ON COOKING VEGETABLES.

After being well washed, they should be laid in water, excepting corn and peas, which should be husked and shelled with clean hands, and not washed, as some of the sweetness is thereby extracted. Put all kinds, except peas and beans, into boiling water, with a little salt in it. Hard water spoils peas, and is not good for any vegetables; a very little saleratus or soda will rectify it. Peas are much best when first gathered, and they should not be shelled long before boiling. If they are old, a salt-spoon of soda in the water will make them tender. Asparagus should not be cut so far below the surface of the ground as it usually is for market; the white end never boils tender. Sweet potatoes require a third longer time to cook than the common ones.

Greens, lettuce, and cucumbers should be gathered before the dew is off in the morning, and put into fresh water. All these, with peas, beans, and asparagus, are unhealthful after they are withered.

To Boil Potatoes.

The best potatoes are good boiled without paring, but even they, are best pared; and poor potatoes are unfit to eat, boiled with the skins on. New potatoes are made watery by being laid in water, but late in the winter and in the spring they should be pared and laid in cold water an hour or two before they are cooked. Put them into boiling water, with salt in it, and allow thirty or forty minutes for boiling, according to the size. When they are done through, pour off the water, and take the kettle to the door or window, and shake them. Doing this in the open air makes them mealy; return them to the fire a minute or two, and then serve. Many persons take a fork and break them up in the kettle, before taking them up, and they make a beautiful looking dish done in this way.

Potatoes require nearly an hour to bake in a cooking stove or range.

Mashed Potatoes.

Boil them according to the directions in the preceding receipt, allowing twenty minutes more time before dinner, than if they were to be put on the table whole. When they are dried, set off the kettle and mash them in it with a wooden pestle. This is better than to take them into a pan, as they will keep hot in the kettle. Have ready a gill or two of hot milk or cream; if you use milk, put a small piece of butter into it. Sprinkle salt into the potato and mash it till it is perfectly fine; then pour in the hot milk and mix it thoroughly. The more it is wrought with the pestle, the whiter it becomes. Put it into the dish for the table, smooth the top into proper shape, and set it into the stove to brown. To prepare it in the nicest manner, beat the yolk of an egg and spread over the top before putting it into the stove. If you do not care to take all this trouble, it is very good without being browned.

Potatoe Balls.

Mash boiled potatoes fine, stir into them the yolk of an egg, and make them into balls; then dip them into a beaten egg, roll them in cracker crumbs, and brown them in a quick oven; or, fry them in a small quantity of nice drippings, and in that case flatten them so that they can be easily turned, and browned both sides.

Old Potatoes.

When potatoes are poor, as they often are in the spring, pare, soak, and boil them as directed in the first receipt. Then take two together in a coarse cloth, squeeze and wring them. You can, with care, turn them into the dish in shape; but if not, it is no matter. The broken pieces will still be far better than before, for they will be dry and mealy. Keep a cloth for the purpose.

To Fry Potatoes.

Pare and slice them thin, and if you have the drippings of a baked ham in which to fry them, it will give them a much better relish than butter or beef drippings. Cold boiled potatoes, if fried, should be sliced thicker than raw ones. The latter require much more time to cook than the others. Sprinkle them with salt while frying.

Potatoes Heated in Milk.

To make a very good dish for breakfast, cut cold potatoes quite small, and put them into a saucepan or spider, with milk enough almost, but not entirely, to cover them. When the milk becomes hot, stir and mash the potatoes with a large spoon until there are no lumps. Add salt, and a small bit of butter, stir it often, until it is as dry as you wish to have it. It is a nicer dish, when prepared with so much milk that a good deal of stirring is necessary to make it dry, than if done in but a small quantity.

Sweet Potatoes.

They are best baked; are very nice boiled till tender, and then pared and laid into the oven to brown. They require more time for being cooked, than the common potato. Cold sweet potatoes are excellent sliced and browned on the griddle. When one side is done, sprinkle salt over before turning them.

Mashed Turnips.

Boil them in salt and water, at least an hour and a half, unless they are of early growth. Take them from the kettle into a deep dish, press them a little and pour off the water; mash them like potatoes, but use no milk, as they are moist enough. Add salt and a little butter.

It is a very nice way to put an equal number of potatoes and turnips together, and mash them until they are thoroughly mixed. This is a favorite dish among the Dutch in the State of New York.

Shelled Beans.

