Spinach as Greens

A plain buttered-greens treatment that assumes you already know the boiling stage from an earlier entry in the book. The whole dish turns on getting the water out.

• The boiling stage"As for other recipes" points back to an earlier entry not reproduced here. Modern practice is a large pot of boiling water, spinach dropped in and cooked only until it collapses — a minute or two for young leaves, longer for coarse beet or turnip tops. Cookery books of the period commonly specified much longer boiling, which leaves greens grey and flat-tasting.
• Press it hardDrain, then squeeze the spinach between two plates or in a clean towel until no more liquid runs. Any water left behind dilutes the butter and vinegar into a thin puddle on the plate.
• QuantitiesNone are given. A pound of raw spinach cooks down to roughly a cup and serves two; allow 2 to 3 tablespoons of butter per pound and start with half the vinegar, tasting as you go.
• The vinegarA tablespoon of plain cider or white wine vinegar, stirred in off the heat, is what makes this dish rather than simple buttered spinach. Balsamic is too sweet and too dark for the intent.
• Beet and turnip topsThe substitutes named are tougher and more bitter than spinach and need longer boiling, plus stripping of any thick stems. Turnip tops in particular benefit from a change of water if they are mature.
• ChoppingThe original gives no instruction to chop. Chopping the pressed spinach coarsely before returning it to the pan distributes the butter and seasoning more evenly.
• Serving"With boiled meat" would in this period likely cover corned beef, boiled ham, salt pork or boiled fowl — the vinegar cuts the fat. It works equally well beside anything roasted and rich.