EXTENSION COURSE IN VEGETABLE FOODS. 55 
CHOOSING, SORTING, AND CLEANING VEGETABLES. 
Careful choosing, sorting, and cleaning should precede any process 
of cookery. 
Medium-sized vegetables are always to be preferred to the over- 
large. 
Plants grown slowly are liable to be tough and corky, while those 
having abundant moisture and sunlight are crisp, tender, and well 
flavored. 
The shorter the time and journey between garden and table the 
better for green plants. It is wiser not to gather vegetables while 
they feel the effects of the midday sun, but rather to pick them after 
the dew has evaporated in the morning, or, if that is not possible, in 
the cool of the late afternoon. 
Wilted vegetables can never be wholly satisfactory, but may be 
improved by careful washing and removal of inferior portions, and 
then soaking in cold water, or, in the case of salad plants, by wrapping 
in a damp cloth. 
The soaking of vegetables in cold water to freshen them probably 
extracts some of the valuable saline matter. When they are blanched 
in hot water or parboiled still more mineral matter is lost. If boiled 
in considerable water, of which no use is made, some of the soluble 
saline matter is wasted. This mineral matter is generally conceded 
to be valuable. It would be of great importance if the dietary were 
such that little was obtained from other sources, such as fresh fruits, 
salad plants, and other foods with a reasonably high ash content. It 
has already been indicated how the waste may sometimes be avoided 
by using the water for soup. 
Often it is convenient and wise to cook a double portion of a vege- 
table and serve part of it a second day in a different form. This 
should not be attempted in warm weather unless a refrigerator is 
available. Ordinarily a vegetable well salted while cooking and 
drained and cooled quickly will keep 24 or 48 hours in cool weather. 
A double quantity of potatoes may be cooked one day, part to serve 
as plain boiled or mashed to-day while the firmer ones are reserved to 
broil or grill in slices, fry, or cream the next day. When gas or oil is 
the fuel this is an economy as well as a convenience, for it would take 
30 minutes to boil fresh potatoes and only 10 minutes to reheat them. 
Most vegetables are lacking in fat, so it is added in some form 
while preparing them for the table or they are served with fat meats, 
etc. So far as the need of the human body goes it makes httle differ- 
ence whether this fat is in cheap or expensive form, whether the veg- 
etable is cooked with fat or dressed with cream or salad oil; one form 
may be more agreeable to some than another. 
