Part 8

=Boiled Brussels Sprouts.=--Wash and pick over the sprouts and boil until tender (about twenty minutes to half an hour), in water to which a little salt and a pinch of soda have been added. Drain, and reheat with an ounce of butter with a little salt and pepper, but do not fry them.

=Brussels Sprouts with Cream Sauce.=--Trim off the loose leaves and soak for half an hour in cold salted water. Boil in sufficient water to cover them, add a little salt and a piece of soda the size of a pea, season with pepper, and pour over a cupful of cream sauce. Simmer for five or ten minutes and serve, or reheat in Béchamel sauce, or in melted butter.

=Brussels Sprouts Sauté.=--(1) Boil the cleaned sprouts for twenty minutes in salted water with a pinch of soda, drain, fry in butter. Season with minced parsley and pepper, and serve. Grated nutmeg may be added or one or two spoonfuls of white wine vinegar.

(2) Clean and trim one quart of sprouts and soak in cold water for half an hour. Then cook for half an hour in salted boiling water with a little soda; drain, and add three tablespoonfuls of sugar. Sprinkle with pepper, and shake the pan over the fire until they are slightly coloured. Serve at once.

=Brussels Sprouts with Cream.=--Prepare the sprouts according to directions given for boiled sprouts, drain and reheat with a little Béchamel sauce, season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg; heat thoroughly, add a little cream, bring slowly to the boil, and serve.

=Brussels Sprouts au Gratin.=--Prepare according to directions given for Brussels sprouts with cream sauce. Put in a buttered baking dish. Sprinkle with crumbs, dot with butter, and brown in the oven.

=Brussels Sprouts alla Parmesan.=--Boil the sprouts until tender in salted water, and drain. Arrange in a baking dish with alternate layers of grated Parmesan cheese. Season with salt, pepper, and melted butter, and serve very hot.

=Brussels Sprouts alla Chipolata.=--Wash and trim one quart of Brussels sprouts, cook for five minutes in boiling salted water with a pinch of soda. Drain and rinse in cold water. Drain and recook in boiling water to cover. Cook for twelve minutes and drain very dry. Serve with melted butter poured over.

CABBAGE (Brassica oleracea. Cruciferæ).

It seems better to deal with the culture of the generality of Brassicas together, and to first speak of the conditions under which all flourish, noting any special requirement of a subject under its own heading.

Cabbage-kind without any exception are greedy feeders, they like holding soil; stiffish loam, even if it verges on clay, will suit them all. Waterlogged ground of course will not do for them; heavy soil must be well drained to be of use. But they are none of them over particular; given space, nourishment, and firm ground they will do well in any good garden soil.

It is unwise to crop ground continuously with Brassicas, in which class turnips are included, as the disease called clubroot is apt to infest cabbage-stale soil, and is difficult to overcome. Dressings of lime are a preventive of this, and in many soils should be applied every third winter, four pounds to a rod of land. Lime, indeed, is a most valuable aid to culture; it sets free the nitrogenous constituents of the earth, and almost every kitchen crop is the better for its generous use.

Speaking generally, ground should be prepared for cabbages by trenching in a good supply of fairly fresh manure some two or three months before planting, as the earth should have time to settle and consolidate, since a light open condition of the soil tends to produce lank, long-jointed greens, while firm ground will grow compact and well-shaped cabbage or sprout.

Cabbage-kind is in season for every month of the year, though in July and August it is apt to be infested with green caterpillars, offspring of the common white butterfly, yet in these months there is such an abundance of other vegetables that then it is in least request.

COMMON CABBAGE (Brassica olerata capitata).

There are two chief sowing months for cabbage, April and August, but the latter is far the most important from the point of view of the cook, as it provides those exquisite spring cabbage, which, properly served, are among the very best of vegetables.

