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Scotch Kale
Like all other greens, Scotch kale should be procured as fresh as possible. Cut away the outer and decayed leaves and the stalks, wash the kale with scrupulous care, and drain it. Put it into boiling water slightly salted, and let it boil quickly until done enough. Take it up, drain it thoroughly, and serve very hot. Whilst the kale is boiling, the saucepan should be left uncovered. Time to boil, twenty minutes. Probable cost, 2d. or 3d. per pound.
A bare-bones method for boiled greens from the book's instructional section, and the timing is the one thing to change.
- What Scotch kale isThe tightly curled green sold today as curly kale or borecole; any curly kale, or the sturdier Tuscan/cavolo nero, behaves the same way in the pot.
- Twenty minutes is far too longModern kale, picked young and sold trimmed, is tender in 5 to 8 minutes of hard boiling; older winter leaves may want 10. Kale of the period was often coarser, overwintered and thick-ribbed, which may be what the longer time assumes. Twenty minutes now gives you olive-grey mush.
- Why the pan stays uncoveredBoiling greens release sulphur compounds and acids; trapping them under a lid dulls the colour and sharpens the smell. Uncovered, in a generous volume of fast-boiling water, is still the correct instruction.
- Salt and volume"Slightly salted" is understated for good results — about 1 tablespoon of salt to 4 quarts of water. Use plenty of water so the temperature does not drop when the kale goes in.
- Stalks and ribsStrip the leaf from the thick central rib rather than boiling it along with the leaf; the rib takes considerably longer to soften. The ribs can be sliced thin and started a few minutes ahead if you would rather not waste them.
- DrainingCurly leaves hold a surprising amount of water. Drain in a colander and press lightly with the back of a spoon, or the butter and seasoning will slide straight off.
- ServingThe recipe stops at "serve very hot"; butter and pepper at table are the usual accompaniment. A pound of trimmed kale serves two to three as a vegetable.
- The cost note2d. or 3d. per pound marks kale as a notably cheap vegetable — useful context, not a shopping instruction.
Kale is among the oldest forms of cultivated cabbage still widely eaten, grown in Britain long before the tight-headed cabbage became common, and the Scottish association is earned: it was a standard cottage-garden green north of the border, hardy through frost, and in Scots the kitchen garden itself was the "kailyard" while "kail" could stand for broth or for dinner generally. The insistence on the uncovered pan reflects a real nineteenth-century preoccupation with the smell and colour of boiled cabbage-tribe vegetables, at a period when soda was still sometimes added to the water to keep greens green — a practice some contemporary manuals criticised.