables in some form or another 

 should constitute an important item in every day's dietary. 



Boiled Vegetables. — The principal rule for successful vegetable cook- 

 ing is absolute cleanliness. Next to cleansing and preparing for boiling, 

 the addition of sufficient salt to season the water, which must be 

 boiling sharply and enough in quantity to well cover the vegetables. It 

 is not advisable to soak cleansed and prepared vegetables for any long 

 period in cold water prior to cooking, for this immersion causes some of 

 the salts to be lost. Cabbage, turnip-tops, Scotch kale, broccoli, 

 Brussels sprouts, and other green vegetables, French beans, scarlet 

 runners, green peas, cauliflower, carrots, turnips, parsnips and vege- 

 table marrow are among the most popular vegetables which should be 

 cooked in boiling and salted water. 



Special attention must at all times be paid to the cleansing, picking 

 or peeling, and washing of all vegetables to be boiled; it is well 

 to soak the prepared vegetables for about an hour in cold salted water 

 to free them from impurities. Certain green vegetables require to be 

 washed and rinsed in several waters — especially spinach, sorrel, 

 sprouts, and greens — to ensure that they are free from grit. 



There are two methods of boiling spinach. One is to cook the 

 spinach in a saucepan with a quantity of water; when done, drain it 

 and rinse it in cold water, then drain again and chop it finely or rub it 



