When they are more fully grown they will require, in addition to being trimmed in this manner, to be cut into thin strips, and when very old it will be found best to cut them slanting.

They must be thrown into boiling salted water, and boiled till they are tender.

The time for boiling varies with the age; very young ones will not take more than a quarter of an hour, and if old ones are not tender in half an hour they had better be made into a puree.

As soon as the beans are tender, drain them off, and serve them very hot; the chief point to bear in mind, if we wish to have our beans nice, is, they must be eaten directly they are drained from the water in which they are boiled.
They are spoilt by what is called being kept hot, and possess a marvellous facility of getting cold in a very short space of time.
In vegetarian cookery, when beans are eaten without being an accompaniment to meat, some form of fat is desirable.

When the beans are drained we can add either butter or oil.