411. Brocoli

Choose close firm heads, nearly of a size. Put them into boiling water with salt; allow them plenty of room in boiling, or they will break; and boil them fast, or they will lose their colour. They will take from ten minutes to half an hour, according to the size of the beads. When the stalks are tender, which you can know by putting a fork up the middle of the stalk, they are done. Take them up with a wire ladle, that the water may run off without bruising the heads. Serve on a buttered toast. Sauce, melted butter.

412. Cabbage

Large full-grown cabbage and savoys will take half an hour or more in boiling. Strip all the outside leaves till you come to the white quick grown ones; then shave the stocks of the leaves that are left on, and score the stalk a little way up. Drain them carefully when boiled, and serve them on a drainer.

413. Young Coleworts and Sprouts - Do not be too saving in trimming sprouts, as harsh or bad leaves will spoil a whole dish. They will take from ten minutes to a quarter of an hour in boiling. Be careful in draining, so as not to spoil the shape of the heads.

Cold cabbage may be fried and served with fried beef. It will re-quire a little bit of butter, a little good gravy, and a little pepper and salt. Shake it about well, and let it remain no longer in the pan than is necessary to make it hot through.

414. Red Cabbage

This is sometimes stewed, for eating with bouilli beef. Take a small red firm cabbage; wash, pick, and cut it in slices half an inch thick; then pick it to pieces leaf by leaf. Make half a pint of melted butter, in a saucepan large enough to contain the whole. Shake the cabbage from the water that hangs about it, and put it to the melted butter, with a tea-cup full of good gravy, an onion, sliced, and pepper, salt, and cayenne. Let it stew half an hour or more, keeping the saucepan close shut. When quite tender, add a glass of vinegar; let it just boil up; then serve.

415. Spinach

Pick leaf by leaf, wash it in three waters, put a little salt in the boiling water, boil it very quickly, and keep it under the water; seven or eight minutes will be sufficient to boil it; strain it on the back of a sieve, and press it as dry as possible between two plates; spread it on a dish, and score it crussways, in squares of an inch and a half, or two inches. Spinach is often served with poached eggs and buttered toast, or slices of fried bread. It is sometimes stewed in the following manner: - When it has boiled five minutes, 6train and press it, and put it in a small stew-pan, the bottom just covered with rich boiling gravy; add a bit of butter, a little pepper, salt and nutmeg, and two table-spoonsful of cream; stew it five minutes.

416. Vegetable Marrow Or Gourd

Gather the fruit when the size of an egg; put it into boiling water, with a little salt; boil it until it is tender, which will be in about half an hour; cut it in slices half an inch thick; lay it on buttered toast; sprinkle it with pepper and salt; pour melted butter over it. If the fruit has seeds in it, the seedy part must be scooped out, but they are not so good in this state. The fruit may be cut in slices raw, and fried in butter, and served with melted butter and vinegar.