Cassell's dictionary of cookery

Spinach, Dressed. — Pick the leaves from the stem, wash them well, and throw them into a large saucepan of boiling water to which a considerable quantity of salt has been added. Boil fast for ten minutes, then strain on the back of a sieve or colander ; press the spinach . in a napkin, and squeeze out all the water that remains. Put the spinach into a stewpan with a little butter, pepper and salt, and about ten minutes before serving place it on the stove to be made hot ; add about half a cupful of cream, pile the spinach on the dish, and send to table. " When spinach," says 51. Ude, " is dressed to put under meat, whether fricandeau or sweetbread, &c., it must be more highly seasoned than when dressed for entremets, and a little more liquid, as it is like sauce. Spinach is often used in sweet dishes to dye the almonds or make the green colour of the marbled biscuit. Pound in the mortar some of the spinach, and squeeze the juice out of it by pressing it through a towel ; put the liquor into a small stewpan, and place the stewpan in a hot water bath to poach. When the green is settled at the bottom of the stewpan, drain it through a silk sieve, and use it for almonds, or whatever else requires green." " Spinach, English."— Garden patience is known in Germany as English spinach. It was formerly much cultivated in this country, but is now neglected. Spinach, French mode of Dressing. — Prepare the spinach exactly as in Spinach with Gravy. When it has been boiled, drained, soaked in cold water, squeezed dry, and chopped small, dissolve two ounces of fresh butter in a saucepan, and stir the spinach in it over the fire till it is hot and dry. Add to it gradually two or three spoonfuls of boiling cream. Add a dessert-spoonful of powdered sugar and a little salt, and stir the mixture over the fire till the moisture is absorbed; then serve the spinach very hot. Garnish the dish with fried sippets, or freshly-baked pieces of puil paste cut into fancy shapes. Time, altogether, about one hour. Probable cost, spinach, 3d. to 6d. per pound. Spinach Fritters.— Take spinach and boil it thoroughly, draia it well, mince, and add some grated bread, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon, all pounded. Add as much cream or yolks and whites of eggs as will make the preparation of the consistence of batter ; scald SPI (915 ) SPI a few currants, and mix thorn in. Drop the batter into a frying-pan on boiling lard ; when the fritters rise, take them out, di-ain, and send to table. Spinach, Green, for Colouring Soups, Sweet Dishes, &;c. — Wash any quantity of spinach, and put it with the moisture still clinging to it into a mortar, and pound it to pulp. Press it through a sieve, or squeeze it in a cloth to obtain as much juice as possible from it. Pour the juice into a jar, and set this into a pan of water on the point of boiling, and let it simmer till the juice is set. Take it when thus finished, and lay it on a sieve, to drain the water from it. Place it in a covered basin, and keep it in a cool place till wanted. If soup is to be coloured, mix a little greening with a little boiling stock, and add the remainder. If sweet dishes are in question, mix a little of the prepared juice with finelypowdered sugar, and add this to the ingredients. Time to poach the juice, three or four minutes.