Welcome to FabulousFusionFood's Alexis Soyer's Part 8 (Vegetables) Page — Here you will find the full text from the eigth section: Vegetables; of Alexis Soyer's A Shilling Cookery Book for the People As well as the full text this page also provides links out to the overall index of the book and links to modern redactions of each and every recipe (where practicable). This site builds a complete library of Eliza Acton recipes, allowing the modern cook to make them at home today. Enjoy...

VEGETABLES.

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As I have before remarked, the food of man, in order to give proper nourishment, should be often varied; in fact, his health depends upon it, and nature seems to have given him those instruments, the teeth, by which he is enabled to masticate both animal and Vegetable food, besides having provided him abundantly with vegetable produce, which seems the balance, in point of health, between that and rich animal food. It is to be regretted that the labouring poor of this country do not partake of more vegetables than they do at present. If we travel over the country, we are surprised to find how small a portion of ground is engaged in horticulture; the consequence is that, excepting near large towns, scarcely a vegetable i9 to be obtained, and the poor are doomed to live almost entirely o» bread and cheese and a small portion of animal food, not even a potatoe is to be had during the winter and spring of the year. It is said by some, that the climate being colder than on the continent, the blood requires more heating food, and that in the summer the English are as much vegetable eaters as their neighbours; if such is the case, why not, then, add to the vegetables, in cooking them, those elements which would give all that animal food does.
    The most important of all the produce of the field is wheat, but that we shall treat of hereafter, under the head of bread. The most important of vegetable produce is the potato, a root the failure of whose growth produced a famine in one of the most productive countries in the world. It is a root in universal use, and yet is acknowledged to be by every one the least understood how to be cooked. A writer in a public journal, the other day, speaking of a well-boiled potato, says "that at present it is a thing purely ideal—it has never come out of the pot, in the experience of living man." And why? Because people boil all potatoes alike. If you ask Betty why she boiled the potatoes in such a manner, she answers, "My mother, or my sister, did so, and they were good." And so with everybody, little thinking that almost every potato differs; even the produce of the same seed will often differ in the same field. This is caused by the different soils, and the different manures applied to those soils.
    The present potato is quite a different root from its parent one, which grows in the Caribbean islands.
    Animal food, although flesh, differs in its nature, and requires different cookery. A Welsh or a Kerry leg of mutton requires to be treated quite different to a Leicestershire or Southdown.
    Thus it is with the potato. Some require quick boiling, others slow; some plenty of water, others little; some are best baked in their skins, others peeled; some large ones require to be cut in two, others will spoil if cut; and so on through all the various gradations.
    I therefore consider it requisite, that- if a potato is found not to be good by one system of boiling or steaming, to try another. Boiling, as I have said before, is the most simple process of cookery, and it is easily tried.

    Potato boiled.—Meg Dods says there are great varieties of potatoes, and fully as many ways of cooking them, but recommends boiling in preference to steaming. Mrs. Rundell prefers steaming, or, if boiled, in plenty of water, and when half done, some cold water and salt thrown in, and boil until not quite done, and then left in the pot near the fire.*
    Mrs. Glasse says, Boil in as little water as possible, without burning the saucepan.
    Mrs. Acton gives only the Lancashire way; this is, peeled and boiled slowly; when done, salt thrown over, and then the pot shook violently for some time, so that they are broken. She remarks that this method is not economical.
    Having given these, it is only right I should give my ideas. As I have before said, they all, perhaps, require a different system. If steamed, salt should be thrown into the water, and not on the potato, and when done, remove the steamer, and also the cover.

    270. How to choose Potatoes.—Observe, as a general rule, that the smaller the eye, the better the potato, as when they are too full in the eye they are either of an inferior quality, or are running to seed. To ascertain if they are sound, nip a piece from the thickest end with your finger nail; if good, the inside will either be of a white, yellow, or reddish hue, according to the sort and quality; if, on the contrary, they are spotted, they are bad, or getting so; but though this part may be slightly touched, by cutting a little off the outside they may prove fit for boiling; though they ought to be bought, when in this state, at a cheap rate. Potatoes always get bad in the spring of the year, as then the old ones are going out, and the new ones for some time continue to possess but little flavour, and are watery when boiled. The old ones ought to be peeled and steamed, and mashed, or baked in an oven, under a joint, or fried in fat, as No. 298; for when done whole in their skins, at this time of the year, the slightest spot spoils their flavour, The new ones are tasteless and watery, and, as I described above to you, are much better cooked when put in very hot water, but not boiling, than when put in cold.

