The Cook's Oracle; and Housekeeper's Manual Part 34

_Broccoli._--(No. 126.)

Set a pan of clean cold water on the table, and a saucepan on the fire with plenty of water, and a handful of salt in it.

Broccoli is prepared by stripping off all the side shoots, leaving the top; peel off the skin of the stalk with a knife; cut it close off at the bottom, and put it into the pan of cold water.

When the water in the stew-pan boils, and the broccoli is ready, put it in; let it boil briskly till the stalks feel tender, from ten to twenty minutes; take it up with a slice, that you may not break it; let it drain, and serve up.

If some of the heads of broccoli are much bigger than the others, put them on to boil first, so that they may get all done together.

_Obs._--It makes a nice supper-dish served upon a toast, like asparagus.

It is a very delicate vegetable, and you must take it up the moment it is done, and send it to table hot.

_Red Beet-roots_,--(No. 127.)

Are not so much used as they deserve; they are dressed in the same way as parsnips, only neither sc.r.a.ped nor cut till after they are boiled; they will take from an hour and a half to three hours in boiling, according to their size: to be sent to table with salt fish, boiled beef, &c. When young, large, and juicy, it is a very good variety, an excellent garnish, and easily converted into a very cheap and pleasant pickle.

_Parsnips_,--(No. 128.)

Are to be cooked just in the same manner as carrots. They require more or less time according to their size; therefore match them in size: and you must try them by thrusting a fork into them as they are in the water; when that goes easily through, they are done enough. Boil them from an hour to two hours, according to their size and freshness.

_Obs._ Parsnips are sometimes sent up mashed in the same way as turnips, and some cooks quarter them before they boil them.[163-*]

_Carrots._--(No. 129.)

Let them be well washed and brushed, not sc.r.a.ped. An hour is enough for young spring carrots; grown carrots must be cut in half, and will take from an hour and a half to two hours and a half. When done, rub off the peels with a clean coa.r.s.e cloth, and slice them in two or four, according to their size. The best way to try if they are done enough, is to pierce them with a fork.

_Obs._ Many people are fond of cold carrot with cold beef; ask if you shall cook enough for some to be left to send up with the cold meat.

_Turnips._--(No. 130.)

Peel off half an inch of the stringy outside. Full-grown turnips will take about an hour and a half gentle boiling; if you slice them, which most people do, they will be done sooner; try them with a fork; when tender, take them up, and lay them on a sieve till the water is thoroughly drained from them. Send them up whole; do not slice them.

N.B. To very young turnips leave about two inches of the green top. See No. 132.

_To mash Turnips._--(No. 131.)

When they are boiled quite tender, squeeze them as dry as possible between two trenchers; put them into a saucepan; mash them with a wooden spoon, and rub them through a colander; add a little bit of b.u.t.ter; keep stirring them till the b.u.t.ter is melted and well mixed with them, and they are ready for table.

_Turnip-tops_,--(No. 132.)

Are the shoots which grow out (in the spring) of the old turnip-roots.

Put them into cold water an hour before they are to be dressed; the more water they are boiled in, the better they will look; if boiled in a small quant.i.ty of water they will taste bitter: when the water boils, put in a small handful of salt, and then your vegetables; if fresh and young, they will be done in about twenty minutes; drain them on the back of a sieve.

_French Beans._--(No. 133.)

Cut off the stalk end first, and then turn to the point and strip off the strings. If not quite fresh, have a bowl of spring-water, with a little salt dissolved in it, standing before you, and as the beans are cleaned and stringed, throw them in. When all are done, put them on the fire in boiling water, with some salt in it; after they have boiled fifteen or twenty minutes, take one out and taste it; as soon as they are tender take them up; throw them into a colander or sieve to drain.

To send up the beans whole is much the best method when they are thus young, and their delicate flavour and colour are much better preserved.

When a little more grown, they must be cut across in two after stringing; and for common tables they are split, and divided across; cut them all the same length; but those who are nice never have them at such a growth as to require splitting.

