A TALK ABOUT MUSHROOMS. 119 



Curried Mushrooms. — Peel and stew a pound of mushrooms, sprinkle 

 with salt, add a little butter, and stew gently for fifteen or twenty minutes in 

 a little good stock or gravy. Then add four tablespoonfuls of cream, and 

 one teaspoonful of good curry powder, previously well mixed with two 

 teaspoonfuls of wheat flour. Mix carefully and cook for five or ten minutes 

 longer, and serve hot on hot plates. 



Broiled Mushrooms. — Select large, open, fresh mushrooms, stem and 

 peel them. Put them on the gridiron, stem side down, over a bright but not 

 very hot fire, and cook for three minutes. Then turn them, put a small 

 piece of butter in the middle of each and broil for about ten minutes longer. 

 Put them in hot plates, gills upward, and place another small piece of butter 

 on each mushroom, together witli a little pepper and salt, and flavor with 

 lemon juice or Chili vinegar, and put them into the oven for a minute or two ; 

 then serve. 



Mushroom Soup. — Take a quantity of fresh young mushrooms, stem and 

 peel them. Stew them with a little butter, pepper, and salt, and some good 

 stock, till tender ; take them out and chop them up quite small; prepare a 

 good stock, as for any other soup, and add it to the mushrooms and the liquor 

 tliey have been cooked in. Boil all together and serve. If white soup is 

 required use white button mushrooms and a good veal stock, adding a spoon- 

 ful of cream or a little milk, as the color may require. If the mushrooms 

 are very young they have but little flavor ; if they are full grown they darken 

 the soup, and if they are brown in the gills when used, the soup will be 

 disagreeably dark. If, after preparing, but before cooking, the mushrooms, 

 you pour over them some boiling water into which a little vinegar or lemon 

 juice has been dropped, and then drain them off through a colander, you can 

 prevent, to a great extent, their darkening influence on the soup, but always 

 at the expense of their flavor. 



Mushroom Stems. — The stems of fresh young mushrooms are excellent 

 to eat, but those of old or stale mushrooms are unfit for food. In the case 

 of plump, fresh, full-sized mushrooms, the upper part of the stem, that is, 

 the portion between the frill and the socket in the cap, is used. Any part of 

 the stem that is tough or discolored or woody, should be rejected. The 

 stems are excellent for ketchup or flavoring or as a sauce with boiled fowl. 



Potted Mushrooms. — Select nice button, or unopen, mushrooms, and to 

 a quart of these add three ounces of fresh butter, and stew gently in an 

 enameled saucepan, shaking them frequently to prevent burning. After a 

 few minutes dust a little finely powdered salt, a little spice, and a few grains 

 of cayenne over them, and stew until tender. When cooked turn them into 

 a colander standing in a basin, and leave them there until cold ; then press 

 tliem into small potting-jars, and fill up the jars with warm clarified butter 

 and cover with paper, tied down and brushed over with melted suet to 

 exclude the air. Keep in a cool, dry place. The gravy can be used for 

 flavoring other gravies, etc. 



Gilbert's Breakfast Mushrooms. — Get half grown mushrooms, peel 

 them and place one layer, gills-side upward, on a pie plate ; put a small 

 piece of butter on each ; pepper and salt to taste ; add two tablespoonfuls of 



