Onions

Peel and wash a couple of dozen small onions, put them in a stew-pan with boiling water; when they have boiled five minutes, drain off the water and fill fresh from the tea-kettle; boil in this until tender. In winter they will require three-quarters of an hour. Young onions in early summer will cook more quickly. Drain off every drop of water; put on them butter the size of an egg, a teaspoon heaping full of flour; give them a shake to melt the butter and mix it with the flour; pour over them a teacup of rich milk, give a boil up, and turn them into a covered vegetable dish; add a little salt when you put the butter in.

Brown Onion Sauce

Peel and slice the onions, melt in a pan a quarter of a pound of butter for a quarter of a peck of onions (it is not worth while to do less than this quantity as they shrink very much in cooking), put the onions in with the butter, season with plenty of pepper and salt, and set them a little back where they will cook slowly, cover them, and cook for two hours. When done, they will be a fine, rather light brown all through; dust in a very little flour, give a boil up, and serve with roast ducks or game; stir them frequently whilst they are cooking, and watch them that they are not on too hot a range or they will burn.

Brown French Beans

Put a pint of beans in cold water over night, wash them well before putting them to soak, and in the morning put them in a sauce-pan or pot in the water they were soaked in, and cook them slowly four or five hours, with a little salt in the water; let the water all boil off them towards the last, they will then have a rich sauce around them, and must not be drained; turn them in a vegetable-dish with butter the size of an egg, and a little salt.; cover and serve. Good with roast mutton or poultry.

How To Boil Rice

Wash the rice in several waters, put it on the fire in boiling water with a little salt, let it boil tea minutes exactly, stirring it once, then drain off the water, put the lid closely on the vessel, set a little on one side, and let it steam for exactly ten minutea more, then turn out and serve. Rice that is boiled in this way is perfectly tender, dry, and every grain separate. A coffeecup of rice will fill a small vegetable dish when cooked.

Asparagus

Cut off the tough ends, peel the skins off up to the heads, wash very clean, and tie in little bundles with wrapping cord, heads all one way; put them in boiling water, with a teaspoonful of salt. They will require about three-quarters of an hour to boil. When the asparagus is done, cut a slice of bread all around the loaf, half an inch in thickness, toast it a nice brown, dip it quickly into the water the asparagus was boiled in, and lay it in the dish you will serve it in; take the strings from the asparagus, lay it on the toast, heads all one way, and pour over it a drawn butter made with a tablespoonful of butter melted with a heaping teaspoon of flour and a small teacup of the water the asparagus was boiled in; give a boil up altogether in a little sauce-pan.

Poke

Wash the stalks, tie them in little bundles, as asparagus, put them in boiling water with a little salt, cook them until tender, they will take from half to three-quarters of an hour; lay them in a dish and pour drawn butter over them, but made of boiling water from the tea-kettle, in the proportion of that for the asparagus; or you may put a good lump of butter on it and dust on pepper and salt; add vinegar at the table, if liked.

Spinach

Spinach requires to be well washed, or it is apt to be sandy. Cut off the roots, so as to allow the leaves to fall apart, wash in several waters, and let it lie in cold water for an hour or more; then put it in boiling water with a little salt, boil about twenty minutes or half an hour, drain it through a cullender, chop it in a wooden bowl, return it to the vessel it was boiled in; put in it butter the size of an egg, pepper and salt; stir it over the fire until the butter is melted, when it is ready to serve. Put it in a covered vegetable dish, with a couple of poached eggs laid on it, or two hard-boiled eggs sliced and laid over the top. You may add to the spinach before it is dished a couple of table-spoonsful of cream, with as much flour mixed in it as would lie on a three-cent piece.