At the end of March or the beginning of April, sow in the open a good compact variety of medium-sized cabbage. When the plants are large enough to handle, prick them out six inches apart in nursery beds, and plant in their permanent quarters in June and July. They should stand eighteen inches to two feet apart, according to the vigour of the variety selected. This comparatively early sowing will give early autumn cabbage. A late April sowing will provide plants which will heart in November and December. Cabbage follows peas or broad beans well, but we think that in the small garden it is wasteful to give too much room to autumn cabbage and so stint space for Brussels sprouts and autumn broccoli.

In cold soils and in the north of England a sowing of Flower of Spring cabbage should be made about the twentieth of July, in southern England the seventh of August is a better date. These cabbage should be pricked out as soon as large enough, and planted in their permanent quarters in September, though even November is sometimes not too late. It is good practice to put these spring cabbage in rows fifteen inches apart in light soil, eighteen inches in heavier ground, and to crowd them in the row even as near as six inches apart. In this case two out of every three plants can be drawn to serve as winter greens, leaving the rest spaced eighteen inches distant to heart in April, May, and even June.

After cutting cabbage, if there is no immediate need to pull up the stumps, a second crop of very delicious sprouts will in open weather quickly appear.

=Red Pickling Cabbage= should be sown in April and treated as ordinary autumn cabbage. They must be put out quite thirty inches apart.

=Chow-Chow or Chinese Cabbage.=--It is cultivated in the same way as turnips. It succeeds best when sown about August in drills, with a space from twelve to eighteen inches between the rows, and the drills thinned out to about nine inches or one foot apart. The leaves can be eaten boiled like ordinary borecole, or the midribs can be sent to table like asparagus or chard or seakale beet.

BROCCOLI (Brassica olerata Botrytis).

This valuable subject is, in its hearting varieties, almost indistinguishable from cauliflower, from which it is probably derived, but it has the great added merit of hardiness. It requires similar soil and treatment to the rest of the cabbages, but a few special points about its culture should be noted.

The first sowing of autumn and winter cropping varieties should be made in March in a cold frame. The plants must be pricked out and hardened off, and finally be planted in May in their permanent quarters. We find it good practice, in a small garden, to set them between the rows of early potatoes on the day they are finally earthed up. For this purpose the potato rows should be thirty inches apart, and the broccoli should be two feet apart in the row. When the potatoes are dug in July the earth is laid level round the stems of the broccoli, an ounce to the square yard of nitrate of soda is sprinkled round the plants, and the earth trodden firm. From this planting fine heads may be cut in late September and sometimes on to December.

The main sowing of Broccoli is made out of doors in April, when early and late spring flowering sorts should be sown, as well as purple sprouting broccoli. As soon as large enough rather more than sufficient plants should be pricked out into a nursery bed six inches apart, and these will follow green peas, or broad beans about mid-July, without any digging of the ground beyond a slight surface forking and levelling. They should be put out two feet apart in every way and be well watered in. Dwarf cabbage lettuce may be put out between at the same time; they will be quickly cleared away.

When the plants are starting growth in the spring, a sprinkling of nitrate of soda will help in the production of fine heads. It is also a good thing to give them a mulch of manure in early February.

=Cauliflower= does not differ botanically from broccoli, but it is more tender and difficult. The heads have, perhaps, a more delicate quality, but we confess that in the small garden we now only grow the Autumn Giant Cauliflower, which comes in earlier than the broccoli, and we depend on the latter for the rest of the year.

Cauliflower that are to be cut in the following summer should be sown about mid-August; they must be well watered and weeded, and cold frames must be made ready for them, by placing six inches of good light soil over a layer of rubble or ash. In October, or early in November, set the plants four inches apart in these frames, and give a good watering; if necessary keep shaded from excessive sun for a few days. Admit plenty of air, and do not let them dry out, but be sparing with the water-pot after the plants are once established. On fine warm days take the lights off altogether, keep closed during frost, and do not let fog have too free an entry; pick any yellow leaves as they show. If frost is severe, cover with mats. Plant out at the end of March, two feet apart, in really rich soil in a warm border; keep watered if necessary, and after they are well settled in give a dose of nitrate, half an ounce to the square yard, and repeat this a fortnight later during a shower if possible.