Colonial America Recipes: Cooking Vegetables

Cooking methods for vegetables took a back seat to the initial preparation of “dressing,” which entailed the removal of insects, caterpillars and slugs. There was also a considerable effort to group specific vegetables with various meats or a main course.

Based on recipes from Peterson’s, April 1863.

Cooking Greens and Brocoli [spelling left unchanged]

• In dressing these vegetables, the chief things to attend to are to wash them perfectly clean and free from insects, to cook them enough, and not too much, and to serve them very hot; half-cold greens are abominable.
• Washing greens requires great care and attention, even more at the season when caterpillars and slugs are plentiful than now.  Put them into water with plenty of salt in it, and that will cause the insects to emerge from hidden recesses, whence they could not otherwise be dislodged.
• As the salt tends to make the greens limp, as soon as they are free from insects, plunge them for an hour or more into fresh cold water, to restore their crispness.
• To be very nice, everything of the cabbage tribe should be brought in fresh from the garden; but, if they have to be kept from one day to the next, nothing but the stalk should be put in water, the whole plant should be immersed only for a little time before cooking.
• To cook greens and broccoli, put them into boiling water, with some salt, and boil them fast, with the lid of the saucepan off. If soda be used, let it be a bit no larger than a pea.
• A Savoy or large cabbage will take three-quarters of an hour; sea-cale [in the barley and rye family] and broccoli, if fresh, half an hour; bunch greens, half an hour; Brussels-sprouts, the same; all these must be boiled until quite tender, not longer.
  
• Potatoes are served with almost everything of which an American partakes.  Greens and broccoli are eaten with all roast meat. Sea-cale is sometimes introduced as a vegetable, but most persons prefer it as an entremets [a side dish, such as a relish or dessert, served in addition to the principal course], and eat it by itself.
• Beet is generally used as a salad, or with salad, but in some families it is served hot, as a vegetable.
• Turnips, parsnips, and carrots suit best with boiled meat, but in some places one or all of them are also served with roast meat, especially mutton.
The copyright of the article Colonial America Recipes: Cooking Vegetables in 19th Century Recipes is owned by Pat Williams. Permission to republish Colonial America Recipes: Cooking Vegetables in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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