Part 22 (2/2)
Asparagus, 15 to 20 minutes, young; 30 to 50 if old.
Tomatoes, 1 to 2 hours.
String beans and sh.e.l.led beans, 45 to 60 minutes or longer.
Beets, boiled, 1 hour if young; old, 3 to 5 hours.
Beets, baked, 3 to 6 hours. Carrots, 1 to 2 hours.
Parsnips, 45 minutes, young; old, 1 to 2 hours.
Turnips, young, 45 minutes; old, 1-1/2 to 2 hours.
Winter squash, 1 hour. Cabbage, young, 1 hour; old, 2 to 3 hours.
Vegetable oysters, 1 to 2 hours.
Celery, 20 to 30 minutes.
Spinach, 20 to 60 minutes or more.
Cauliflower, 20 to 40 minutes.
Summer squash, 20 to 60 minutes.
If vegetables after being cooked cannot be served at once, dish them up as soon as done, and place the dishes in a _bain marie_ or in pans of hot water, where they will keep of even temperature, but not boil.
Vegetables are never so good after standing, but they spoil less kept in this way than any other. The water in the pans should be of equal depth with the food in the dishes. Stewed vegetables and others prepared with a sauce, may, when cold, be reheated in a similar manner.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Bain Marie.]
If salt is to be used to season, one third of a teaspoonful for each pint of cooked vegetables is an ample quant.i.ty.
THE IRISH POTATO.
DESCRIPTION.--The potato, a plant of the order _Solanaceae_, is supposed to be indigenous to South America. Probably it was introduced into Europe by the Spaniards early in the sixteenth century, but cultivated only as a curiosity. To Sir Walter Raleigh, however, is usually given the credit of its introduction as a food, he having imported it from Virginia to Ireland in 1586, where its valuable nutritive qualities were first appreciated. The potato has so long const.i.tuted the staple article of diet in Ireland, that it has come to be commonly, though incorrectly, known as the Irish potato.
The edible portion of the plant is the tuber, a thick, fleshy ma.s.s or enlarged portion of an underground stem, having upon its surface a number of little buds, or ”eyes,” each capable of independent growth.
The tuber is made up of little cells filled with starch granules, surrounded and permeated with a watery fluid containing a small percentage of the alb.u.minous or nitrogenous elements. In cooking, heat coagulates the alb.u.men within and between the cells, while the starch granules absorb the watery portion, swell, and distend the cells. The cohesion between these is also destroyed, and they easily separate. When these changes are complete, the potato becomes a loose, farinaceous ma.s.s, or ”mealy.” When, however, the liquid portion is not wholly absorbed, and the cells are but imperfectly separated, the potato appears waxen, watery, or soggy. In a mealy state the potato is easily digested; but when waxy or water-soaked, it is exceedingly trying to the digestive powers.
It is obvious, then, that the great _desideratum_ in cooking the potato, is to promote the expansion and separation of its cells; in other words, to render it mealy. Young potatoes are always waxy, and consequently less wholesome than ripe ones. Potatoes which have been frozen and allowed to thaw quickly are much sweeter and more watery, because in thawing the starch changes into sugar. Frozen potatoes should be thawed in cold water and cooked at once, or kept frozen until ready for use.
PREPARATION AND COOKING.--Always pare potatoes very thin. Much of the most nutritious part of the tuber lies next its outer covering; so care should be taken to waste as little as possible. Potatoes cooked with the skins on are undoubtedly better than those pared. The chief mineral element contained in the potato is potash, an important const.i.tuent of the blood. Potash salts are freely soluble in water, and when the skin is removed, there is nothing to prevent these salts from escaping into the water in which the potato is boiled. If the potato is cooked in its ”jacket,” the skin, which does not in general burst open until the potato is nearly done, serves to keep this valuable element largely inside the potato while cooking. For the same reason it is better not to pare potatoes and put them in water to soak over night, as many cooks are in the habit of doing, to have them in readiness for cooking for breakfast.
Potatoes to be pared should be first washed and dried. It is a good plan to wash quite a quant.i.ty at one time, to be used as needed. After paring, drop at once into cold water and rinse them thoroughly. It is a careless habit to allow pared potatoes to fall among the skins, as in this way they become stained, and appear black and discolored after cooking. Scrubbing with a vegetable brush is by far the best means for cleaning potatoes to be cooked with the skins on.
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