A different way of cooking lentils

(Recipe #66, page 66)

After carefully picking over the lentils and washing them, boil them until completely soft. Then pour off all the water and add meat stock along with sliced leeks and celery; cook for a good while longer and thicken the stock with a roux of flour and plenty of fat.

Or drain the lentils after they have boiled for an hour and then boil them with fresh water until quite soft. Cut a piece of bacon and a lot of onions into slices, fry in butter until the butter begins to foam, add from 1 to 3 tablespoons of flour (depending on the quantity of lentils) and brown lightly, stir in meat stock to make a thick sauce, add vinegar, salt, and pepper, pour over the lentils, cook them until done in the sauce.

Translated by David Green.

Lentils

(Recipe #65, pages 65 – 66)

Lentils are treated like peas: cook until soft, drain, and serve with an onion sauce.

Or after parboiling, let the lentils cook until soft with a bit of bacon and some onions; finally stir some flour and vinegar into the broth, which has not yet formed a court-bouillon.

Cooking time same as peas and beans.

Translated by David Green.

White beans

(Recipe #64, page 65)

Boil like peas until soft; drain twice, but do not pass through a sieve. After the second boiling, stir in good fat and just before serving stir in salt and some vinegar. Do not let them become too dry as they cook; they are actually eaten with a spoon.

Or don’t add either fat or vinegar during cooking; drain the beans and serve with bacon or onion sauce, or butter and vinegar.

Accompaniment: boiled ham, roast or braised beef, fried liver, bratwurst, pork roulades, sour sausages, calf’s head brawn.

Translated by David Green.

Beans

(Recipe #58, page 64)

First wash the beans clean, then steam butter and onions a bit and add the beans with a little chopped parsley. Steam the beans until tender, sprinkle with a spoonful of flour, followed by some salt and pepper, fill the dish with meat stock or water, and let the beans cook a bit more.

Translated by David Green.

[Note: Beans = Bohnen, nothing more, nothing less. No better definition of the type beans to be cooked.]

Blindhuhn (blind hen), a national dish of Westphalia

(Recipe #28, page 57)

Beforehand boil a piece of ham or smoked bacon. Take green beans, which may be somewhat on the hard side, wash them thoroughly and cut them into small round pieces on a cutting board, a handful at a time; add the previously shelled white beans, cut a little more than half as many carrots as green beans into small dice. Rinse and add in batches to the ham, bringing to a boil each time. If available, add a few peeled and quartered pears; when the vegetables are almost done, add quartered potatoes with as much salt as needed, along with apples cut in pieces. Cook everything until tender.

French Beans Cooked in Milk (ditto) No. 4

(Recipe #27, page 56)

Take beans prepared as above, finish them in boiling water, and drain them. Add milk, salt, and butter, and cook until tender. Before serving, add finely chopped parsley and savory, along with flour mixed with cream (1 tablespoon of flour to ½ pint of cream), mix with the beans, and boil thoroughly.

Translated by David Green.

French or Runner Beans No. 3

(Recipe #26, page 56)

Since runner beans are not boiled, rinsing and rubbing them between your hands after the strings have been removed as described in recipe 24 is especially necessary. When this has been done, cut them in narrow strips while leaving them as long as possible, wash them, and place them in the colander, cooked with boiling water and a little butter, an onion, and a small piece of ham. Remove the ham and onion, stir in some roux, add a teaspoonful of granulated sugar and finely chopped parsley and salt if needed. Serve with boiled potatoes. Cooking takes about 2 hours.

Side dishes the same as for green beans.

Translated by David Green.

Broken Green Beans No. 2 (Recommended)

(Recipe #25, page 56)

Follow the directions above for stringing, washing, and boiling the beans, but before boiling them break them into 1–1½ inch pieces. Then make a roux with suet, stir in enough milk to allow the beans to stew, add salt if needed and some pepper, let them cook a while in the thickened sauce, and remove the pot from the heat. Now stirring gently, so that the beans do not fall apart, add enough vinegar to give them a slightly sour taste, and serve them with a small bowl of potatoes.

Side dishes the same as for green beans or long beans.

Translated by David Green.

Green Beans or Long Beans No. 1

(Recipe #24, pages 55 – 56)

First let it be said that there may be no other vegetable as vulnerable as beans to absorbing toxic fumes from the air; therefore many people refuse to eat them. To remove any harmful residues, in the case of both whole and cut green beans it is advisable after stringing them (as described below)to rub them vigorously between your hands and then rinse them with fresh water in a colander and pour more water over them.

Another method (broad or fava beans)

(Recipe #20, page 54)

Dice some smoked bacon, fry slowly, add some flour and make a light brown roux. Stir in boiling water, a pat of butter, and salt to taste. Add the beans that have been boiled until tender and drained, with optional chopped parsley or savory, and stew rapidly in the court-bouillon; they must not be overcooked or stirred to separate. You can also lightly brown rashers of bacon, stew the beans with the fat released, and serve the bacon with the beans.

Or you can boil a piece of lean bacon, reserve the fat, heat it piping hot in a different pot, make a roux with some flour, stir in some of the stock from bacon, and stew the beans in it as above and serve them with the bacon.

Translated by David Green.