Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

Few housekeepers are familiar with the changes that take place in the tuberous vegetables as the season advances, and continue to cook them as if they were fresh from the garden. The carrots, turnips, potatoes, onions, and cabbages that were crisp and delicate when stored in the fall become somewhat wilted and quite strong-flavored by spring, and should stand in cold water for several hours before being cooked. Carrots, turnips, onions, and cabbage should be cooked in a great deal of water, — at least four times the quantity of vegetables, — and should be boiled only long enough to cook them thoroughly. Continuing to boil vegetables after they are done, or cooking them in an insufficient quantity of water, makes them dark and gives them an unsatisfactory flavor. The average housekeeper does not give half enough attention to this matter. It is a good plan to use rice, hominy, and macaroni as vegetables during the winter and early spring. Remember that fully as acceptable a variety of dishes may be obtained, from day to day, by cooking a small number of vegetables in divers ways as by cooking a large number in only one way. Proper cooking and good modes of serving are of more account than a varied selection of materials. When Various Vegetables may be Appropriately Used. Inexperienced housekeepers often are much perplexed in regard to vegetables ; they cannot easily decide what to serve with various kinds of meat and fish, being doubtful about either the vegetables themselves or the most appropriate ways of serving them. In large cities the housekeeper has a great variety of vegetables from which to select, the year round. Scattered through the twelvemonth there are about forty kinds ; and when fresh vegetables cannot be had, canned goods may be obtained. In the country a woman's choice is more limited, though the common winter vegetables, supplemented with a few canned articles, permit of frequent changes of dishes. Too many people are content to cook a vegetable always by the same mode. To the average housekeeper the potato appears to be about the only vegetable capable of being served in a variety of forms. Receipts for cooking potatoes are, to be sure, very numerous, yet many rules can be found for nearly all common vegetables. In American families of moderate means, the dinner seldom consists of more than three courses ; indeed, in a majority of cases there may be only two courses, — meat or fish with vegetables, and the dessert. The number of courses increases with the amount of style in which people live, though one will find that among refined folk the number in a family dinner is not more than five or six, and in a company luncheon or dinner not more than six or eight. This is a sensible change. Time was when about a dozen courses were thought to be a necessity when guests were to be entertained. In a two-course dinner several kinds of vegetables are served at the outset, whereas in a dinner of many courses only one kind of vegetable, or at the most two kinds, should be provided with each dish of meat or fish.