All vegetables should be well picked and washed. A very little salt
should always be thrown into the water in which they are boiled. A
steady regular fire should be kept up, and they should never for a
moment be allowed to stop boiling or simmering till they are thoroughly
done. Every sort of vegetable should be cooked till tender, as if the
least hard or under-done they are both unpalatable and unwholesome. The
practice of putting pearl-ash in the pot to improve the colour of green
vegetables should be strictly forbidden, as it destroys the flavour,
and either renders them flat and insipid, or communicates a very
disagreeable taste of its own.
Every sort of culinary vegetable is infinitely best when fresh from the
garden, and gathered as short a time as possible before it is cooked.
They should all be laid in a pan of cold water for a while previous to
boiling.
When done, they should be carefully drained before they go to table, or
they will be washy all through, and leave puddles of discoloured water
in the bottoms of the dishes, to the disgust of the company and the
discredit of the cook.