CHAPTER V

VEGETABLES

ALL green vegetables should be washed in cold water and cooked in boiling water. Salt may be added first or last according to preference. Allow one tablespoon salt to each quart of water.

The time required for cooking depends upon the age and freshness of the vegetables.

Time Table for boiling Vegetables

Artichokes 45 to 60 minutes Asparagus, young 15 to 20 minutes Asparagus, old 30 to 50 minutes Beans, fresh 1 to 2 hours Beans, dried 2 to 4 hours Beets, young 60 minutes Beets, old 3 to 5 hours Brussels sprouts 15 to 20 minutes Cabbage, young 30 minutes Cabbage, old 2 to 3 hours Carrots, young 30 minutes Carrots, old 1 to 2 hours Cauliflower 30 to 60 minutes Corn 5 to 20 minutes Dandelions 2 to 3 hours Onions 60 to 90 minutes Parsnips 1 to 2 hours Peas 20 to 40 minutes Potatoes 30 minutes Salsify 30 to 60 minutes Squash, summer 20 to 60 minutes Squash, winter 60 to 90 minutes Spinach and other greens 20 to 60 minutes Sweet potatoes 30 to 60 minutes Turnips 40 to 60 minutes

Globe Artichokes

Soak in cold water. Remove lower leaves and cut ends of others. Cook in boiling salted water forty-five minutes or until the leaves pull out. Drain. Serve with Béchamel or Hollandaise Sauce or with Drawn Butter.

Scalloped Globe Artichokes

2 cups chopped artichokes 2 cups White Sauce 1 cup buttered crumbs

Arrange in a scallop dish and bake until crumbs are brown.

Jerusalem Artichokes

Wash and scrub. Cook in boiling salted water. Serve with melted butter or White Sauce. They may be marinated with French Dressing and served cold.

Asparagus

Wash stalks, snap off all white tough part. Tie in bunch. Cook in deep kettle of boiling salted water. Stand bunch upright for the first ten minutes. Cook twenty to thirty minutes. Drain. Serve on buttered toast, spread with butter, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. White Sauce or Hollandaise may be served.

The asparagus may be broken in inch pieces, cooked until tender, mixed with White Sauce, and served on toast.

Shelled Beans

Cook in boiling water until tender. Add salt after the first hour. Time of cooking depends upon age of beans. Drain. Serve with butter or cream or White Sauce. Lima, kidney, or agricultural beans may be cooked in this way.

String Beans

Remove all strings. Cut in inch pieces. Wash, cook in boiling water fifteen minutes. Add salt and cook until tender. Drain, add butter, salt and pepper. A piece of salt pork cooked with beans is considered by many an improvement.

Brussels Sprouts and Cabbage

Remove outside leaves and soak in cold water for half an hour. Drain. Cook in boiling salted water until tender, changing the water at least once during cooking. Serve Brussels sprouts whole with butter and salt or with White Sauce. Chop the cabbage when cooked, season with salt, pepper and butter, reheat and serve, or mix one cup cabbage with one cup White Sauce, cover with buttered crumbs and bake until brown.

Kohl Slaw

Shred cabbage finely. Soak in acidulated water. Drain, and cover with Cream Dressing. Serve very cold.

Beets

Scrub beets, but do not break skin. Cook in boiling water—young beets about an hour, old beets until tender. Slip skins off as soon as taken from stove. Serve hot with butter, salt and pepper. Serve cold beets for garnishing Potato Salad.

Carrots

Wash, scrub, and scrape. Cook in boiling salted water. Drain, cut in slices, and serve with White Sauce; or they may be cut lengthwise and sautéd in butter.

Cauliflower

Cut stalk close to flower, remove green leaves and soak in cold salted water one hour. Cook in cheese cloth bag thirty to forty minutes. Remove from bag and serve with Hollandaise or White Sauce, or scalloped with White Sauce and crumbs.

Celery

Celery is usually eaten raw as a relish. Or it may be scraped, cut in inch pieces, cooked until tender, and served in a White Sauce, or drained and fried in deep fat. It may also be scalloped with chopped red pepper, White Sauce and crumbs.

Cucumbers

Generally served sliced thinly and eaten raw. But if too old to serve in this way, they may be pared, cut in quarters, boiled, drained, mashed, and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Or they may be cut in quarters, dipped in batter, and fried in deep fat.

Corn

Remove husks and silk. Cook in a small amount of water from five to twenty minutes. Cover while cooking with the inside green husks. Serve on the cob; or cut from the cob and serve with salt, pepper and butter.

Corn may be made into fritters (see receipt) or mixed with beans for succotash. Also served as pudding mixed with eggs and milk.

