Cooking Recipes 
Vegetables gathered in the early morning when they are tender and full of juice and not full 
grown, properly cooked make most delicious dishes. 
In selecting vegetables for your table choose the freshest possible, selecting medium size and 
not overgrown, though small turnips and full grown, but not ripe egg plants are best. 
Vegetables that are not fresh can be refreshed by plunging them into cold salt water for an 
hour before cooking. Plunged vegetables should be washed before cooking. 
Old potatoes should be pared as thin as possible and thrown at once into very cold salt water 
for several hours, changing the water twice. Both Irish and Sweet potatoes, if frozen, should be baked 
without thawing. All vegetables should be washed thoroughly before cooking. Vegetables that form 
heads as Cabbage, Cauliflower, Brussels Sprouts, etc., should be soaked in very strong salt water 
heads down, for two or three hours. If there are any worms or bugs they will crawl out Celery’ 
greens and lettuce sometimes are best cleaned with warm water but must at once be thrown into cold 
water after cleaning. Cook greens and strong vegetables in boiling salt water. Salt seasons and 
helps to preserve color. Tubers, roots, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, green beans and peas, when re- 
moved from the pod should be boiled gently so as not to break the vegetable. Other vegetables 
should be boiled rapidly. Fresh vegetables cook in about one-third the time of old ones and in soft 
water in less time than in hard. During cooking, the cover should be removed or drawn to one side 
to permit the gases to escape. A piece of red pepper the size of a finger nail, a small piece of char- 
coal or even a small piece of bread crust dropped in boiling vegetables will help to modify unpleas- 
ant odors. The best seasonings for most vegetables arc salt and good butter. 
Recipes for cooking Soy Beans and Cow Peas, Pages 61 - 62 . 
ASPARAGUS 
Baked Asparagus.— Use the freshest Aspara- 
gus possible, wash and scrape. Cut into equal 
lengths, tie in bunches of ten to twelve stalks, 
depending on size. Stand in cold water about 
half hour. Boil in salt water with the blossom 
end standing up until tender, drain, cut into inch 
pieces and put into baking dish ; pour over white 
sauce, cover the top with grated cheese and 
bread crumbs, bake until light brown. 
Boiled Asparagus. — Prepare as for baked As- 
paragus. When boiled tender, lift bunches from 
water and drain, serve with butter or cream 
sauce. Can be served on toast with the same 
dressings. 
Asparagus Omelet. — Make a plain omelet and 
when eggs are firming, lay over one-half of it 
hot seasoned tops of Asparagus, and fold over 
the other half. 
Asparagus Soup. — Boil tips and stalks sepa- 
rately; when the stalks are soft, mash and rub 
them through a sieve. Boil a pint of rich milk, 
thicken it with a tablespoon each of butter and 
flour, and add the water in which the Asparagus 
was boiled and the pulp. Season with salt, pep- 
per, a very little sugar, and lastly a gill of cream, 
add the tips, boil all together a minute and serve 
with toast or crackers. 
BEANS 
All beans with the exception of I.imas are suit- 
able to use for soups. 
Butter or Lima Beans. — Shell from pods not 
too matured, place in cold water a short time, 
then cover with boiling salt water and cook from 
one to two hours. Serve with melted butter or 
cream sauce. All shelled kidney beans may be 
cooked like Lima beans. 
String Beans. — Place a piece of salt pork 
about four inches square in pint cold water, cook 
for an hour, then add three or four pints of 
beans that have been strung and broken in pieces 
and cook for three hours. Should the water boil 
out, add a little more boiling water, and one-half 
hour before serving put in a teaspoonful of salt. 
Use as little water as possible. 
Haricot Beans. — Soak a pint of beans over 
night, cook the next morning until perfectly soft, 
strain through a sieve and season with one tea- 
spoonful of salt and a saltspoonful of pepper. 
From this point this mass is capable of many 
treatments. It is made into a plain loaf sprinkled 
with bread crumbs, dotted with butter and baked, 
or it is mixed with cream sauce and treated the 
same way, or it is made into a plain croquet, 
dipped into batter and fried, or it is seasoned 
with a teaspoonful of molasses, vinegar and but- 
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