Cassell's dictionary of cookery

! Sir George Mackenzie observes, ' that sea-kale I cannot easily be overdone in cooking, and that after being well boiled it should be thoroughly drained, and then suffered to remain a few minutes before the fire, that a farther portion of moisture may be exhaled.' From four to six heads, according to the size, tied together like asparagus, make a dish; and Maher says a blanching pot which contains three plants will afford a dish twice in a season. Hence, from sixty to a hundred pots will suffice for forcing sea-'kalc for a large family." Sea Kale, History of.— Sea kale grows wild in many parts of Europe, and was only about a century ago introduced as an article of diet. Its cultivation is conducted on a very limited scale, though in some parts of Scotland it is in common use, and held in high estimation. It is stated by a wi-iter in the first volume of " Notes and Queries," fourth series, that a gardener in the employ of a gentleman at Stoke Fleming, cultivated some plants he found growing wild on the beach at Slapton. They were so appreciated by his master that (846) several roots were sent as presents to Mr. Southcote's friends at Bath; this was about 1775. When once known and talked of in Bath, it soon became popular thi-ough that part of England. This writer states that sea kale was first sold to the public at Exeter market at the price of two shillings and sixpence per root. In the same volume it is stated that the Rev. John Fremen, who was vicar of Sidbury, near Sidmouth, between 1707 — 13, was the first person that sent sea kale to the London market ; but it appears to have been little appreciated. About the middle of last century, Mr. Griles Templeman, of Dorchester, sent some roots to Covent Garden Market ; but the plant was then so little known that, the labels having been defaced in the carriage to London, the contents of the parcel were put aside as being some sort of " poisonous root or other." Dr. Lettsom, in his horticultural sketch of his residence at drove Hill, Camberwell, 1794, mentions this esculent amongst others grown by him, and expresses some surprise that a vegetable so useful and productive and easy of cultivation should be so rarely met with in the gardens about London. Curtis, in his pamphlet on the culture of sea kale, published 1822, states that Sir William Jones, of Chelsea, says he saw bundles of this vegetable exposed for sale in the market at Chichester in 1753. " I have learned from different persons," says Curtis, "that attempts have been made at various times to introduce sea kale into the London markets, but ineffectually. A few years since I renewed the attempt myself, and though it was not attended with all the success I would wish, I flatter mj'self it has been the means of making the plant so generally known, that in future the markets of the first city of the world will be duly supplied with this most desirable article." The sea kale is not much cultivated on the Continent. Valmount de Bomare calls it " Chou marin sauvage d' Angleterre" and so condemned the plant as only fit for the coarser tastes of the inhabitants of colder climates; but in the present day it is seen in the markets of Paris and other French towns.