If there is one article of our diet which more than any other benefits by cooking in paper bags it is the vegetables.

Hitherto the vegetables of the ordinary cook have been a byword for all that is tasteless and unappetizing, and thus they have been robbed of the popularity to which their food-value entitles them. Vegetarian and meat-eater alike know and regret that by ordinary methods of cooking much that is best in vegetables, both for the palate and the health, are boiled out into the water and thrown away.

Medical men tell us how valuable are the salts and other constituents of vegetables thus wasted. Little medicine would be needed if we included in our diet these juices, which form the choice flavor of the vegetables. Up to the present we have thrown nature's physic to the dogs - or, at any rate, down the kitchen sink.

But with the vegetables cooked in bags nothing is lost. All the food-value and all the flavor are retained. The cooking is easier, without smell, and the result will be to place vegetables in that honored place which they should occupy on every well-served table. This is a matter which the ordinary householder and the "Food Reformer" alike have at heart.

Asparagus

Trim and clean the asparagus in the usual way. Tie up, and put in the paper bag. Add a quarter of a tumbler of water, a little salt, and place on the grid. Allow thirty-five to forty-five minutes in a hot oven (350 Fahr.).

Lima Beans

Take a quart of lima beans, add two ounces of butter, four ounces of diced ham, a little sugar and salt, a good teaspoon-ful of flour, and a few sweet herbs to taste. Put in a bag with half-a-pint of water and cook for sixty minutes in a moderate oven (300 Fahr.).

Vegetable Marrow

Peel and halve lengthways two or three vegetable marrows, remove the seeds, blanch for three minutes and drain well. Chop up some cold meat or poultry left from a previous meal, season to taste, add a small chopped shallot or onion, a table-spoonful of flour, a little Worcester sauce, two small halved tomatoes, and an equal quantity of mushrooms peeled and chopped. Blend with two tablespoonfuls of stock or gravy, mix well, stuff the marrow with the mixture, place in a well-buttered paper-bag, and bake for thirty-five to fifty minutes in 300 Fahr.

Mushrooms

Peel the mushrooms and wash them well. Then cook in the same way as tomatoes, and allow the same time.

Plainly Boiled Peas

Put a pint of freshly-shelled peas, a sprig of mint, and half a pint of water into a paper-bag, seal up, and cook for thirty-five to forty-five minutes in 300 Fahr.

Peas

Put a pint of freshly-shelled green peas in a bowl, add a tea-spoonful of sugar, an ounce of butter, a teaspoonful of flour, a little salt, a chopped lettuce, a small bouquet garni and half a pint of water. Mix together, place in a bag and cook for thirty minutes in a moderate oven (300 Fahr.).

Spinach

Pick over and thoroughly wash two pounds of spinach; leave the vegetable as wet as you can, and put in a bag. Add a little sugar and a pinch of salt. Seal bag, and cook for thirty-live minutes in 300 Fahr. Then stand the grid bearing the bag on a large plate, and prick the bottom of the bag in such a way as to allow all the water to run out. Dish up, add a small piece of butter, and serve.

Tomatoes

Place six tomatoes in boiling water for twenty-five seconds, then take them out, and you will find they will peel easily. Butter your paper-bag. Place salt, pepper, a suspicion of sugar, and a small piece of butter in the bag, and put on grid. Allow twelve minutes in hot oven (350 Fahr.).