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To Boil Spinach

Spinach boiled with water and coarse sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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To Boil Spinach

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the spinach thoroughly in three or four waters.

  2. Drain the spinach in a colander.

Cook

  1. In a saucepan, bring ½ pint of water to a boil.

  2. Add the spinach and a small handful of coarse sea salt, pressing it down with a spoon.

  3. Boil quickly until tender, then transfer to a sieve or colander to drain.

Serve

  1. Serve by raising it with a fork to create a hollow in the dish.

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

What each ingredient does

Spinach
Forms the main body of the dish, and its leaves soften and wilt as they cook.

The step that matters

Boil quickly until tender. Spinach leaves are delicate and overcooking breaks down their structure and turns them dull and mushy. A rapid boil in a small amount of water cooks them evenly and quickly, so they are drained as soon as they are tender.

“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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