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Vegetables, Cooking Of

Few persons know how to cook vegetables. The rule is simple, and should never be forgotten. Old potatoes should either be steamed, or be put into plenty of cold water and boiled slowly. New potatoes should be put into plenty of boiling water. With both the water should be drained off when the tubers are tender, and they should finish cooking in their own steam. Green vegetables should be put into fast-boiling water. They should be quickly boiled, and the lid should be left off the pan. If they are of good quality they will not need soda--indeed, soda will spoil them. If the water boils from the moment that the vegetable is immersed in it, the albumen is partially coagulated near the surface, and serves to retain the virtue of the vegetable. The reverse is, of course, the rule for making soup, or any dish from which the water will not be drained. By placing the vegetables in cold water, the albumen is slowly dissolved, and actually mixes with the water--a process most necessary for the production of nutritious soup.