Spinach

“ Put the spinach into a sauce-pan of hot water, in which a very small portion of salt has been boiled. There must be sufficient water to allow the spinach to float. Stir it frequently, that all the leaves may be equally done. Let it boil for a quarter of an hour. Then take it out, lay it in a sieve, and drain it well; pressing it thoroughly with your hands. Next chop it as fine as possible. For a large dish of spinach, put two ounces of butter into a stew-pan; dredge in a table-spoonful of flour and four or five table-spoonfuls of rich cream, mixed with a tea-spoonful of powdered loaf-sugar. ”

“ Spinach (Fr. Épinards) is cultivated for its young leaves, which are prepared for the table by boiling or frying. Two principal varieties of spinach are cultivated, prickly spinach with triangular and arrow-shaped leaves; and smooth spinach, the leaves of which are round and blunt. Flanders spinach is also grown for the market. It is a wholesome vegetable, and one of its constituents being iron, spinach is beneficial to persons who suffer from anæmia.
Gravies.
163.—BEEF GRAVY FOR POULTRY, GAME, Etc.
Ingredients.—1 pint of cold water, 1⁄2 a lb. of lean beef, 1 small onion, salt and pepper. ”

“ SPINACH.—This is a Persian plant. It has been cultivated in our gardens about two hundred years, and is the most wholesome of vegetables. It is not very nutritious, but is very easily digested. It is very light and laxative. Wonderful properties have been ascribed to spinach. It is an excellent vegetable, and very beneficial to health. Plainly dressed, it is a resource for the poor; prepared luxuriantly, it is a choice dish for the rich. ”

“ When the weather moderates in the early spring the plants make a new growth, and a large crop of early greens is available. North of the latitude of Norfolk, spinach can be planted in the autumn and carried over winter by mulching with straw or leaves. Sow the seeds in drills 1 foot apart at the rate of 1 ounce to 100 feet of row or 10 to 12 pounds to the acre. ”

“ Let it all boil up for two or three minutes, then dish and send to the table hot.
Spinach.—Pick and wash it with great care. Put into a saucepan that will just hold it; sprinkle in some salt, and pour over only one cup and a half of boiling water; cover close, set on the stove, and shake the pan often to prevent the spinach from burning. When done, beat it up with a little butter and pepper. It should come to the table quite dry. It looks nicely when pressed into a mold in the form of a leaf. Serve with poached eggs. ”

“ Ingredients.—1 quart of young spinach leaves, 6 spring onions chopped, 3 or 4 hard-boiled eggs, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
Method.—Wash the spinach free from grit, dry it thoroughly, and mix with it the onions. Add a few drops of vinegar to 1 tablespoonful of oil, season with salt and pepper, pour it over the spinach, and mix well. Turn into a salad-bowl, garnish with sections of egg, and serve, A salad of cooked spinach may be made by pressing the purée into a mould or moulds, which, when cold, are turned out and garnished with sections of egg. ”

“ Spinach Spinach is cheapest and best in early summer, but is obtainable throughout the year. It gives variety to winter diet, when most green vegetables are expensive and of inferior quality.
Boiled Spinach Remove roots, carefully pick over (discarding wilted leaves) , and wash in several waters to be sure that it is free from all sand. When young and tender put in a stewpan, allow to heat gradually, and boil twenty-five minutes, or until tender, in its own juices. Old spinach is better cooked in boiling salted water, allowing two quarts water to one peck spinach. ”

“ To produce good spinach, a rich loam which will give the plants a quick growth is required. As ordinarily grown, it occupies the land during the autumn and winter only and does not interfere with summer cultivation. It is an easily grown garden crop, and there is, perhaps, no other of its kind that will give as good satisfaction. Three or four ounces of seed, planted in the autumn after a summer crop has been harvested from the land, will produce an abundance of greens for the average family during the late autumn and early spring. ”

“ Spinach is a vegetable which English cooks rarely prepare nicely; the Continental way of preparing it is as follows: The spinach is cooked without water, with a little salt; when quite tender it is strained, turned on to a board, and chopped very finely; then it is returned to the saucepan with a piece of butter, a little nutmeg, or a few very finely chopped eschalots and some of the juice previously strained. When the spinach is cooking a little Allinson fine wheatmeal, smoothed in 1 or 2 tablespoonfuls of milk, is added to bind the spinach with the juice ”

