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Preserve

To Boil Sprouts, Cabbages, Savoys, Lettuces, or Endive

A method for boiling sprouts, endive, spring greens, savoys, large lettuces, or close‑leaved cabbages in salted water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Boil Sprouts, Cabbages, Savoys, Lettuces, or Endive

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bring a large pot of salted water to a fast boil.

  2. If using, add carbonate of soda to the boiling water.

  3. Wash sprouts, endive, and spring greens thoroughly before boiling.

  4. Soak savoys, large lettuces, and cabbages in salt water for at least 30 minutes to remove insects.

  5. Trim the stems, remove decayed leaves, and cut the vegetables into halves or quarters.

Boil and serve

  1. Boil very young greens for 15 to 20 minutes, lettuces for 20 to 30 minutes, and large savoys or cabbages for 1 to 1.5 hours.

  2. Check if the stalk is tender to know when they are ready to serve.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The step that matters

Boiling time by vegetable. Boiling times differ widely between tender greens and dense savoys or cabbages. Testing the stalk for tenderness shows whether the vegetable is cooked through, since the thick stalks take much longer to soften than the leaves.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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