A Course of Lectures on the Principles of Domestic Economy and Cookery

the beef on it. Just moisten the cabbage with a little gravy or broth from the beef, and serve the rest of the gravy in a bowl; remember that the broth from the meat is salted, and that in moistening the cabbage it seasons it, or if you like very much salt you can put a little with the cabbage in cooking. Now, to boil cabbage quickly, and without odor: After thoroughly washing it take off the decayed leaves, cut it in rather small pieces, but do not use the stalk of the cabbage--avoid that. Put over the fire a sauce pan large enough to hold the cabbage twice over. Have plenty of space in your sauce pan or kettle, fill it half full of water, put plenty of salt in the water,--that is, a level tablespoonful of salt to about a quart of water,--let the water boil; be sure that it is boiling fast. Then put in the cabbage; get it boiling again just as fast as you can, and continue to boil it just as fast as you can until it is tender. That will be in from ten to twenty-five minutes, according to the age of the cabbage. Young cabbage, early in the season, will boil tender in ten minutes; or it may take 15, 20 or 25. It never takes over a half hour unless the cabbage is very old or dry. The cabbage is done the moment the stalk is tender. A great many people have the idea that they must boil the cabbage until the leaf is almost dissolved. It needs only to be boiled as tender as you boil the stalks of cauliflower, and you would try, of course, the thickest part, which would be near the stalk. Remember, in the first place you would cut out any tough, woody stalk, but the tender stalk you would leave in, and that is the part you would try. If you boil it fast it will not take over thirty or thirty-five minutes at the outside, probably not more than twenty. Just as soon as