Vegetables, as well as animal foods, contain nitrogenous substances. Fats are well represented, and while they resemble in chemical composition the animal fats, the fact remains that they produce less heat on combustion. They contain more olein and less of the solid components. To the vegetable kingdom we look for our carbohydrates, sugars and starches-both difficult materials to cook well. The remaining constituents, mineral salts, have great dietetic importance; they are easily dissolved and lost in cooking. Potash in green vegetables is more abundant than soda; rice, however, contains a liberal allowance of the latter. Use salt with green vegetables and potatoes, but not with rice. Vegetable foods are recommended to persons with gouty diathesis and those inclined to uric acid conditions or rheumatism. Vegetable proteids do not yield uric acid.

All vegetables should go over the fire in boiling water. Green vegetables must be cooked in salted water; underground vegetables and those containing starch in unsalted water. They must boil from the time they go over the fire until they are drained. All vegetables containing sulphur, as cabbage, onions and turnips, must be cooked in uncovered saucepans, or they will give off unpleasant odors. Add butter or fat after they are taken from the fire. All starchy vegetables are rendered difficult of digestion when cooked in heated fat.