    271. —If boiled, it may be that they require to be put into boiling water, or, may be, in cold, and either boiled quick or slow, but this you must find out. Choose all about the same size, with a smooth skin, and when they are boiled and begin to cracky throw off the water immediately, as it only damages the root Stand near the fire, with a cloth on, and serve in skin. Salt should be put into the water at the beginning. A watery potato will require quick boiling, and sometimes to be put in boiling water. If very watery, and they will not boil mealy, put them into the pot in their skins, fill up with water, and a piece of lime the size of a nut, and they will turn out mealy. It is unnecessary here to explain scientifically the cause of this.

    272. New Potatoes—Should be cleaned, and the skin rubbed off with a coarse cloth; add a little salt if the skin is dry. Put them into very hot water, and boil from fifteen to twenty minutes. Take them out of the water and let them drain before sending to table, throwing some salt over them. If very small they will not take above ten minutes.

    273. Baked Potatoes, with the skin on, should be chosen a large size (regents), placed in a slow oven and so that they do not touch; or if in a Dutch or American oven, before the fire, they should be turned often; they will take from one and a half to two hours. If without their skins, they should be done in a brown pan with fat, turning them occasionally.

    274. Baked Potato with Sausage (called Soyer's Potato).—Take a large potato and cut out a round piece as big as a shilling, through the potato; put in the scoop and remove some of the inside, fill this with sausage-meat or veal stuffing, cover the hole with a part of what you cut out, and bake with cut part uppermost.

    275. Mashed Potatoes.—After having boiled twelve middling sized potatoes until 'mealy, peel them, if with the skins on, and remove the eyes or specks; put them into a bowl, and take two forks in one hand, with the points of the prongs turned outwards; break the potatoes up with them; when breaking, add an ounce of butter and a gill of milk or a little more to them, and half a teaspoonful of salt, to every pound, and a pinch of pepper; they should be beat a great deal, until they become quite light; they should never be hard like paste, as is often the case when stirred with a spoon.
    Potatoes, if large, might be peeled, and cut in four pieces, put in boiling water with some Bait, boiled rather fast, and well drained when done; let the pan stand near the fire to dry your potatoes—three minutes will do it—and mash them as above.

    276. New Roasted Potato.—This should be a large potato .—the kidney kind preferred—should be half boiled, the skin remove, put into a baking dish, well rubbed with butter or fat and dredged with a little flour, salt and pepper, and put into the oven, or before the fire, either in an American or Dutch oven, until done; they ought to be of a nice brown colour, and are very relishing.

    277. Jerusalem Artichoke should be well washed and peeled, and put into a saucepan of warm water, with salt in it; boil till tender, then serve them up; if to he mashed, mash them at once, with salt, pepper, and butter; if whole, keep them covered until served. Melted butter over improves the look.
    They may be mashed with a little gravy; put in a dish, bread-crumbed over, and put in the oven, and are very nice. Or they can he treated in every way like turnips.

    278. Turnips.—Peel them, and boil in plenty of water, in which has been put some salt; boil till tender, and serve either whole, or mashed. If mashed, they should be put in a saucepan over the fire, with a bit of butter, or some milk, salt, and a little pepper, and a pinch of sugar, mashed up until rather dry and serve.
    A few capers mixed in the mashed turnip, is an improvement for boiled mutton.

    279. Swedes.—This was a vegetable in very little use for the table until the year of the famine in Ireland, when M. Soyer prepared it for the viceroy's table. It should he treated in every way like turnip, but cut into quarters for boiling. The middle size are only fit to use.

    280. Carrot.—This root varies quite as much as the potato; some are quickly done, even in twenty minutes, and some require two hours. They should be scraped, and boiled in water and salt; served cut in quarters lengthways.

    281. Parsnip and the White Carrot. — The same as the carrot.

    282. Red and White Beet.—These should be washed, out not scraped, and put into the pot with the skin on; when done, which is known by pressing the thick part, to see if it is soft, or by probing it with a skewer; remove the skin, cut it into slices, put it in a pan, with either gravy, butter, or milk, and a little vinegar, salt and pepper, boil it up, and serve. It is also good when cold, for salads.

FIRST AND GENERAL LESSON IN THE COOKING OF ALL KINDS OF VEGETABLES.