Greens

Beet tops, dandelions, spinach, Swiss chard, young cabbage sprouts, cowslips, may all be prepared in the same way. Wash in many waters until all grit and sand are removed. Cook in boiling salted water until tender. Drain, chop, and serve with butter and salt. Lettuce may also be cooked and served in this way. Garnish greens with hard-cooked eggs.

Egg Plant

Cut in slices one half inch thick. Remove skin, sprinkle with salt, pile slices one on another, cover with plate and weight, let stand over night. Drain, wash in cold water. Dry, dip in crumbs, egg and crumbs, or in batter, and fry in deep fat.

Lentils

Soak over night and cook in boiling water until tender. Mash, season with salt, pepper and butter, and serve; or make in balls and sauté in butter.

Okra

Wash, cut off ends of pods, cover with boiling salted water, and cook until tender. Season with butter, salt and pepper. Okra is more often stewed or scalloped with tomato than served plain.

Onions

Peel, cover with boiling salted water. Change water every ten minutes until tender. Drain, and add milk to cover. Reheat, season with butter, salt and pepper; or serve with White Sauce; or scallop with White Sauce and crumbs; or stuff. When boiled, remove hearts, and fill the space with finely chopped peppers. Surround with White Sauce. Bake, and baste with butter.

Salsify, or Oyster Plant

Scrape, wash, and cook until tender. Drain, mash, season, and sauté in butter; or cut in inch lengths, dip in Fritter Batter, and fry in deep fat.

Parsnips

Wash, scrape, and cook in boiling salted water until tender. Cut in halves, spread with salt and butter, and serve hot; or mash, season, and sauté in butter.

Stuffed Peppers

See receipts under head of Vegetable Entrées.

Boiled Macaroni

Break in inch pieces and wash. Cook in boiling salted water until tender. Drain, season with salt, pepper and butter, and serve hot.

Macaroni with Sauce

Prepare as for Boiled Macaroni. Drain, and reheat in Cream Sauce, Tomato Sauce, or Béchamel Sauce.

Baked Macaroni

Prepare boiled macaroni. Drain, arrange in layers in a buttered baking dish with White Sauce and cheese. Cover with buttered crumbs, and bake until crumbs are brown.

Macaroni Baked with Tomatoes

Arrange layers of cooked macaroni, stewed and seasoned tomato, and chopped green pepper. Dot each layer with butter. Cover all with buttered cracker crumbs. Bake in hot oven.

Boiled Rice

Wash one cup rice and drain. Fill a four-quart saucepan one half full of boiling salted water. Place on hottest part of range. When boiling rapidly, sprinkle in the rice slowly, not to stop the boiling. Cook until tender, adding more water if needed. Drain in a colander, and place in the open oven to dry.

Rice cooked in this way will have every grain separate.

Summer Squash

Wash and cut in quarters. Cook in boiling salted water until tender. Drain in cheese cloth. Add butter, salt and pepper. Reheat and serve.

Winter Squash

Cut squash, remove seeds, and steam or boil until soft. Remove squash from shell. Add butter, salt and pepper. Reheat and serve.

Baked Squash

Cut in pieces for serving. Remove seeds and stringy portion, brush with molasses, season with salt and pepper. Bake until soft, add butter, and serve in shell.

Broiled Tomatoes

Cut tomatoes in halves. Sprinkle each half with salt, pepper and fine bread crumbs, and broil five minutes. Slip on to hot platter, dot with butter, place in the oven for five minutes. Serve hot.

Fried Tomatoes

Cut tomatoes in quarters lengthwise; season with salt and pepper, dip in batter, and fry in deep fat.

Sautéd Tomatoes

Slice tomatoes; season with salt and pepper. Dip in crumbs, egg and crumbs, and sauté in hot frying pan. Serve on hot buttered toast.

Scalloped Tomatoes

Arrange in layers canned tomatoes and bread cut in cubes, sprinkle each layer with salt and pepper, dot with butter. Bake one half hour. For variety rub dish with onion before putting in tomato.

Stuffed Tomato

Cut a thin slice from smooth end of tomatoes. Scoop out pulp, mix with an equal quantity of cold cooked rice, macaroni, or bread crumbs. Add salt, pepper, butter and a few drops of onion juice. Refill tomato shells, cover with tops, and bake one half hour.

Peas

Cook peas in boiling water. Use just enough water to keep them from burning. Add salt fifteen minutes before taking them from the fire. Season with butter and pepper.

Peas may be used for croquettes or may be used with White Sauce and served in Croustade Cases.

Equal quantities of chopped carrots and peas served together are delicious.

Turnips in White Sauce

Wash and pare; cut in pieces. Cook, mash, and season; or cut in cubes, cook in boiling salted water until tender, and serve in White Sauce.

Boiled Potatoes

Potatoes may be boiled with skins on, or may be pared and boiled in salted water. Old potatoes should be soaked in cold water at least an hour. Potatoes should be boiled gently and not furiously.

