Mashed Turnips

Boil them in salt and water, at least an hour and a half, unless they are of early growth. Take them from the kettle into a deep dish, press them a little and pour off the water; mash them like potatoes, but use no milk, as they are moist enough. Add salt and a little butter.

It is a very nice way to put an equal number of potatoes and turnips together, and mash them until they are thoroughly mixed. This is a favorite dish among the Dutch in the State of New York.

Shelled Beans

Put them into cold soft water, just enough to cover them. Boil them from an hour to an hour and a quarter. Some kinds are more easily boiled than others. Do not put in salt until they are nearly done, as its tendency is to make them hard. Take them up with a skimmer and butter them.

String Beans

Beans should never be used in this way after the pod has become old enough to have a string, or tough fibre upon it. Cut off each end, and cut them up small. Boil them in as little water as will keep them from burning. Just before you take them up, add salt and butter, and dredge in a little flour. They should have only as much liquor in them as you wish to take up in the dish, else the sweetness is wasted. String beans and peas are good boiled together.

Peas

If peas are young and fresh (and none others are good), they will boil in half an hour or thirty-five minutes. They should be put into cold water, without salt. The same quantity should be used as for string beans, and for the same reason. When they are tender, add salt and butter. It is an improvement to boil a single small slice of pork in them. It need not be laid into the dish, and the same slice will do for another boiling.

Asparagus

Wash it, trim off the white ends, and tie it up in bunches with a twine or a strip of old cotton. Throw them into boiling water with salt in it. Boil twenty-five minutes or half an hour. Have ready two or three slices of toasted bread, dip them in the water and lay them in the dish. Spread them with butter and lay the bunches of asparagus upon the toast. Cut the strings with a scissors and draw them out without breaking the stalks; lay thin shavings of butter over the asparagus, and send it to the table.

Radishes

A little while before using, lay them upon ice, or put them in cold water. To prepare them for the table, cut off the leaves; then scrape them, and put them into a tumbler, or other glass suitable, with ice-water. Serve with salt, or pepper and vinegar.

Mushrooms

Choose such as are young, having red gills; cut off the part of the stalk which grew in the earth; wash them, remove the skin from the top, stew them with some salt in a little water, and when tender add butter, into which you have rubbed browned flour. They are good fried on a griddle.

Artichokes

Trim them, wash thoroughly, and lay into cold water for several hours. Then put them into boiling water, and boil three-quarters of an hour, or until tender. Then stew them a few minutes in half a pint of milk, slightly thickened with flour or corn-starch, wet in cold milk, and seasoned with a bit of butter, a little salt and pepper.

Artichokes are also eaten raw, and served like cucumbers, sliced, with salt, vinegar, and pepper.

Fried Celery-Cut large stalks of celery in three pieces. Boil till tender; then dip each alternately into a batter made with two eggs and a few spoonfuls of milk, and into fine crumbs. Pry brown in butter.