TURNIPS, MASHED.—­Old turnips are best mashed, as they are stringy.  Boil them till they get fairly tender; they will take from half an hour to two hours, according to age; then rub them through a wire sieve and warm up the pulp with a little milk, or still better, cream and a little butter; add pepper and salt.

N.B.—­If the pulp be very moist let it stand and get rid of the moisture gradually in a frying-pan over a very slack fire.

TURNIPS, ORNAMENTAL.—­A very pretty way of serving young turnips in vegetarian cookery is to cut them in halves and scoop out the centre so as to form cups; the part scooped out can be mixed with some carrot cut up into small pieces, and some green peas, and placed in the middle of a dish in a heap; the half-turnips forming cups can be placed round the base of the dish and each cup filled alternately with the red part of the carrot, chopped small and piled up, and a spoonful of green peas.  This makes a very pretty dish of mixed vegetables.

TURNIP-TOPS.—­Turnip-tops, when fresh cut, make very nice and wholesome greens.  They should be thrown into boiling water and boiled for about twenty minutes, when they will be tender.  They should then be cut up with a knife and fork very finely and served like spinach.  If rubbed through a wire sieve and a little spinach extract mixed with them to give them the proper colour, and served with hard-boiled eggs, there are very few persons who can distinguish the dish from eggs and spinach.

VEGETABLE CURRY.—­A border made of all kinds of mixed vegetables is very nice sent to table with some good thick curry sauce poured in the centre.

NETTLES, TO BOIL.—­The best time to gather nettles for eating purposes is in the early spring.  They are freely eaten in many parts of the country, as they are considered excellent for purifying the blood.  The young light-green leaves only should be taken.  They must be washed carefully and boiled in two waters, a little salt and a very small piece of soda being put in the last water.  When tender, turn them into a colander, press the water from them, put them into a hot vegetable-dish, score them across three or four times, and serve.  Send melted butter to table in a tureen.  Time, about a quarter of an hour to boil.

SALSIFY.—­Scrape the salsify and throw it into cold water with a little vinegar.  Then throw it into boiling water, boil til tender, and serve on toast with white sauce.  Time to boil, about one hour.

CHAPTER IX.

PRESERVED VEGETABLES AND FRUITS.

Vegetables and fruits are preserved in two ways.  We can have them preserved both in bottles and tins, but the principle is exactly the same in both cases, the method of preservation being simply that of excluding the air.  We will not enter into the subject of how to preserve fruit and vegetables, but will confine ourselves to discussing as briefly as possible the best method of using them when they are preserved.