COOKING MUSHBOOKS. 155 



stewed in. Boil all together, and serve. If white soup 

 is required use white button mushrooms and a good veal 

 stock, adding a spoonful of cream or a little milk as the 

 color may require. This is a nice soup and tastes good. 

 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 be- 

 fore cooking the mushroome, you pour some boiling 

 water over them and into this drop a little vinegar or 

 lemon juice, then drain them o£E through a colander, 

 you can prevent, to a great extent, their darkening influ- 

 ence on the soup, but always at the expense of their 

 flavor. 



Mushroom Stems. — The stems of young, fresh mush- 

 rooms 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, but the portion below the frill, that is, 

 the "root" end, is discarded. Any part of the stem 

 that is discolored or tough or woody should be rejected, 

 and only the portion that is succulent and brittle and of 

 a clean white color at any time used. The stems are 

 nearly always retained in "button" mushrooms when 

 they are cooked, and the upper or succulent parts of the 

 stems of plump, fresh, full-grown mushrooms are often 

 cooked along with the caps, but when cooking full-grown 

 mushrooms Ave prefer, in all cases, to completely remove 

 the stems from the mushrooms, and cook both separately. 

 The stems are not so tender or deliciously flavored as 

 are the caps, but are excellent for ketchup, or flavoring, 

 or a sauce for eating with boiled fowl. In cooking the 

 stems they should be peeled by scraping, for they can 

 not be skinned like the caps. 



Potted Mushrooms — Select nice button or nnopen 



