THE COOKING OF VEGETABLES. 
61 
Parsnips .—Choice varieties of parsnips are the only kinds 
worth eating. The ordinary way is to boil them like carrots. 
But when boiled and sliced and fried in good French batter, they 
make excellent fritters. Of course, in all this sort of cookery, 
practice is needed, in order to make a choice dish. 
Vegetable Marrow .—The great fault I find in the way 
vegetable marrows are used in England is this :—They are 
allowed to remain too long on the plant before plucking. The 
consequence is that they are full of seeds and flavourless. If 
plucked of the size of a lemon, they are much nicer, whatever 
way they may be cooked in. The plant will go on producing 
others of the same size, so there is no waste. There are several 
ways of cooking these nice little marrows. 
(a) Slice them crossways, each slice of the thickness of two 
half-crowns, and fry them in lard, to be eaten with salt as an 
addition to meat or fowl. 
( b ) Cut them in halves lengthways, scoop out the interior 
carefully, and stuff them with minced meat, flavoured with 
minced spring onions, parsley, pepper and salt, bound with a 
whipped egg; cover with breadcrumbs, and bake until the surface 
is browned. This “ courge farcie ” can be varied by making the 
stuffing of fish, flavoured with onions, thyme, &c., but preferably 
with tinned sardines. 
(c) Cut up the marrows into inch cubes ; place them in a 
pot with some finely sliced onions, some sliced green or red 
chillies, and a lump of butter and some salt, and stew them on a 
slow fire ivithout any water. They will stew nicely “ in their 
own juice,” and make a capital hot vegetable dish. 
Mammoth gourd or Potiron .—This fine vegetable is scarcely 
ever seen in England. All the same, it is one of the finest 
vegetables, of a sweetish taste when cooked. Some varieties grow 
to such a size when ripe as to be a load for a man. This gourd 
will keep for a long time in a dry place, and pieces of it can be 
used as required. There are different varieties of it, some of a 
yellow and others of a reddish colour when cut. The seeds 
should be shaved off for cooking purposes, and the thick and hard 
rind cut away. When cut up into 1^ inch cubes, steamed to 
tenderness and pressed through a sieve, it makes a capital gourd 
soup, like pea-soup or tomato soup, or Jerusalem artichoke soup. 
But the best way of cooking this interesting vegetable is the 
