String Beans--Cream, Nut or Dairy

Ingredients

• salt

Directions

1. String beans should be gathered before the pods begin to show the shape of the bean much.

2. To prepare, break the blossom end back and pull off the string from that side, then break the stem the other way and remove the string from that side. Wash beans well and if they have not been crisped before stringing, let them lie in cold (ice, if possible) water a half hour or longer. Drain, take in handfuls on to the vegetable board and cut into ¾ in. lengths (cut diagonally instead of straight across when preferred). Throw into boiling salted water and boil until tender, 1-3 hours. Drain, saving the water for soups or to make drawn butter sometimes for the beans. Cover with cream, heat, remove from fire, add salt, serve.

3. Cream from raw nut butter may be added to the beans about ½ hour before they are done instead of using dairy cream.

4. Cream sauce of either nut or dairy milk may be served over beans on toast if desired.

5. Wax and stringless beans are prepared and cooked the same except that _young_ stringless beans have no strings. Any of the varieties may be cooked in whole pods when desired but will require a longer time for cooking. Flowering or scarlet runner beans are used for string beans when the pods are very young.