water,
cover tight and boil till tender. I think it does not take as long to
cook in this way as in ordinary kettles, the steady mild heat softening
the tissues more steadily than the open boiling. And there is little or
no smell to cabbage or onions cooked in a close stone pot in the oven. A
cabbage baked in its own steam in such a pot and served with hot vinegar
and butter is a high-flavored dish."

A writer in the _Rural New Yorker_ sums up the prime requirements in
cooking cauliflower as follows:

"Four rules never to be deviated from may be laid down: first, that the
cauliflower is to be soaked in salt and water for at least a half hour
before cooking, in order to drive out any insects or worms that may be
lurking among the flowerets; second, (if to be boiled) when ready for
cooking the vegetable is to be plunged into salted, thoroughly boiling
water; third, it is not to be cooked a moment after it becomes tender;
fourth, to be served as soon as done. Neglect of any of these points is
sure to result in failure, while a careful following of them will give a
wholesome, delicate dish, and one that will be eaten with gusto and
remembered with pleasure."

A very simple method of serving cauliflower is with milk and butter,
after the manner of cabbage, but a more elaborate white sauce generally
accompanies it. This is the familiar drawn butter sauce, to which may be
added a little vinegar or lemon juice, to give piquancy of flavor.
Sometimes this sauce is varied by adding milk or cream to the flour and
butter, when it is called "cream sauce."

The receipts given below are chiefly from the following four recent
works on cookery:

"Good Living," by Sara Van Buren Brugiere; G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York
and London, 1890.

"The Buckeye Cook-Book"; Buckeye Publishing Company, Minneapolis, 1887.

"Our Home Cyclopedia," by Edgar S. Darling; Mercantile Publishing
Company, Detroit, 1889.

"Mrs. A. B. Marshall's Cookery Book"; Marshall's School of Cookery,
London, 1888.

1. BOILED (_Gardener's Text Book_).--The head should be cut
with most of the surrounding leaves attached, which are to be trimmed
off when the time comes for cooking. Let it lie half an hour in salt
and water, and then boil it in fresh water for fifteen or twenty
minutes, until a fork will easily enter the stem. Milk and water are
better than water alone [a little sweet milk tends to keep the heads
white]. Serve with sauce, gravy or melted butter.