Buckeye cookery

Onions should be soaked in warm salt water, to remove the rank flavor for one hour before cooking. Never split onions, turnips and carrots, but slice them in rings cut across the fiber, as they thus cook tender much quicker. If the home garden furnishes the supply of pease, spinach, green beans, asparagus, etc., pick them in the morning early, when the dew is on, and let stand in cold water till ready for use. Some put salt in the water, but in that case only let them remain ten or fif- (320) ” Ne Po RVRGETBL ES 8 got teen minutes, “ines doubts are irortained as to their freshness (if from the market), in which case they can remain longer, afterward draining them in a colander. Do not allow vegetables to remain in the water after they are done, but drain them in a colander and dress as directed in the various recipes. In preparing greens, let- tuce, ete., first wash them leaf by leaf in warm water, rather more than tepid, having a dish of cold water to place them in imme- diately. The warm water more certainly cleans the leaf and does not destroy the crispness if they are placed at once in cold water. But whether washed in warm or cold water, take them leaf by leaf, breaking the heads off, not cutting them. MHorse-radish tops are considered choice for greens. Pease should not be shelled until just before the time of cooking. The proportion of salt ‘in cooking vegetables is a heaping table- spoon of salt to every gallon of water. When water boils, put in — your vegetables, and press them down with a wooden spoon. Take out. when tender, as vegetables are spoilt by being either under or overdone. Always add both salt and a little soda to the water in which greens are cooked, as soda preserves color; for the same purpose French cookery books recommend a small pinch of carbonate of ammonia. A little sugar added to turnips, beets, pease, corn, squash and pumpkin is an improvement, especially when the vege- tables are poor in quality. Sweet potatoes require a longer time to | cook than the common variety. In gathering asparagus, never cut it off, but snap or break it; in this way you do not get the white, woody part, which no boiling can make tender. Do the same with rhubarb, except being careful that it does not split, and take it very close to the ground. Put rice on to cook in boiling salted water, having first soaked for about an hour and dried off the surplus moisture on a large towel; or steam, or ccok in custard-kettle. A piece of red pepper the size of finger-nail, dropped into meat - or vegetables when first beginning to cook, will aid greatly in killing the unpleasant odor. Remember this for boiled cabbage, green beans, onions, mutton and chicken. All vegetables should be thor oughly cooked, and require a longer time late in their season. Potatoes, when old, are improved by removing the skin before 2] , 422 _ VEGETABLES, baking, and either Irish or sweet potatoes, if frozen, must be put in to bake without thawing. Cabbage, potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, onions and beets are injured by being boiled with fresh | meat, and they also injure the flavor of the meat. When vege- tables are to be served with salt meat, the meat should be cooked first and then removed, and the vegetables cooked in the liquor. Small-sized white turnips contain more nutrition than large ones, but in ruta-bagas the largest are best. Potatoes vary greatly in quality; varieties which are excellent early in the season lose their good qualities, and others, which are worthless in the fall, are excellent late in the spring. Those raised.on gravelly or sandy soil, . not over rich, are best. Old potatoes, may be greatly improved by being soaked in cold - water several hours after peeling, or all night, being particular to change the water once or twice. Peel very thinly, as the best part of the potato is nearest the skin.