    283. Asparagus is a vegetable between the root and the plant, and requires more cooking, like the latter. It should be well scraped at the bottom part, tie them up in bundles of not more than twelve heads, have ready a pot of water, say three quarts for every hundred heads, in which you have placed one tablespoonful of salt, and if the water is hard half a teaspoonful of carbonate of soda; if they are a good size boil for twenty minutes, and serve with a slice of toasted bread under, and melted butter separate, or cream sauce No. 424.
    This, when cold, is very good with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper.
    The small, called sprew, is very excellent broken small in clear soup.

    284. Celery.—Dress like asparagus, catting off the green, leaving the branches six inches long; serve on toast, with melted butter or brown gravy over, tying three or four sticks together.

    Sea Kale.—Clean the root and boil like asparagus, and serve the same on toast, with either melted butter or cream sauce over.

    285. Green Cabbage and Savoys.—These close-leaf plants require well washing and soaking in salt and water before boiling; the stems should be removed, and then boiled in half a gallon of water, with two teaspoonfuls of salt and a little soda. These proportions will do for all vegetables. If the plants are large they should be cut in four.

    286. Sprouts, Spring Greens, Turnip Tops, &c.—These only require washing before boiling, and boil till tender in the same quantity of water as above.

    287. Stewed Cabbage or Savoys.—Cut in thin slices, wash, drain, and boil till tender; drain them free from water; put into a clean pot two ounces of butter or fat, and a little salt and pepper; when hot add the cabbage, and stir it well until nearly dry, then throw over a tablespoonful of flour, keep stirring, and then add a cupful of either broth, milk, or water, let boil ten minutes, and serve.

    288. Spinach requires to be well washed, and the stalks picked off; boil a quarter of a sieve in the same quantity of water as above for ten minutes; take out, drain, press with the hands or plate to remove the water, and serve it as plain greens; or put it on a clean board, and chop it fine, put it in a stew-pan, witK a quarter of a pound of good butter or fat, a teaspoonful of salt, two of flour, half of pepper; place it on the fire, with two gills of milk or broth, for a few minutes, and serve with toast round. More strong gravy may be added, or even milk or cream.

    289. Green Peas.—This, of all the pulse vegetables, is the most liked, and the most in use; and perhaps in no country in Europe can they be obtained in the same perfection as in England.
    The water should be boiling, and say one quart of peas to two quarts of water, with the same amount of salt as before; put the peas in, leave the cover off, and boil till tender; drain, and serve, with a piece of butter put on the dish. If mint or savory is liked, add it while boiling.

    290. Broad or Windsor Beans.—The appearance of this vegetable is generally spoiled because it is boiled with a piece of bacon; they ought to be boiled alone like the peas, and very fast, and if young do not take longer. They should be served with parsley and butter. When the skin is wrinkled they are done.

    291. French and Kidney Beans.—Head, tail, and string them; cut them down in thin strips, or in the middle, throw them into boiling water, in which a little more salt than usual has been put; boil for fifteen minutes, and serve either plain or with parsley and butter, and a little pepper and salt.
    These are skins of the pulse, and are considered exceedingly wholesome for persons who take much exercise, and eat freely of animal food; they purify the salt of the blood.

    292. Brocoli and Cauliflower should be put in salt and water some time before cooking, and require close examination, that no insects are inside; cut off the root and the large leaves; they should be boiled in boiling water, and will take about ten minutes. There are a variety of ways of using these vegetables, but in general a little too complicated for our work.

    293. Califlower and Brocoli, with Cheese Sauce.—Boil two or three middle-sized cauliflowers, make half a pint of thick melted butter, adding a little cayenne pepper, if handy, grate four ounces of good cheese, Cheshire preferable; mix this well with the sauce, and when boiling pour over the cauliflower or brocoli; set either in an oven or before the fire for fifteen minutes, until it gets brown; the yolk of an egg may be added; bread-crumb over, and serve. If no grater, cut your cheese fine, it will melt in boiling.
    Jerusalem artichokes, Scotch kail, and Brussels sprouts, are also very nice done this way.



PLANT CALLED THE THOUSAND HEADS.

On seeing this plant growing in great abundance in Yorkshire, I inquired of the farmer on whose land they were—if they were a vegetable for the table, and their name? when he informed me that they were intended for spring feeding for sheep, during the lambing season; that he never used them as human food. I asked him to let me have some to try and see how they eat. He did, and I cooked them like greens; and an exceeding nice vegetable they are. They are also good stewed, and cooked with a piece of bacon. As they grow at a time of the year when other green vegetables are scarce, I consider them a valuable article of food. They are sown about April, the small plant put out about October, and planted about three feet apart, and by March or April the whole field will be one luxuriant crop of greens.
    Farmers in the vicinity of large towns would do well to undertake their cultivation, as they would find a ready sale in all such places. At that time of year they are in full bloom, and are called by the above singular name in consequence of the thousands of heads continually sprouting from their root. The plant covers nearly one yard in circumference, and bears no resemblance to any other green I recollect seeing, not even to Brussels sprouts.

