THE CHANTARELLE. 



( Cantharellus cibarius. ) 



'I have witnessed whole hundred- 

 weights of rich, wholesome diet rotting 

 under trees; woods teeming with food, 

 and not one hand to gather it; and this, 

 perhaps, in the midst of a potato-blight, 

 poverty and all manner of privations, and 

 public prayers against imminent famine." 

 Thus writes Dr. C. D. Badham regarding 

 the popular feeling against fungi in 

 Great Britain. To a large extent, his 

 words are also applicable to people of 

 our own country. So nutritious are some 

 of the mushrooms that Dr. Badham has 

 spoken of them as "pounds innumerable 

 of extempore beefsteaks." He also speaks 

 of "the beautiful yellow Chantarelle, that 

 kalon kaigothon of diet, growing by the 

 bushel, and no basket but our own to 

 pick up a few specimens on our way." 



The Chantarelle is a well-known and 

 rather common mushroom which grows 

 quite abundantly in woods of spruce and 

 fir, and in wet seasons also in the forests 

 of deciduous trees. Here it may be found 

 growing either in clusters or singly, from 

 June to November. The cap is usually 

 about two to three inches in diameter, 

 but may reach an extreme of fine inches ; 

 when young, it is rounded or flat on top, 

 but as it grows older it becomes more or 

 less concave and occasionally folded on 

 itself. The plant as a whole has a uni- 

 form yellow color, "suggesting the yolk 

 of an egg/' and is smooth. The gills are 

 more like veins than are the parallel 

 knife-like projections hanging like "thin 



laminated curtains" from the undersides 

 of the caps of many of our more familiar 

 mushrooms. In Chantarelles they ap- 

 pear like "turgid veins" rather than gills, 

 for they are irregularly branched and ex- 

 tend downward on the stem in an un- 

 even manner. The stem is solid. The 

 flesh is white and firm and has often af- 

 forded an agreeable addition to a camp 

 menu of those who enjoy outings in the 

 coniferous woods of Maine, where it 

 grows in great profusion. 



The taste of this mushroom when raw 

 is "pungent and peppery," an unpleasant 

 characteristic which disappears when it 

 is cooked. By many, the Chantarelle is 

 considered the most delicate and appetiz- 

 ing of all edible fungi, and its odor of 

 ripe apricots is also very pleasing. 



Dr. Badham gives the following meth- 

 od of preparing it as a food : "The best 

 ways of dressing the Chantarelle are to 

 stew or mince it by itself or to combine 

 it with meat or with other fungi." Mr. 

 W. Hamilton Gibson, in his excellent 

 work on "Our Edible Toadstools and 

 Mushrooms," says : "The receipts em- 

 ployed in Great Britain and upon the 

 continent to the glory of the Chantarelle 

 would almost fill a fair-sized receipt book, 

 and some of them are quite elaborate. 

 After a trial of a number of them the 

 writer is assured that the simple broiling 

 or frying in butter or oil, with proper 

 seasoning, and serving on toast, will 

 prove a most acceptable substitute." 

 Elizabeth Willis Woodwortii. 



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