“ Probably an equal number of persons entertain a very high opinion as to its value. The rest of mankind proclaim it a wholesome, savoury, and acceptable vegetable. Spinach will grow anywhere and anyhow; but some little management is needed to keep up a constant supply of large, dark green leaves, that when properly cooked will be rich in flavour as the result of good cultivation. To produce first-class Spinach a well-tilled rich loam is needed, but a capital sample may be grown on clay that has been some time in cultivation. ”

“ V AGAIN, in the little gardens that surround the cottages, the bright little houses with their Italian roofs, the good vegetables, unprejudiced and unpretentious, have known no fear. While the old peasant, who has come to resemble the trees he cultivates, digs the earth around the olives, the spinach assumes a lofty bearing, hastens to grow green nor takes the smallest precaution; the garden bean opens its eyes of jet in its pale leaves and sees the night fall unmoved ”

“ Endive au jus.
In France this vegetable (which is mostly used in England for salads) is as popular for entrées and entremets as spinach, its bitterness rendering it very wholesome. Procure twelve heads, pick off all the green leaves, wash each head in two or three waters, and boil them in salt and water till tender, then put them in a basin of cold water, press every one; cut off the roots and chop the remainder fine, but not quite so fine as spinach, put it in a stewpan, place over the fire, and stir until becoming rather dry ”

“ In planting for spring and winter use the beds should be covered with straw at the approach of cold weather. Spinach often self-sows and gives a volunteer crop the following spring. When the spinach begins to send up seed stalks it may be cut and fed to the rabbits and so waste that would otherwise ensue may be avoided. ”

“ Cook spinach in the usual way. Cook the bacon with spinach to give it flavor. When spinach is tender, remove bacon, drain spinach and chop fine. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Add butter, mix well and pack into an oval mold. Keep hot over hot water, cut eggs in halves lengthwise, remove yolks and rub through a sieve. Add ham, salt, pepper, parsley and onion juice. Moisten with Cream Salad Dressing to bind mixture together. Refill halves of eggs with this mixture, heaping it pyramid-like. Turn mold of spinach on hot serving dish and surround with stuffed eggs. ”

“ Pursh calls this species Arum atropurpureum.
I must not pass over one of our greatest ornaments, the strawberry blite, strawberry-bearing spinach, or Indian strawberry, as it is variously named. This singular plant throws out many branches from one stem, these are garnished with handsome leaves, resembling in appearance our long-leaved garden spinach; the finest of this plant is of a bright crimson, pulpy like the strawberry, and containing a number of purple seeds, partially embedded in the surface, after the same manner as the strawberry. ”

“ Kitchen Garden.—Sow small salading for late crops; and lettuce and spinach, if not done last month, for spring crops. Plant endive and lettuce at the foot of a south wall to stand the winter; plant out cabbages from the chief autumn sowing. Plant cauliflowers on a warm border in spaces such as can be protected by hand-lights. Thin the winter spinach, when large enough, that it may have space to grow. If broccoli be too rank or tall to withstand the winter, lift and lay nearly up to the neck in the earth, the heads sloping towards the north. ”

“ SPINACH PUDDING. Scald and chop some spinach very fine, four ounces of biscuit soaked in cream, the yolks of eight eggs beat up, a quarter of a pound of melted butter, a little salt and nutmeg, and sugar to your taste; beat up all together, and set it over the fire till it is stiff, but do not let it boil; cool it, and bake it in puff-paste; or you may butter a bason, and boil it.—Another. Boil a pint of cream, with some lemon-peel, a blade of mace, half a nutmeg cut in pieces; strain it off, and stir it till it is cold, then boil a good handful of young spinach tender ”

