Green or String Beans
Take young and tender beans, the seeds just forming in the pods. Take off the string with a knife, leaving no bits of string adhering to the beans, either at top or bottom. Do not split them. Cut each bean into three pieces, not more, and as you cut them throw them into a pan of cold water, kept beside you for the purpose. The old-fashioned way is now obsolete of cutting them into dice or diamonds, or of splitting them. The more they are cut up (beside the trouble and time wasted,) the more the water gets through them when cooking; the more tasteless they become, and the more difficult they are to drain. We have never met with beans that, when cut small, had not a puddle of greasy water in the bottom of the dish, and sometimes the water was all through the dish, and the beans floating in it. Shame on such bean-cooking! When the beans are all ready for the pot, throw them into boiling water very slightly salted, and they will generally be done in half an hour after they have come to a boil. Transfer them to a sieve; and press, and drain them well, till no water is left about them. Then put them into a deep dish, mix them with fresh butter, and dredge them with black pepper.