There is no article in which the difference between an elegant and an ordinary table is more seen, than in the dressing of greens: they may be the same at one place as at another; however, their look and taste are extremely different, and this chiefly from the careless way in which they are cooked. As to the quality of vegetables, freshness is their only value and excellence; the eye easily discovers if they have been kept too long; they soon lose their beauty in all respects. Roots, greens, etc. and the various productions of the garden, when first gathered, are plump and firm, and have a fragrant freshness, that no art can give them again, when they have lost it by being kept too long, though it will revive them a little to put them into cold spring water for some time. They are in greatest perfection just before they come to their full growth. Soft water will preserve the green colour best; if you have only hard water, put to it a teaspoonful of salt of wormwood.

Take care to wash and cleanse them from dust, dirt, and insects: this requires great attention: pick off all the outside leaves, and trim them nicely, and lay them in a pan of clean water for an hour before you dress them. They should always be boiled in a saucepan by themselves^ and have plenty of water: if meat is boiled with them in the same pot, they spoil the look and taste of each other.

The water must always boil before you put in what you intend to boil in it, which should boil briskly, in an open saucepan; the quicker they boil, the greener they will be; and when the vegetables sink, they are generally done enough, if the water has been kept constantly boiling; but if it has not, they will lose their colour. Take them up immediately, or they will lose their colour and goodness. Drain the water from them thoroughly before you send them to table. This humble branch of cookery requires very constant attention: if vegetables are too long on the fire, they lose all their beauty and flavour, and if they are not thoroughly boiled tender, they are tremendously indigestible, and much more troublesome to the stomach than underdone meats.

Above all, take care your vegetables are fresh; for as the fishmonger often suffers for the sins of the cook, so the cook often gets undeservedly blamed for not well dressing vegetables, which, in this metropolis, are often kept so long, that no art can make them either look or eat well.