“ Cabbage used to have said of it what Lemery, physician of Louis XIV., more truly said of spinach; namely, that “it stops coughing, allays the sharp humours of the breast, and keeps the body open.” Spinach, to be truly enjoyed, should never be eaten without liberal saturation of gravy; and French epicures say, “Do not forget the nutmeg.” This vegetable goes excellently with swine’s flesh in every shape, but especially ham, the stimulating flavour of which it strongly modifies.
Rice, as an article of food, has something remarkable in it. Its cultivation destroys life ”

“ Spinach all the year round; it is covered up in the early winter to keep it from freezing, but occasionally during extreme cold weather the cold reaches it, when it is impossible to cut it, which makes it scarce and high in the markets. ”

“ The surplus plants will be found an excellent substitute for spinach, if cooked and served in like manner. The afterculture consists simply in keeping the plants free from weeds, and the earth in the spaces between the rows loose and open by frequent hoeings. ”

“ The Prickly Spinach is not so quick in growth, and is hardy enough to stand our winters: it is therefore sown in August, and succeeds the round-leaved sort; and is a good vegetable all our winter months.
475. TARRAGON. Artemisia Dracunculus.—The leaves of this make a good ingredient with salad in the spring; and it also makes an excellent pickle. It is propagated by planting the small roots in spring or autumn, being a perennial.
476. THYME. Thymus vulgaris.—This is a well-known potherb used in broths and various modes of cookery: it is propagated by seeds and cuttings early in the spring. ”

“ Its chief advantage lies in the leaves being fit for use during the summer, even in the driest weather, up to the setting in of the frosts, when the common spinach is useless; but it is not reckoned of so fine a flavour as that plant. The Rev. J. Bransby says that the produce of three seeds, which must be reared by heat before planting out, supplied his own table and those of two of his friends from June till the frost killed it. ”

“ Spinach should be sown as soon as the ground can be worked. The soil cannot be too rich for Spinach.
Squash.–Cultivate same as Cucumber.
Tomato.–Sow in hills 3 feet apart, on a warm border, early in the Spring. As the plants advance in growth, give them support.
Turnip.–For summer use sow early in the Spring. For main crop sow close of summer. The Ruta Baga requires more rime to mature, and should be sown at mid-summer. ”

“ They are thus preserved until the following May.
“Beet-root is eaten cooked in ashes or in water, and seasoned in various ways; they are excellent in salad, either by themselves, or mixed with endives or dandelion, &c.”—Bosc.
SPINACH.
It does not appear that spinach was known to the Greeks and Romans. Some authors think that it might be the chrysolacanon of the Greeks, [IX_34] but it is probable that this was no other than the orach; [IX_35] Beckmann [IX_36] thinks, with several botanists, that this plant came from Spain; and, indeed, it has been often called the Spanish vegetable. ”

“ Drain, mash fine and smooth, add one-half cup of milk or cream, one tablespoon of butter, pinch of salt and pepper and put back on stove to keep hot. Beat well with a spoon to make light and smooth.
PARSNIPS First scrape parsnips, then boil in weak salt water until tender; drain, and put in white sauce. Oyster plant may be prepared same way.
SPINACH Spinach with large leaves is best. It is richest in mineral matter and is less liable to conceal insects that are difficult to dislodge. Buy the crisp, green spinach that has no withered leaves or stalks. That is the freshest and healthiest. ”

“ Garden-patience used to be a good deal cultivated as spinach, but is now very much ignored, partly because few people know how to cook it. The leaves should be used early in the spring while they are still tender, and the flavour will be very much improved if about a fourth part of common sorrel is added to them. ”

“ Square bits of the leaves of spinach, cabbage, and a saxifrage, and the entire leaves of Erica tetralix, all excited the glands to increased secretion. The spinach was the most effective, for it caused the secretion evidently to increase in 1 hr. 40 m., and ultimately to run some way down the leaf; but the glands soon began to dry, viz. after 35 hrs. The leaves of Erica tetralix began to act in 7 hrs. 30 m., but never caused much secretion; nor did the bits of leaf of the saxifrage, though in this case the glands continued to secrete for seven days. ”

“ One day I went on an excursion with the children to pluck spinach and plunder the nests of wild ducks and upland geese, from which we returned laden with spoil, and in the evening a stew, à la Tehuelche, was made with ostrich grease, spinach, and eggs, which combination was universally approved of. ”