Put them into cold soft water, just enough to cover them. Boil them from an hour to an hour and a quarter. Some kinds are more easily boiled than others. Do not put in salt until they are nearly done, as its tendency is to make them hard. Take them up with a skimmer and butter them.

String Beans.

Beans should never be used in this way after the pod has become old enough to have a string, or tough fibre upon it. Cut off each end, and cut them up small. Boil them in as little water as will keep them from burning. Just before you take them up, add salt and butter, and dredge in a little flour. They should have only as much liquor in them as you wish to take up in the dish, else the sweetness is wasted. String beans and peas are good boiled together.

Peas.

If peas are young and fresh (and none others are good), they will boil in half an hour or thirty-five minutes. They should be put into cold water, without salt. The same quantity should be used as for string beans, and for the same reason. When they are tender, add salt and butter. It is an improvement to boil a single small slice of pork in them. It need not be laid into the dish, and the same slice will do for another boiling.

Asparagus.

Wash it, trim off the white ends, and tie it up in bunches with a twine or a strip of old cotton. Throw them into boiling water with salt in it. Boil twenty-five minutes or half an hour. Have ready two or three slices of toasted bread, dip them in the water and lay them in the dish. Spread them with butter and lay the bunches of asparagus upon the toast. Cut the strings with a scissors and draw them out without breaking the stalks; lay thin shavings of butter over the asparagus, and send it to the table.

Asparagus and Eggs.

Take cold asparagus, and cut it the size of peas; break four or five eggs into a dish, and beat them with pepper, salt, and the asparagus. Then put it into a stew-pan with a spoonful of butter, set it on the fire, and stir it all the time till it thickens. Put it upon toasted bread in a hot dish.

Mushrooms.

Choose such as are young, having red gills; cut off the part of the stalk which grew in the earth; wash them, remove the skin from the top, stew them with some salt in a little water, and when tender add butter, into which you have rubbed browned flour. They are good fried on a griddle.

Salad.

Gather lettuce and pepper-grass early, before the dew has evaporated; pick them over, and lay them in cold water. If the weather is very warm, change the water before dinner-time, and add ice. Just before it is served, cut it small, and prepare the dressing in the following manner. Boil three eggs twelve minutes, and throw them into cold water; remove the shell, and take out the yolks; mash them fine in a spoonful of water and two of oil; add salt, powdered sugar, made mustard and vinegar; pour the mixture over the salad, cut the whites of the eggs in rings and garnish the top.

Cucumbers.

Cucumbers should be gathered while dew is yet on them, and put immediately into water. Half an hour before dinner, pare and slice them very thin, and let them lie in fresh water till dinner is ready; then drain them, lay them into a dish, sprinkle them with salt, pour on the vinegar, and add the pepper last.

Macaroni.

Procure that which looks white and clean. When it is to be used, examine it carefully, as there are sometimes little insects inside. Wash it, and put it in a stew-pan in cold water enough almost to cover it. Add a little salt. Let it boil slowly half an hour; then add a gill of milk and a small piece of butter, and boil it a quarter of an hour more. Then put it into the dish in which it is to go to the table, grate old cheese over it, and heat a shovel red-hot and hold over the top to brown it. It may be browned in a stove, but if the dish would be injured by it, the better way is to use the shovel.

Parsnips.

Those that have remained in the ground till March, are usually very nice. Boil them three quarters of an hour, and cook enough for two days. Scrape the outside, split them, and lay them on a dish with a little butter, salt, and pepper. Take those that are left the next day, and lay them on a hot griddle or spider, with a little butter, ham fat, or nice drippings, and brown them. These are better than on the first day. They will brown well when first boiled, but not so quickly.

Carrots.

These are not considered by most people very good; but they are so in broth and soup. To eat with meat they should be boiled three quarters of an hour, if fresh from the garden; in the winter, an hour and a half. They make very good pies after the fashion of pumpkin or squash; but they must be boiled very tender, and in a good deal of water, else a strong taste will pervade the pies.

Beets.

When they are washed the little fibres and ragged excrescences should not be broken off, as the juices of the root will thus be lost. Young beets boil in an hour; but in the winter they require from two to three hours. When tender, put them for a minute or two into cold water, take them in your hands and slip the skins off. This is a much easier and better way than to remove the skin with a knife. Lay them into a dish, cut them several times through, sprinkle them with salt and pepper, add a little butter, and, if you choose, vinegar also. It is a very good way to cut up all that remain after dinner, put on salt and vinegar, and set them aside to be used cold another day.

