id MUSHROOMS. 



until you really begin to cook. It is usual .in all cases to 

 put the gridiron over the fire at once, but our advice to all 

 cooks is to keep it away from the fire until whatever you 

 have to cook is ready to put on. Then your chop or mush- 

 room, or whatever it may be, does not stick and have to be 

 torn off, nor does it get hastily charred instead of cooked 

 by sudden contact with hot iron. Put the mushrooms on 

 stalk-side downwards for a few seconds, and while they are 

 in this position smear a little, very little, butter over the 

 cap ; then sprinkle with a little, very little, pepper, and care- 

 fully turn them. Now carefully butter them on the under 

 side. If you lodge small pieces of butter next the stems 

 they will quickly melt and flow into the gills, and soften and 

 flavour the flesh right through. Finally dust with pepper 

 and salt, and after about five minutes from first putting them 

 on take them oS, put in a hot dish, and have a good look 

 at them, but be quick about it. If not sufficiently buttered 

 and flavoured with pepper and salt you may now add a little 

 more, and at once shut them up in a hot oven to finish. In 

 the course of five minutes they should be ready, and what- 

 ever is to be eaten witli them should be ready also, for if 

 they are over-nauch 'cooked they are considerably spoiled. 

 Above all things, it is necessary to be careful not to overload 

 them with butter or pepper, for tliey are so substantial in 

 themselves tliat the strongest stomach may sufier by having 

 to digest nmch grease and condiments with such meaty diet. 

 When people are made ill by mushrooms it is fair to 

 assume that the cook is in some part to blame. This is the 

 most wholesome and digestible way to eat nmshrooms, and 

 they harmonise with anything from the grill, but especially 

 with a steak or chops or cutlets, and even with toasted bacon 

 or kidneys they make a perfect gustable harmon}-. The 

 greengrocers' mushrooms are generally good, and for small 

 and casual supplies, such as a moderate household requires, 

 it is cheaper to buy than to grow them. 



Pickled Mushrooms — Buttons may be pickled as 

 follows : Cut off the root portion of the stems and wipe off 



