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Spinach with Cream
Procure three quarts fresh spinach. Discard all stale leaves or stalks, if any adhering; then wash n three different fresh waters, take them up and drop into a pan with one gallon boiling water with a tablespoon salt and let boil for five minutes. Drain well on a sieve and completely squeeze the water out, then hash up very finely. Have one ounce melted butter in a saucepan with two tablespoons flour; stir well with a wooden spoon while heating for one minute; then pour in three-quarters of a gill cold cream and same quantity cold milk. Season with a teaspoon salt, one saltspoon cayenne pepper and a saltspoon grated nutmeg and briskly whisk for one minute. Add the spinach, mix well with a spoon, cook for five minutes and serve in a vegetable dish.,
A classic creamed spinach built on a roux rather than reduced cream. The measurements are small and the archaic ones matter here, since the sauce is thickened for only a modest amount of liquid.
- Three quarts spinachSpinach was sold loose by volume; three quarts of leaves is roughly 12 oz to 1 lb of untrimmed mature spinach, which cooks down to about a cup once squeezed. A 10-oz bag of modern bagged spinach is in the same range.
- A gillA gill is a half cup, so three-quarters of a gill is 6 tablespoons. The recipe calls for 6 tablespoons cream plus 6 tablespoons milk, about 3/4 cup liquid total against 1 oz butter and 2 tablespoons flour, which gives a thick sauce.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is roughly a quarter teaspoon. A quarter teaspoon of cayenne is assertive in this quantity; the nutmeg at that level is right for creamed spinach.
- The hinge: squeeze it dryWater carried over from blanching is what turns this dish into a loose green soup. Press the drained spinach hard in a sieve or wring it in a towel before chopping, and expect to give up a surprising amount of liquid.
- Blanching timeFive minutes in salted water suits tough mature spinach. Modern baby spinach wilts in under a minute and will go grey and slack at five; blanch briefly, then shock and squeeze.
- Cook the roux properlyOne minute of stirring over heat is the minimum to lose the raw flour taste. Two to three minutes over medium heat is better, and the sauce should be whisked smooth and simmering before the spinach goes in.
- Cold liquid into hot rouxThe instruction to use cold cream and cold milk is deliberate and still sound practice; it lets you whisk out lumps before the mixture sets.
- YieldEnough for about four as a side dish, on these quantities. It reheats well but stiffens; loosen with a spoonful of milk.
Creamed spinach in this form is French method in an American book: blanch, drain, squeeze, chop, then bind with a béchamel scented with nutmeg, a pairing long favoured for spinach and dairy. Filippini's The International Cook Book was written for a public that had grown curious about restaurant cooking, and this is the kind of hotel-kitchen vegetable garnish that appeared beside roasts and grills rather than as a dish in its own right. The three changes of washing water are not fussiness — spinach grown in sandy soil and sold unwashed by the peck held a great deal of grit.