When tender, drain thoroughly, dry on back of range. Shake saucepan, cover with coarse towel until ready to serve.

Serve in open vegetable dish, never in a closed one.

Mashed Potatoes

Cook potatoes in boiling salted water. Drain, mash. To each cup of mashed potato, allow one tablespoon butter, one half teaspoon salt, one eighth teaspoon pepper, and hot milk to make of creamy consistency. Beat with a fork until light.

Potato Balls

Add to one pint hot mashed potatoes, one eighth teaspoon celery salt, one teaspoon chopped parsley, salt, pepper, and butter to taste, and enough hot milk to make of consistency to shape. Form into smooth round balls, bake in hot buttered pan; or sauté in butter; or fry in deep fat. Or they may be sautéd in sausage fat, which gives an appetizing flavor.

Creamed Potatoes

Cut two cups cold boiled potatoes in very thin slices, or in cubes. Add one cup White Sauce. Season highly and reheat in double boiler. Serve in hot dish sprinkled with finely chopped parsley.

Stewed Potatoes

Mix two cups potato cubes with two tablespoons butter, two cups milk, salt and pepper.

Dredge with two tablespoons flour and cook twenty minutes in double boiler.

Scalloped Potatoes

Mix two cups potato cubes with two cups White Sauce, cover with buttered bread crumbs, and bake thirty minutes in hot oven. A few drops onion juice may be added.

Lyonnaise Potatoes

Melt two tablespoons butter. Add one tablespoon finely chopped onion. When onion is yellow, add two cups potato cubes. Season with salt and pepper, cook until potatoes are heated through, and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley, and serve.

French Fried Potatoes

Pare small raw potatoes, divide in halves, and cut each half in three pieces; cover with boiling water and let stand three minutes. Drain dry between cloths, and cook in frying basket in hot fat ten minutes. Drain, sprinkle with salt, and serve.

Potato Chips

Slice raw potatoes, cover with cold water, and let soak over night. Drain dry between towels and fry in frying basket in hot fat about ten minutes. Drain and sprinkle with salt. Care must be used when lowering the basket into the hot fat, as the potatoes contain so much water it causes violent ebullition.

Potato Puff

Prepare two cups hot mashed potato. Add one half cup milk, two well-beaten yolks, two tablespoons butter. Salt and pepper to taste. Beat well; add beaten whites of two eggs. Pile lightly in buttered baking dish and bake until puffed and brown.

Hashed Brown Potatoes

Sprinkle two cups cold boiled potato cubes with salt and pepper. Melt one tablespoon butter; add one tablespoon flour and one half cup brown stock. Cook five minutes; add potato cubes; cook ten minutes, stirring, without breaking potatoes. Melt one tablespoon butter in another frying pan. When brown, turn in potatoes, spread evenly, and cook ten minutes; fold like an omelet, and serve hot.

Stuffed Potatoes

Bake six potatoes. When done, cut a lengthwise slice; scoop out the potato with a spoon. Mash; add one tablespoon butter, salt, pepper, one half cup milk, and two egg-whites beaten stiff. Refill skins with this mixture. Pile lightly, do not smooth, and bake until potatoes are puffed and brown.

French Potato Balls

Cut two cups of potato balls with French potato cutter. Parboil ten minutes, drain, and fry in deep fat.

Potatoes à la Maître d’Hôtel

Cook two cups potato balls in boiling water until tender. Drain, and serve with Maître d’Hôtel Butter.

Italian Potatoes

Mix two cups hot mashed potatoes, one teaspoon onion juice, one tablespoon finely chopped parsley, one egg yolk well beaten, four stiffly beaten whites, one half cup grated cheese, and salt and pepper to taste. Pile lightly in baking dish and bake until brown.

Franconia Potatoes

Pare six medium-sized potatoes; parboil five minutes. Place on grate under roast beef. Baste with beef fat, and bake from twenty to thirty minutes, turning often.

Baked Potatoes

Wash and scrub six potatoes of uniform size. Place in dripping pan, and bake in hot oven forty-five minutes to one hour, turning when half done. Pierce with skewer, and serve immediately.

Browned Sweet Potatoes

Cut cold boiled sweet potatoes in lengthwise slices, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Brush with butter and sprinkle with brown sugar. Brown in hot oven.

Southern Sweet Potatoes

Cut cold boiled sweet potatoes in lengthwise slices. Arrange in layers in buttered baking dish. Cover each layer with brown sugar, dot with butter, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add one cup boiling water, and bake in hot oven.

Stewed Tomatoes

Wipe one quart tomatoes, plunge into boiling water, let stand two minutes, remove skins. Cut in pieces. Cook slowly twenty to thirty minutes. Season with butter, salt and pepper and cook five minutes longer. A few drops of onion juice and one half cup crackers, added when the seasonings are put in, give a variety.