Salsify, or Oyster Plant.

Wash and scrape it very thoroughly, and put it in boiling water with salt in it. When tender, cut it in slices and fry it in hot fat, in a batter made of an egg, milk, flour, and salt. It is very nice, also, dipped in bread-crumbs moistened with a beaten egg, and browned on a griddle.

Summer Squash.

If the rind is tender, boil it whole, in a little bag kept for the purpose. It should be put into boiling water; three quarters of an hour is long enough to cook it. Take the bag into a pan and press it with the edge of a plate or with a ladle, until the water is out; then turn the squash out into a dish, add salt and butter, and smooth over the top.

Winter Squash.

Cut it up and take out the inside. Pare the pieces, and stew them in as little water as possible. If you have a tin with holes in it, which will fit the kettle and keep the squash from touching the water, it is the nicest way to steam it. Be careful it does not burn. It will cook in an hour. Mash it in a dish, or, if it is watery, squeeze it in a coarse cloth like summer squash. Stir in butter and salt. Lay it into the dish, smooth the top, and, if you like, pepper it.

Onions.

Boil them twenty minutes, and pour off the water entirely; then put in equal parts of hot water and milk, or skimmed milk alone, and boil them twenty minutes more. When they are done through, take them up with a skimmer, let them drain a little, and lay them into the dish. Put on butter, pepper, and salt.

Spinage.

Put it into a net, or a bag of coarse muslin, kept for the purpose, and boil it in a plenty of water with salt in it, ten or twelve minutes. All kinds of greens should be boiled in plenty of water, else they will be bitter.

One method of serving spinage is, to press it between two plates, then put it into a saucepan with a small bit of butter, salt, and a little cream, and boil it up. Another is to drain it thoroughly, lay it in the dish, put upon the top hard boiled eggs, sliced, and pour melted butter over it.

Greens.

Cabbage plants, turnip or mustard tops, the roots and tops of young beets, cowslips, dandelions, and various other things, make a good dish in the spring. When boiled enough, they will sink to the bottom of the kettle. Some require an hour, and others less time. Turnip-tops will be boiled enough in twenty minutes. Remember to put salt into the water unless you boil a piece of pork with them.

Cabbage.

Remove the waste leaves, and divide the stump end as far as the centre of the cabbage. It is good boiled with salt meat; but if cooked by itself, salt should be added to the water. Cabbage should be put into boiling water, be well skimmed, and boil an hour or hour and a half, according to the size.

Cauliflowers.

Lay them an hour or two in cold salt and water; remove the outside leaves and boil them half an hour in milk and water. If they are strong, pour off the water when they are half done, and put fresh boiling water to them. Brocoli is cooked in the same manner, and should be laid on toast exactly like asparagus.

Egg Plant.

Take fresh purple ones, and pull out the stem; parboil them and cut them in slices about an inch thick. Dip them in a beaten egg, and then in a plate of bread or cracker crumbs, with salt and pepper, and fry them in drippings until they are nicely browned.

Boiled Corn.

Put the ears into boiling water, with salt in it, and boil them half an hour.

Corn Soup.

Cut the corn off the cob, and boil the cobs half an hour in the water; then take them out, put in the corn and boil it twenty minutes or half an hour. If there is a quart of the corn and water, add a pint of new milk, with salt, pepper, and one or two beaten eggs. Continue the boiling a few minutes, and thicken it a little with flour.

Succotash.

Cut off the corn from the cobs, and, an hour and a half before dinner, put the cobs, with a few shelled beans, into cold water to boil. After one hour take out the cobs, put in the corn and boil it half an hour. There should be no more water than will be necessary to make the succotash of the right thickness; as having too much occasions a loss of the richness imparted by the cobs. When you take it up, add a small piece of butter. This is much better than to boil the corn on the cob and then cut it off.

It is a very good way, when a family are tired of fresh meat in hot weather, to boil a piece of pork in another pot until the grossest fat has boiled out, and then put it with the succotash for the remainder of the time. It gives a very good flavor to the corn, and makes an excellent dinner.

Corn Oysters.

Grate young, sweet corn into a dish, and to a pint add one egg, well beaten, a small teacup of flour, half a gill of cream, and a teaspoonful of salt. Mix it well together. Fry it exactly like oysters, dropping it into the fat by spoonfuls about the size of an oyster.