The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1889-04-27
COOKING VEGETABLES.
a Culinary Accomplishment Possessed by
But Few Housekeepers.

There is probably no subject on
which housekeepers so often differ as
the preparation of vegetables. The
commonest of all vegetables, the
potato, is cooked with cold and boiling
water with equal success. Others in
sist that to steam them is the better
way. This entire matter should be
regulated by the season of the year and
the variety of potato. some varieties
becoming waxy and worthless boiled
in cold water, even when they are old.
All the advantages gained by cooking
old potatoes in cold water may be
gained by soaking them in cold water
before cooking for four or five hours
with their skins on. If they are then
cooked in boiling water they will have
lost the strong taste perceptible at this
season Of the year, and are in no dam
ger of becoming water soaked. All
root vegetables, after the 1st of Janu-
airy, are better for soaking six hours in
cold water before cooking them, unless
they are kept in a dirt cellar during
the winter Or buried in earth where
they will not freeze. Another point of
difference in cooking is the adding of
salt. Old-fashioned cooks boiled all
their vegetables in sailed water, but
modern science does not sanction this,
and most of the best cooks add the salt
TO all delicate vegetables after they are
nearly done and to strong vegetables,
like onions and cabbages, before they
are put in the water. The reason for
this is that sailed water retards the
process OF cooking, takes the flavor
from the vegetables. This is ruinous
in the case of a delicate vegetable like
green peas, but an Improvement to
strSng onions. One of the chief rea-
sons in summer for the ipferiority of
vegetables is in leaving them to be-
come old and tough before they are
gathered. Too many gardeners, in
stead of a succession of crops of green
peas, beans and other summer vegeta-
bles, plant their entire crop at once
and insure a tough old supply during
part of the season. No cook can pre-
pare old peas, or any other, overgrown
vegetable, so they are fit for the table.
Vegetables picked in the morning
with the dew on them, are superior toI
those gathered in the heat of the day.
as every housekeeper knows. If the
vegetables gathered can not be used at
once, they should be laid in q cool,
dark place till the time for cooking.
Perfect cleanliness in preparation,
cooking only till the root or herb is
tender, not Il moment afterward, and
serving with salt, pepper and sweet
butter, or a simple cream sauce, will
give the most satisfactory results. No
exact schedule of time can be given.
This the houselleepcr must learn by
experience. Winter vegetables take
usually twice as long to cook as sum-
mer, or three times as long if they
have become withered and dried.
Strong, old withered vegetables, how
ever cooked, are unfit for the table,
and something else had better replace
them.
Housekeepers need to be reminded
that there is no better purifier of the
blood that has become clogged with
coarse, greasy winter food than salads
OF watercressns, dandelion and other
good green herbs" which will soon
clothe the earth with their beauty and
bounty.-N. Y. Tribune.