EXTENSION COURSE IN VEGETABLE FOODS. 17 
finely divided leaves may be cooked like spinach, while the stalks 
may be cooked and served with white sauce like celery. 
American housewives seldom realize that lettuce makes excellent 
“greens.” This, as mentioned before, suggests a good way to use 
the tougher or outer leaves of the lettuce bought for salad and the 
surplus crop of the home garden. As is the case with all potherbs, 
lettuce should not be overcooked. The use of celery tops as greens, 
alone or mixed with lettuce, was introduced in the lesson on salad 
plants. 
The cabbage tribe supplies many vegetables and is said to contain 
no harmful members. They have long been used to prevent scurvy. 
This group of plants now includes the white, red or purple, and Savoy 
cabbages, coleworts, Brussels sprouts, borecole or Scotch kale, cauli- 
flower, broccoli, and others. To them the kohl-rabi is closely akin. 
The swollen stem which looks like a turnip growing aboveground is 
the part commonly eaten, though the leaves make excellent greens. 
The cauliflower is usually considered the most delicate of the cabbage 
tribe (see also Lesson VII); broccoli is similar in form but hardly 
equal in quality. 
Collards or coleworts are similar to cabbage, but their leaves grow 
long and loose, instead of in a compact head. They grow where the 
climate is too warm for cabbages to head well. 
Kale consists of curly, open leaves not forming a compact head. 
The dwarf green curled kale is thought by many to be the best for the 
table. It is cooked like cabbage. A very little soda (not more than 
a small saltspoonful) for each quart of kale added to the water in 
which it is cooked will preserve the green color and not injure the 
flavor. The blanched shoots of sea kale are prepared like asparagus 
and the flower heads are also used. The sprouts from cabbage stalks 
left in the ground over winter may be used in the same way. Like all 
green vegetables, kale, cabbage, etc., must not be overcooked, if they 
are to be delicate, wholesome, and at their best. 
When cabbage and related vegetables are cooked an unpleasant 
odor and flavor is developed. This is prevented in large measure 
by cooking uncovered and in an abundance of water. It is also 
important that such vegetables shall not be cooked too long. Once 
it was considered necessary to cook cabbage several hours, but a 
young cabbage may be made perfectly tender in 20 minutes and an 
older one will not take twice as long. There is good reason to believe 
that overcooked cabbage is a cause of digestive disturbance, while 
rightly cooked it is not. If the white portion of cabbage or cauli- 
flower begins to grow darker in color in cooking, it is a sign that 
it has been cooked too long. 
16889°—Bull. 128—16——2 
