To Boil French Beans

Modern cookery for private families · Acton, Eliza · 1845
Source
Modern cookery for private families
Status
success · extracted 13 days ago
Not a recipe
No
Ingredients (4)
Instructions (8)
  1. When the beans are very small and young, merely take off the ends and stalks, and drop them into plenty of spring water as they are done.
  2. When all are ready wash and drain them well.
  3. Throw them into a large saucepan of fast-boiling water, salted as usual.
  4. When they are quite tender, which will be in from twelve to eighteen minutes, pour them into a cullender.
  5. Shake the water from them, dish, and send them quickly to table with good melted butter in a tureen.
For older beans
  1. When from half to two parts grown, cut the beans obliquely into a lozenge form, or, when a less modern fashion is preferred, split them lengthwise into delicate strips, and then cut them once across.
  2. The strings should be drawn off with the tops and stalks.
  3. If the sides be pared off, the beans cut thin, and boiled tender with rather more than the ordinary proportion of soda, they will be of excellent colour, and tolerably eatable.
Original Text
TO BOIL FRENCH BEANS. When the beans are very small and young, merely take off the ends and stalks, and drop them into plenty of spring water as they are done; when all are ready wash and drain them well, throw them into a large saucepan of fast-boiling water, salted as usual (see page 309), and when they are quite tender, which will be in from twelve to eighteen minutes, pour them into a cullender, shake the water from them, dish, and send them quickly to table with good melted butter in a tureen. When from half to two parts grown, cut the beans obliquely into a lozenge form, or, when a less modern fashion is preferred, split them lengthwise into delicate strips, and then cut them once across: the strings should be drawn off with the tops and stalks. No mode of dressing it can render this vegetable good when it is old, but if the sides be pared off, the beans cut thin, and boiled tender with rather more than the ordinary proportion of soda, they will be of excellent colour, and tolerably eatable.
Notes