Cauliflower is delicious served as a garnish around fried spring chickens, or with fried sweet-breads, when the white sauce should be poured over both. In this case, it should be made by adding the cream, flour, and seasoning to the little grease (half a tea-spoonful) that is left after _sautéing_ the chickens or sweet-breads. Time to cook, fifteen minutes, if small; twenty minutes, if large.
Add plenty of grated cheese (say a cupful to a pint of sauce) to the usual white sauce made for cauliflowers. Heat the sauce well, to melt the cheese thoroughly, and pour it over the cauliflowers.
Cauliflower is valuable as a salad, with the _Mayonnaise_ dressing, or, mixed with other cold vegetables, with the French dressing. See Salads.
Tie the stalks in bundles, keeping the heads one way, and cut off the stalks, so that they may be of equal length. Put them into well-salted boiling water, and cook until they are tender (no longer). While boiling, prepare some thin slices of toast; arrange the asparagus, when well drained, neatly upon it, and pour over a white sauce, as for cauliflower. The _sauce Hollandaise_ is especially nice for asparagus. Time to cook asparagus, about eighteen minutes.
_American mode_: First boil the pods, which are sweet and full of flavor, in a little water; skim them out, and add the pease, which boil until tender; add then a little butter, cream, pepper, and salt. If they are served as a garnish, do not add the juice; but, if served alone, the juice is a savory addition. Time to cook, about half an hour.
The American canned pease should be rinsed before cooking, as the juice is generally thick. The pease are then thrown into a little boiling water seasoned with salt, and a little sugar; butter is added when done.
_English mode_: Throw the pease into boiling water, with some lettuce leaves and a sprig of mint in the bottom of the stew-pan. To each quart of pease allow two table-spoonfuls of butter and a lump of loaf-sugar; cover the stew-pan closely, and boil until they are tender--thoroughly done; then separate the pease from the other ingredients, sending them only to the table. This cooking of pease with mint (universally done in England) is a good way of utterly destroying the delicious natural flavor of the pea.