When they are very large they look pretty cut into lozenges.

_Obs._ See N.B. to No. 125.

_Green Pease._[164-*]--(No. 134.)

Young green pease, well dressed, are among the most delicious delicacies of the vegetable kingdom. They must be young; it is equally indispensable that they be fresh gathered, and cooked as soon as they are sh.e.l.led for they soon lose both their colour and sweetness.

If you wish to feast upon pease in perfection, you must have them gathered the same day they are dressed, and put on to boil within half an hour after they are sh.e.l.led.

Pa.s.s them through a riddle, _i. e._ a coa.r.s.e sieve, which is made for the purpose of separating them. This precaution is necessary, for large and small pease cannot be boiled together, as the former will take more time than the latter.

For a peck of pease, set on a sauce-pan with a gallon of water in it; when it boils, put in your pease, with a table-spoonful of salt; skim it well, keep them boiling quick from twenty to thirty minutes, according to their age and size. The best way to judge of their being done enough, and indeed the only way to make sure of cooking them to, and not beyond, the point of perfection, or, as pea-eaters say, of "boiling them to a bubble," is to take them out with a spoon and taste them.

When they are done enough, drain them on a hair-sieve. If you like them b.u.t.tered, put them into a pie-dish, divide some b.u.t.ter into small bits, and lay them on the pease; put another dish over them, and turn them over and over; this will melt the b.u.t.ter through them; but as all people do not like b.u.t.tered pease, you had better send them to table plain, as they come out of the sauce-pan, with melted b.u.t.ter (No. 256) in a sauce-tureen. It is usual to boil some mint with the pease; but if you wish to garnish the pease with mint, boil a few sprigs in a sauce-pan by themselves. See Sage and Onion Sauce (No. 300), and Pea Powder (No.

458); to boil Bacon (No. 13), Slices of Ham and Bacon (No. 526), and Relishing Rashers of Bacon (No. 527).

N.B. A peck of young pease will not yield more than enough for a couple of hearty pea-eaters; when the pods are full, it may serve for three.

MEM. Never think of purchasing pease ready-sh.e.l.led, for the cogent reasons a.s.signed in the first part of this receipt.

_Cuc.u.mbers stewed._--(No. 135.)

Peel and cut cuc.u.mbers in quarters, take out the seeds, and lay them on a cloth to drain off the water: when they are dry, flour and fry them in fresh b.u.t.ter; let the b.u.t.ter be quite hot before you put in the cuc.u.mbers; fry them till they are brown, then take them out with an egg-slice, and lay them on a sieve to drain the fat from them (some cooks fry sliced onions, or some small b.u.t.ton onions, with them, till they are a delicate light-brown colour, drain them from the fat, and then put them into a stew-pan with as much gravy as will cover them): stew slowly till they are tender; take out the cuc.u.mbers with a slice, thicken the gravy with flour and b.u.t.ter, give it a boil up, season it with pepper and salt, and put in the cuc.u.mbers; as soon as they are warm, they are ready.

The above, rubbed through a tamis, or fine sieve, will be ent.i.tled to be called "cuc.u.mber sauce." See No. 399, Cuc.u.mber Vinegar. This is a very favourite sauce with lamb or mutton-cutlets, stewed rump-steaks, &c.

&c.: when made for the latter, a third part of sliced onion is sometimes fried with the cuc.u.mber.[166-*]

_Artichokes._--(No. 136.)

Soak them in cold water, wash them well, then put them into plenty of boiling water, with a handful of salt, and let them boil gently till they are tender, which will take an hour and a half, or two hours: the surest way to know when they are done enough, is to draw out a leaf; trim them and drain them on a sieve; and send up melted b.u.t.ter with them, which some put into small cups, so that each guest may have one.

_Stewed Onions._--(No. 137.)

The large Portugal onions are the best: take off the top-coats of half a dozen of these (taking care not to cut off the tops or tails too near, or the onions will go to pieces), and put them into a stew-pan broad enough to hold them without laying them atop of one another, and just cover them with good broth.