    294 Haricots and Lentils.—No receipt is more simple, or easier done, than any of these vegetables; there is hardly a cottage in France but what has them in stock, as they will keep good for years.
    Should you be short of potatoes, or supposing they are expensive, or even as a change, some of these are an excellent substitute; one quart will make, when cooked, four pounds of solid food.
    Haricots, plain boiled, should be first washed, then put into the black iron pot one quart of them, with four quarts of cold water, one ounce of butter or fat; boil them gently for three hours, or till tender; the water will be nearly absorbed, if the haricots are good; draw off the remainder; mix in a pint of it three teaspoonsful of flour, half ditto of pepper, add it to the haricots; boil for ten minutes, keep stirring, and serve, adding three teaspoonfuls of salt; an ounce of butter is an improvement.
    A little meat of any kind may be cooked with them, just the same as dried peas, only these are to be eaten whole, and four anions in slices, fried, may be added with the seasoning, when the haricots or lentils are nearly cooked. The broth, if ample, when strained from them, may be used as soup, with bread in it.

    295. Lentils.—Wash them as haricots, and cook them as such, putting them in cold water; they will not take so long, but try when tender. Meat is exceedingly good boiled with them, and they make good soup.
    These make an excellent salad, both in winter and summer. See Index.
    The liquor of either makes a nutritious soup, by adding fried onions, a little flour, pepper, and salt, and poured over bread previously sliced and put in a soup basin.

    I herewith send you the receipt I promised you on Nettles, which I tried while in Norfolk.

    296. Nettles.—Wash them well, drain, put them into plenty of boiling water with a little salt, boil for twenty minutes, or a little longer, drain them, put them on a board and chop them up, and either serve plain, or put them in the pan with a little salt, pepper, and a bit of butter, or a little fat and gravy from a roast; or add to a pound two teaspoonsfuls of flour, a gill of skim milk, a teaspoonful of sugar, and serve with or without poached eggs.
    This extraordinary spring production, of which few know the value, is at once pleasing to the sight, easy of digestion, and at a time of the year when greens are not to be obtained, invaluable as a purifier of the blood; the only fault is, as I have told you above, Eloise, they are to be had for nothing; it is a pity that children are not employed to pick them, and sell them in market towns.
    Another unused vegetable is mangel wurzel. The young leaf of the mangel wurzel, cleaned and cooked as above, is extremely good.
    In all my various visits to cottages during this spring, I have found but one where either of the above vegetables were in use. and that belonging to a gardener, who knew their value.
    These nettles are good during five months of the year; for even when large, the tops are tender. They make excellent tea, which is very refreshing and wholesome.*

    296A.—Sweet Docks, also a wild vegetable, or weed, are very good when done as follows, using about two-thirds of sweet dock, and one-third of nettles, boiled with a little carbonate of soda. When done, strain them, and to about one pint basin full, add one onion sliced and fried, a sprig of parsley, a little butter, pepper, and salt; put into a stewpan on the fire, stir, and gradually add a handful of oatmeal; when you think the meal has been sufficiently boiled, dish up and serve as a vegetable.

    297. Large Dry Green Peas.—One quart of peas, soak for twelve hours; put into a pan with one gallon of water, some fat, six sliced onions, one teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, one of pepper; simmer for two or three hours, or till tender, drain the peas, then add to them half a pound of flour, mixed in a pint of cold water, three teaspoonfuls of salt, a quarter of a pound of butter; boil twenty minutes; serve with bacon over.
    Small dumplings may be boiled in it; they will take half an hour.

    298. Fried Potatoes.—Peel a pound of potatoes, cut them into very thin slices, almost shavings; put some fat into a frying-pan; when very hot, but not burning, throw the slices in, not too many at a time, as they will stick together; move them about with a skimmer, to prevent it. When a nice brown colour, take them out, and sprinkle some salt over; serve them up separate, or over broiled meat. Two inches of fat ought to be in the pan.


    299. Fried Cooked Potatoes.—Let the fat in your frying-pan be about two inches deep; when smoking hot, add in five or six potatoes, cut crossways in thin slices, letting them be previously dried in a cloth; stir with a spoon; it will take about ten minutes to do them crisp; take them out, drain and dish them, sprinkling a little salt over.

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