specimens should at least be wrapped separately in paper, that 
they may not soil others. : 
In preparing for cooking, all having a dirty, tough or viscid 
cuticle, should be thoroughly washed or wiped clean or peeled. 
Tn the case of boleti, it is well to remove the porous part from 
the cap, for these pores are apt to form a shiny, unpleasant mass 
in cooking. They are easily separable from the flesh of the cap. 
In large specimens the cap may be cut in slices. 
The mode of cooking will depend.on the kind of mushroom, 
the tastes of those that are to eat them, and the conveniences at 
hand. It is customary to fry, broil or stew them, and in each 
case to season or dress them according to taste, or the knowledge 
of the cook. The object to be kept in view is to make a palatable 
and at the same time a digestible dish. Sometimes mushrooms 
are used in small quantity, chiefly to give flavor to meats or 
other dishes. Mushrooms of inferior flavor are often made more 
agreeable by cooking with them a few specimens of some kind 
more highly and agreeably flavored. Species too tough to be 
caten with pleasure are sometimes utilized by making of them a 
kind of soup or broth, which is eaten, while the mushroom itself 
is rejected. 
The same species is not always equally tender or agreeable. 
Its flavor and texture appear to depend to some extent upon the 
kind of soil in which it grew, the rapidity of its growth, and the 
age at which it was collected. Young specimens and those of 
rapid growth, are expected to be more tender than old or slowly 
developed ones, but they are not always the most highly flavored. 
In this way, and because of the differences in the tastes of indi- 
viduals, we may explain the different’ estimates placed by differ- 
ent writers on the edible qualities of the same species of mush- 
room. There are also peculiarities of constitution which make 
what is one man’s meat, another man’s poison. 
The same thing is sometimes seen in the use of other foods. 
One man is made sick by eating egg or any article of food in the 
preparation of which egg enters as an ingredient. Another man 
cannot eat strawberries without being sickened. This individual 
peculiarity has possibly, in some instances, been the reason why 
one writer has attributed poisonous qualities to the same kind of 
mushroom which another writer has declared to be edible. : 
Mushrooms have been used for food for many centuries. 
They graced the tables of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Ac- 
cidents have sometimes happened from their careless or unintel- 
ligent use; yet some people have persisted in using them, and 
6 
