116 MCSHEOCMS, HOW TO GKOW THEM, 



may not Lave enough musbrooms ready at one gathering 

 to make it worth while sending them to market, and 

 are tempted to let them stay ungathered until to-morrow, 

 when they have grown larger and many more shall have 

 grown big enough to gather. This should never be 

 done. It will give an unfavored, unequal lot, some big, 

 some little, some old, some young. Far better pick every 

 one the moment it is ready to gather, and keep all safe 

 in a cool place and covered until some more are ready 

 for use, and in this way have a uniform appearing lot of 

 young produce. 



Mushrooms for soups should always be gathered be- 

 fore they burst their gills; iudeed, they are mostly 

 gathered when in a button state ; that is, when they 

 are about the size of marbles. In this condition, when 

 cooked, they retain their white appearance and do not 

 discolor the soup. Immature mushrooms are deficient 

 in flavor. 



For home use, for baking, stewing, broiling, or for 

 cooking in any way in which the tenderness of the flesh 



and the delicious aro- 

 ma of the mushrooms 

 are desirable in their 

 finest condition, let 

 the mushrooms attain 

 i their full size and 

 burst their frills, as 

 seen in Fig. 24, and 

 gather them before 

 the caps open out flat. 

 Fig. m. a Perfect Mushroom. or the gills lose any 

 of their bright pink color. If you let them get old 

 enough for the gills to turn brown before gathering, the 

 mushrooms will become leathery in texture, and lose in 

 flavor and darken sadly in cooking. 

 In picking, always pull the mushrooms out by the 



