Vegetables Spinage

spinage - no. 122
(from The Cook's Oracle: And Housekeeper's Manual, by William Kitchiner, 1822)

Ingredients:

spinach​

water​

salt​

butter​

cream or rich gravy to improve​

nutmeg, mace, lemon-juice - optional additions​

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served with poached eggs and fried bread​

Instructions:

Spinage should be picked a leaf at a time, and washed in three or four waters; when perfectly clean, lay it on a sieve or colander, to drain the water from it.​

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Put a sauce-pan on the fire three parts filled with water, and large enough for the spinage to float in it; put a small handful of salt in it; let it boil; skim it, and then put in the spinage; make it boil as quick as possible till quite tender, pressing the spinage down frequently that it may be done equally; it will be done enough in about ten minutes, if boiled in plenty of water: if the spinage is a little old, give it a few minutes longer. When done, strain it on the back of a sieve; squeeze it dry with a plate, or between two trenchers; chop it fine, and put it into a stew-pan with a bit of butter and a little salt: a little cream is a great improvement, or instead of either some rich gravy. Spread it in a dish, and score it into squares of proper size to help at table.​

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Obs. -- Grated nutmeg, or mace, and a little lemon-juice, is a favourite addition with some cooks, and is added when you stir it up in the stew-pan with the butter garnished. Spinage is frequently served with poached eggs and fried bread.​

 

[donna]

Spinach one of my favorite vegetables. My Mom always served it so learned to like it at a very young age.