Boil them, and remove the skins, then mash them up with a little butter, pepper, and salt, and rub them through a wire sieve, make them hot, and serve.

You can if you like boil a few green onions and a pinch of savoury herbs with the beans, and rub these through the wire sieve as well.

This dish is very cheap and very nourishing.

Very young beans, like very young peas, are more nice than economical.
BEANS A LA POULETTE .-- Boil some young beans till they are tender, and put them into a saucepan with a little butter, sugar, pepper, and salt, and sufficient flour to prevent the butter cooking oily; stew them in this a short time, _i.e._, till they appear to begin to boil, as the water from the beans will mix with the butter and flour and look like thin butter sauce thicken this with one or two yolks of eggs, and serve.
BEANS A LA BOURGEOISE .-- Place the beans in a saucepan, with a piece of butter, a small quantity of shallot chopped fine, and a teaspoonful of savoury herbs; toss them about in this a little time, and then add a little water, sufficient to moisten them so that they can stew; add a little sugar, and when tender thicken the water with some beaten-up egg.
BEANS, FRENCH, PLAIN BOILED .-- French beans are only good when fresh gathered, and the younger they are the better.

When small they can be boiled whole, in which case they only require the tips cut off and the string that runs down the side removed.