16 



crackers on top. Place the dish in the oven and bake slowly until the 

 crackers ai'e browned. 



Mushroom Fritters. — Take nice large tops, season, and dip into batter 

 and fry in hot butter as other fritters. 



Mushrooms en ragout. — Put into a stewpan a little " stock," a small 

 quantity of vinegar, parsley, and green onions chopped up, salt and 

 spices. When this is about to boil, the cleaned mushrooms are put in. 

 When done i-emove them from the lire and thicken with yolks of eggs. 



The Lactarius deliciosus may be served with a white sauce or fried. 

 Badham says the best way to cook them is to season first with pepper, 

 salt, and small pieces of butter, and bake in a closely covered pie dish for 

 about three quarters of an hour. 



The Cantharellus, being somewhat dry, requires more fluid sauce in 

 cooking than the juicier mushrooms, and is best minced and slowly 

 stewed until quite tender. Some advise soaking it in milk a few hours 

 before cooking. The Italians dry or pickle it or keep it in oil for winter 

 use. 



Persoon gives the following recipes for cooking the Morel : 1st. Wash 

 and cleanse thoroughly, as the earth is apt to collect between the ridges ; 

 dry and put them in a saucepan with pepper, salt, and parsley, adding or 

 not a piece of bacon : stew for an hour, pouring in occasionally a little 

 broth to prevent burning ; when sufficiently done, bind with the yolks of 

 two or three eggs, and serve on buttered toast. 



2. Morelles a V Italienne. — Having washed and di'ied, divide them 

 across, put them on the fire with some parsley, scallion, chives, tarragon, 

 a little salt, and two spoonfuls of fine oil. Stew till the juice runs out, 

 then thicken with a little flour ; serve with bread crumbs and a squeeze 

 of lemon. 



Mushroom Growing.* 



To France is due the credit of being the first country to cultivate 

 mushrooms on a lai'ge scale, and France still supplies the markets of the 

 world with canned mushrooms. The mushroom which is cultivated in 

 the caves and quarries of France, to the exclusion of all others, is the 

 agaricus arvensis (the "Snowball"), a species of field mushroom. 



Of late years France has found a formidable competitor in the culture 

 of mushrooms in Great Britain. The English market gardeners find their 

 moist, equable climate favorable to outdoor culture, and abundant crops 

 are grown by them in the open air, chiefly, howevei', for the home market. 



That mushroom growing can be made a lucrative business is shown by 

 the experience of a well-known English grower, Mr. J. F. Barter, who on 

 one acre of ground has produced in the open air, without the aid of glass, 

 an average of from ten to twelve thousand pounds of mushrooms annu- 

 ally ; the price obtained for them varying according to the season, but 

 averaging ten pence, or twenty cents, per pound for the whole year. The 



* A part of the matter presented under this caption was contributed by the author 

 to the Health Magazine and appeared in the March number (1897) of that period- 

 ical. 



