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An Excellent Way of Boiling Cabbage
682. Having trimmed the cabbage, and washed it well in cold water (examine the leaves to see that no insects are lurking among them), cut it almost into quarters, but do not divide it entirely down at the stem, which should be cut off just below the termination of the leaves. Let it lie an hour in a pan of cold water. Have ready a potful of boiling water, seasoned with a small tea-spoonful of salt. Put the cabbage into it, and let it boil for an hour and a half, skimming it occasionally. Then take it out; put it into a colander to drain, and when all the hot water has drained off, set it under the hydrant. Let the hydrant run on it till the cabbage has become perfectly cold all through. If you have no hydrant, set it under a pump, or keep pouring cold water on it from a pitcher. Then, having thrown out all the first water, and washed the pot, fill it again, and let the second water boil. During this time the cabbage under the hydrant will be growing cold. Then put it on again in the second water, and boil it two hours, or two and a half. Even the thickest part of the stalk must be perfectly tender all through. When thoroughly done, take up the cabbage, drain it well through the colander, pressing it down with a broad ladle to squeeze out all the moisture; lay it in a deep dish, and cut it entirely apart, dividing it into quarters. Lay some bits of fresh butter among the leaves, add a little pepper, cover the dish, and send it to table hot.-(Miss Leslie-a great improvement.) BEANS. 683. TO BOIL BROAD BEANS. - Boil tender with a bunch of parsley, which must be chopped to serve with them. Bacon or pickled pork must be served to eat with, but not boiled with them. Time, twenty to twenty-five minutes. 684. BROAD BEANS MASHED. - Take old broad beans, boil them for one hour, mash them through a coarse sieve, and mix with them a PEAS. little butter, pepper, and salt. Put the mash into a hot basin or mould, and turn it out before serving. 685. WINDSOR BEANS, FRICASSEED. - When grown large, but not mealy, boil, blanch, and lay them in a white sauce ready hot; just heat them through in it, and serve. If any are not of a fine green, do not use them for this dish. 686. FRENCH BEANS. - TO BOIL. -String, and cut them into four or eight; the last looks best. Lay them in salt and water, and when the saucepan boils put them in with some salt. As soon as they are done serve them immediately, to preserve the green colour. Or when halfdone drain the water off, and put them into two spoonsful of broth strained; and add a little cream, butter, and flour, to finish doing them. 687. TO STEW FRENCH BEANS. - Boil the French beans (as at par. 686). Make a rich clear gravy, well flavoured; drain the beans perfectly dry, and put both into a stewpan, and simmer for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes; serve hot. Peas may also be stewed in this way. 688. HARICOTS BLANCS. - These beans, so much used in France, are dressed exactly like the old peas (691); but the flavour is not generally liked in this country. PEAS. 689. To BOIL.-Should be young and of a good sort. They must not be overdone, nor in much water. Boil some mint with them, and chop it to garnish them, and stir a piece of butter in with them. If either too young or too old, a little sugar boiled with them is an improvement. Time, about fifteen minutes. 690. TO STEW GREEN PEAS.-Take a quart of peas, three cabbage lettuces cut small, put them into a stewpan with a piece of butter the size of an egg (and a slice of raw ham, if you like), an onion stuck with cloves; let them stew gently till the peas are half-done, then add a pint of good gravy; when stewed, thicken with flour and butter, the yolks of two eggs, and a teacupful of cream. Keep stirring after the eggs are in, or it will curdle. Some think a tea-spoonful of white powdered sugar is an improvement. Gravy may be added, but then there will be less of the flavour of the peas. Chop a bit of mint, and stew in them. 691. TO STEW OLD PEAS. - Steep them in water all night, if not fine boilers; otherwise half an hour would do; put them into water, just enough to cover them, with a good bit of butter, or a piece of beef or pork. Stew them very gently till the peas are soft, and the meat is tender; if it is not salt meat, add salt and a little pepper. Serve them round the meat.
This is a mid-nineteenth-century method built around a problem modern cooks no longer have: field-grown winter cabbage with a thick, woody stem and an aggressive sulphurous smell. The two-water technique is the interesting part; the four hours of boiling are not.
- The hinge: two watersThe whole point is discarding the first cooking water, which carries off a good part of the sulphur compounds that make old cabbage rank. Blanching briefly and then finishing in fresh salted water achieves much the same thing without the marathon.
- The timings are for a different vegetableAn hour and a half, then two to two and a half hours more, will reduce a modern head to grey pulp. Quartered supermarket cabbage is tender in 8-12 minutes; a dense January savoy or a stalky old head might want 20.
- "Set it under the hydrant"A hydrant here is a household water tap or standpipe. Cold running water from the tap does the job; the aim is to stop the cooking and hold the cabbage while the second pot comes up to the boil.
- SaltA small teaspoon of salt in a potful is very light seasoning by current practice. Salt the second water more assertively, as you would pasta water, since most of it is poured away.
- Leaving the stem attachedCutting almost but not entirely through keeps the quarters from falling apart during handling; the recipe cuts it entirely apart into quarters in the dish just before it goes to table. Useful advice still, particularly with a loose-leaved variety.
- DrainingPressing with a broad ladle matters more than the recipe lets on. Waterlogged cabbage dilutes the butter and pools in the dish; press firmly, then dress with butter and pepper off the heat.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantity; a head of roughly 2 lb, quartered, would serve about four as a side dish.