ion of succulent
vegetables, therefore, is to prevent them from losing their natural
moisture."--_Suppl. to Edin. Encyclop._ vol. iv. p. 335.

They should always be boiled in a sauce-pan by themselves, and have
plenty of water; if meat is boiled with them in the same pot, they will
spoil the look and taste of each other.

If you wish to have vegetables delicately clean, put on your pot, make
it boil, put a little salt in it, and skim it perfectly clean before you
put in the greens, &c.; which should not be put in till the water boils
briskly: the quicker they boil, the greener they will be. When the
vegetables sink, they are generally done enough, if the water has been
kept constantly boiling. Take them up immediately, or they will lose
their colour and goodness. Drain the water from them thoroughly before
you send them to table.

This branch of cookery requires the most vigilant attention.

If vegetables are a minute or two too long over the fire, they lose all
their beauty and flavour.

If not thoroughly boiled tender, they are tremendously indigestible, and
much more troublesome during their residence in the stomach, than
under-done meats.[85-*]

To preserve or give colour in cookery, many good dishes are spoiled; but
the rational epicure who makes nourishment the main end of eating, will
be content to sacrifice the shadow to enjoy the substance. Vide _Obs._
to No. 322.

Once for all, take care your vegetables are fresh: for as the fishmonger
often suffers for the sins of the cook, so the cook often gets
undeservedly blamed instead of the green-grocer.

Vegetables, in this metropolis, are often kept so long, that no art can
make them either look or eat well.

Strong-scented vegetables should be kept apart; leeks, or celery, laid
among cauliflowers, &c. will quickly spoil them.

"Succulent vegetables are best preserved in a cool, shady, and damp
place.

"Potatoes, turnips, carrots, and similar roots, intended to be stored
up, should never be cleaned from the earth adhering to them, till they
are to be dressed.

"They must be protected from the action of the air and frost, by laying
them in heaps, burying them in sand or earth, &c., or covering them with
straw or mats.

"The action of frost destroys the life of the vegetable, and it speedily
rots."--_Suppl. to Edin. Encyclop._ vol. iv. p. 335.

MEM.--When vegetables are quite fresh gathered, they will not require so
much boiling, by at least a third