=French Beans en Fricassé.=--Cut off the ends and strings of some
young French beans. Cook them in salted water, then drain them well.
Put them into a saucepan with two ounces butter and chopped onion, or
if liked, garlic and parsley chopped very fine, with a little salt.
Be careful to add some sauce if the beans dry up before they are
completely cooked. Toss them in the pan for a few minutes, and before
taking them off the fire add the yolks of one or two eggs (according to
the quantity of beans) well beaten up, with a little water, the juice
of a lemon, and some grated Parmesan cheese. Stir from time to time,
never allowing them to boil, or the eggs will set. To keep the beans a
good colour, put a pinch of salt, with a pinch of soda, in the water
when boiling them.
=French Beans al Pomodoro.=--Take your French beans, cut off the ends
and string. Wash in cold water, boil till tender, and drain. While
still wet, put them into a baking dish with some good olive oil, some
chopped onion and parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Put the dish on
the fire with the cover on, and cook slowly. As the beans dry add the
juice of some tomatoes or some good tomato conserve. Take care they do
not burn.
=Beans with Cream.=--Cut off the ends, remove the strings, and cut into
two or three pieces. Wash in cold water, drain, and boil until tender
in salted water. Beat the yolks of three eggs, add half a cupful of
cream, and a tablespoonful of melted butter. Heat thoroughly and add
gradually a tablespoonful of vinegar; when smooth and thick pour over
the beans, keep hot a few minutes, and serve.
=Beans with Parsley.=--String the beans, cut in strips, and cook until
tender, then put them in melted butter. Sprinkle with minced parsley,
keep warm for ten minutes, and serve.
=Beans à la Bretonne.=--Prepare according to directions given for
beans with cream, using one quart of beans, drain and reheat with a
tablespoonful each of butter and chopped onion; brown slightly. Season
with minced parsley, pepper, and salt, add the juice of a lemon and a
cupful of white stock or hot milk. Serve immediately.
=How to Preserve French Beans.=--The strings should be pulled off. Wash
them, then cook them for ten minutes in boiling water. Take them out,
and pour cold water over them, dry them, and put them into jars, and
fill to the brim with salted water; cover, and tie up the tops, put the
jars into hot water for an hour and a half without ever letting them
actually boil or the jars might be cracked. They should be placed in a
deep enough pan, so as to cover the jars to the necks.
=French Beans Boiled.=--String, and cut in crossway slices two pounds
of French beans, put into abundance of boiling water, to which one
tablespoonful of salt and a piece of soda the size of a pea have been
added; this preserves the fresh green. If there is not plenty of water
the beans will not cook properly. Boil for twenty minutes to half an
hour. Drain through a colander and serve on a drainer.
=French Beans Sauté.=--Boil as above; after draining, return to the
saucepan. Add a sprinkle of pepper and a tablespoonful of butter; shake
well for three minutes and serve very hot.
BEETROOT (_Beta vulgaris. Chenopodiaceæ_).
As with all root crops, a soil fairly free from stones is preferred;
a stony ground will produce malformed roots. A light sandy loam will
grow the best beet, but any good garden soil will answer excellently.
There should be no recent manure in the two upper spits, but a slight
dressing of old manure beneath the second spit will work wonders.
A giant beet is far from desirable for cooking, as it requires such a
monstrous great pan, since, if the taproot be broken, the beet will
bleed and lose all its colour, and the cook will send anæmic-looking
slabs of garnishing on the salads. Probably there is no better beet for
private growing than Nutting’s dwarf red. The turnip-rooted beets are
compact, it is true, but we do not think they can compare with this for
flavour or tender texture.
Sow beet during April in shallow drills a foot apart, single the
seedlings in May, and thin out three weeks later to eight inches
distance. Keep the ground free from weeds by means of frequent use of
the Dutch hoe. The roots may be used as soon as large enough, and the
whole crop must be lifted in September, or early October. Choosing a
bright dry day, lift them with a long tined fork most carefully, trim
the leaves off two inches from the crown, and store in sand in a cool,
frost-proof cellar. The utmost care must be taken not to bruise or
break the roots.
=Swiss Chard or Leaf Beet.=--Three hundred years ago, before the
introduction of beetroot, beets were grown for their foliage only, and
Gerarde, who wrote in 1597, tells us that “the leaves were eaten as
salad with oil and vinegar.”
The cultivation is much the same as for root beet, except that it can
stand more manure, as it is the foliage which is required, and the
ground does not need much preparation. At the end of the summer the
leaves can be gathered, and, with a little protection from frost, the
plants will bear for a long time.
The leaves can be eaten for salad or cooked like spinach with a little
sorrel, and the midribs are treated as sea kale or cardoons. It will
thus be seen it is a very useful plant.--W. F. GILES, Sutton and Sons,
Reading.