Miss Parloa's kitchen companion

The first step is to prepare the corned beef. The rump or a brisket piece is the most suitable to use. Wash the meat thoroughly, and put it into the kettle with hot water enough to cover it ; or if the meat be very salt, use cold water. Slowly heat the water to the boiling-point, and then skim carefully. Set the kettle back where the beef will only simmer for five hours and a half. The water must simply bubble ; rapid cooking would make the meat hard, dry, and stringy. At servingtime put the meat on a large platter, and garnish with a few slices of carrot, beet, and turnip. In case the vegetables be cooked with the meat a much larger quantity of water must be used than when the meat is cooked alone, and the kettle must be drawn forward to a hotter part of the stove when the vegetables are added. Preparation of the Vegetables. Cut the stalk and green or bruised leaves from the cabbage ; then cut the cabbage into four parts, and put it into a pan with two table-spoonfuls of salt and cold water enough to cover it. Let it stand for an hour or more. Pare and slice the turnips; pare the potatoes; scrape the carrots and parsnips, and cut them into slices lengthwise. Put all these vegetables into cold water. Wash the beets lightly, being particular not to break the little roots. Put them into a large saucepan with boiling water in plenty, and boil for two hours if the beets be small, or for three hours if they be large. As beets grow older they require more time for cooking. When the beets are done, plunge them into cold water; for this will enable you to rub off the skin readily. Slice thin, and season with butter and salt, unless vinegar be preferred. Boil the cabbage for two hours, and during the last half-hour add a table-spoonful of salt. Sometimes half a pound of lean salt pork is cooked for five hours in the water, put into the kettle in which the cabbage is to be boiled, — three hours before the vegetable is put in, and the remaining two while the cabbage is cooking. When this is done it is customary to place the pork on the dish with the beef* and serve a thin slice to anybody desiring it. The cabbage should be drained in a colander after the cooking, and cut with a knife as it is drained, or it may be put into a chopping-tray and chopped fine, salt and butter being added, — about a table-spoonful of butter and a teaspoonful of salt. The carrots and parsnips should be put into boiling water, and cooked for an hour ; the potatoes and turnips should be put into boiling water, and cooked for half an hour. If the vegetables are to be cooked with the meat, after the latter has been simmering for three hours, the kettle must be placed on a hotter part of the range, and the cabbage be added; an hour later add the carrots and parsnips ; and half an hour afterward add the turnips and potatoes. At serving-time take up the potatoes, and set them in a dish on the back part of the stove, covering them with a towel. Take up the cabbage, and let it drain; then remove the rest of the vegetables and the meat. The meat, being salt, gives the vegetables sufficient seasoning, so they need only be placed in the proper dishes. Everything should be served very hot, and there should be mixed mustard and vinegar on the table.