Stewed French Beans. — This is the best method when French Beans are no longer quite young, and for this one dish they should be cut across in diamonds. Put the French Beans in a buttered stewpan, add a very little salt, and just cover them with broth. Stew them very slowly, and add a little broth now and then. When tender drain the French Beans, lay them on a hot dish, thicken the broth with half an ounce of butter and the yolk of an egg, and pour it over them. French Beans Panaches or Variegated. — For this dish the young pods and the nearly ripened Beans are cooked to- gether. Take a pint of half -ripe Beans, shell them, throw the pods into boiling salted water and boil to extract the flavour. Strain the water, boil it up again, put in the shelled Beans, and add a quarter of a peck of quite young French Beans, strung but not sliced. Boil these and the shelled Beans together, and they will be both done at the same time if the Beans are only half ripe. Drain, serve in a hot dish, and hand melted butter. Another way is to boil pods and beans separately, then toss each of them in butter, and after that mix them together in a hot dish. Flageolets. — These are the beans of the Dwarf or French Bean when the pods are old and tough, and the beans them- selves three-parts grown. Flageolets are too often neglected in England, and when imported are even supposed to be a vegetable peculiar to foreign countries. Gardeners should be induced to sow French Beans in succession and in sufficient FLAGEOLETS 325 quantity to allow a supply to be reserved for Flageolets. Flageolets should be shelled and boiled, or steamed in the jar like peas, only omitting the mint. They are good finished like French Beans in the saute-pan. White Haricot Beans. — These again, so common in France, are hardly known here except in their dried state. They are the beans of the Climbing Bean or Scarlet Runner allowed to ripen in the pod. They come in during October. These Beans should be cooked like Flageolets, but they need more boiling. They can be served with a little of the water they were cooked in, with a pat of butter stirred in at the last. This eau de cuisson can be much strengthened by boiling the pods in a separate pan and adding the water to that in which the Beans were boiled. Mrs. C. W. Earle’s Method of Preserving’ French Beans and Scarlet Runners. — Mrs. Earle preserves these when young, eating the old ones fresh. The French Beans, which are much more delicate in flavour than the Scarlet Runners, are kept in a separate pan. The beans are picked almost daily, and laid as they are brought in in large earthen- ware uncovered pans, a handful of beans and then a handful of salt till the pans are full. They must not be allowed to get touched by frost. Mrs. Earle adds : “I have eaten “ them, preserved in this way, all through the winter. I be- “ lieve this is done everywhere abroad, but never in England, “ where the waste, both in the kitchen and the garden, is, as “ we all acknowledge, a national vice. When wanted, the “ Beans are taken out, well-soaked (to prevent their being too “salt), boiled in the ordinary way, either cut up or whole, “ then drained, and warmed up in fresh butter, a squeeze of “ lemon, and a little chopped parsley on the top. They can “ also be cooked with a white cream sauce.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Stewed French Beans. — This is the best method when French Beans are no longer quite young, and for this one dish they should be cut across in diamonds. Put the French Beans in a buttered stewpan, add a very little salt, and just cover them with broth. Stew them very slowly, and add a little broth now and then. When tender drain the French Beans, lay them on a hot dish, thicken the broth with half an ounce of butter and the yolk of an egg, and pour it over them. French Beans Panaches or Variegated. — For this dish the young pods and the nearly ripened Beans are cooked together. Take a pint of half -ripe Beans, shell them, throw the pods into boiling salted water and boil to extract the flavour. Strain the water, boil it up again, put in the shelled Beans, and add a quarter of a peck of quite young French Beans, strung but not sliced. Boil these and the shelled Beans together, and they will be both done at the same time if the Beans are only half ripe. Drain, serve in a hot dish, and hand melted butter. Another way is to boil pods and beans separately, then toss each of them in butter, and after that mix them together in a hot dish. Flageolets. — These are the beans of the Dwarf or French Bean when the pods are old and tough, and the beans themselves three-parts grown. Flageolets are too often neglected in England, and when imported are even supposed to be a vegetable peculiar to foreign countries. Gardeners should be induced to sow French Beans in succession and in sufficient FLAGEOLETS quantity to allow a supply to be reserved for Flageolets. Flageolets should be shelled and boiled, or steamed in the jar like peas, only omitting the mint. They are good finished like French Beans in the saute-pan. White Haricot Beans. — These again, so common in France, are hardly known here except in their dried state. They are the beans of the Climbing Bean or Scarlet Runner allowed to ripen in the pod. They come in during October. These Beans should be cooked like Flageolets, but they need more boiling. They can be served with a little of the water they were cooked in, with a pat of butter stirred in at the last. This eau de cuisson can be much strengthened by boiling the pods in a separate pan and adding the water to that in which the Beans were boiled. Mrs. C. W. Earle’s Method of Preserving’ French Beans and Scarlet Runners. — Mrs. Earle preserves these when young, eating the old ones fresh. The French Beans, which are much more delicate in flavour than the Scarlet Runners, are kept in a separate pan. The beans are picked almost daily, and laid as they are brought in in large earthenware uncovered pans, a handful of beans and then a handful of salt till the pans are full. They must not be allowed to get touched by frost. Mrs. Earle adds : “I have eaten “ them, preserved in this way, all through the winter. I be- “ lieve this is done everywhere abroad, but never in England, “ where the waste, both in the kitchen and the garden, is, as “ we all acknowledge, a national vice. When wanted, the “ Beans are taken out, well-soaked (to prevent their being too “salt), boiled in the ordinary way, either cut up or whole, “ then drained, and warmed up in fresh butter, a squeeze of “ lemon, and a little chopped parsley on the top. They can “ also be cooked with a white cream sauce.

Mrs. Roundell's Practical cookery book