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.