Home › Sect. 1.-General Observations in Dressing Vegetables › Sect. 1.-General Observations in Dressing Vegetables

Sect. 1.-General Observations in Dressing Vegetables

635. Vegetables should be carefully cleaned from insects, by putting them with the stalk or root end upwards into water, or salt and water, with the stalk or root end upwards into water, or salt and water, and nicely washed. Boil them in plenty of water, and drain them the moment they are done enough. If overboiled they will lose their beauty and crispness. Bad cooks sometimes dress them with meat, which is wrong, except carrots or cabbage with boiling beef.

TO BOIL VEGETABLES OF A GOOD GREEN COLOUR, 636. Take care that the water boils when they are put in. Make them boil very fast. Do not cover, but watch them, and if the water has not slackened you may be sure they are done when they begin to sink. Then take them out immediately, or the colour will change. Hard water, especially if chalybeate, spoils the colour of such vegetables as should be green; a little salt should always be put in the water.

To boil them green in hard water, put a tea-spoonful of POTATOES. carbonate of soda or potash into the water when it boils, before the vegetables are put in.