The kitchen garden and the cook: An alphabetical guide to the cultivation of vegetables with recipes for cooking them

About this book

"The Kitchen Garden and the Cook" by Cecilia Maria de Candia Pearse is a guide to kitchen gardening and vegetable cookery written in the early 20th century. It pairs clear, practical instructions for growing vegetables with abundant, approachable recipes for preparing them. Organized alphabetically and aimed at home gardeners and cooks, it emphasizes fresh produce, simple techniques, classic sauces, and economical use of small plots.

The opening of this guide begins with acknowledgments of culinary and horticultural sources, a contents overview, and brisk rules for handling vegetables—wash in salted cold water, cook fresh, drain greens promptly, and serve very hot. It then alternates concise cultivation notes with recipes: globe, Jerusalem, and Chinese artichokes (bed preparation, renewal by suckers, winter protection) followed by many ways to boil, braise, purée, bake, or sauce them; asparagus (bed spacing, manuring, forcing frames) paired with Dutch, Mousseline, and Italian-style preparations, omelettes, soufflés, and baked dishes. Brief herb and legume sections cover basil and broad, French, and runner beans (sowing times, spacing, combating aphids, and cream, curry, or sautéed treatments), while beetroot and Swiss chard include storage advice and pickling, creaming, and sauté options. The excerpt also surveys borage; the brassicas—broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, kales, and savoys—with spacing, manuring, frost timing, and numerous gratins, slaws, and braises; cardoons with celery-like blanching and simple sauces; and concludes (in this portion) with carrots, from hotbed forcing to main-crop storage, plus soups, sautés, stews, and puddings.