EE PORT OF THE STATE BOTANIST 



211 



The proper method of cooking will depend somewhat on 

 the kind of mushroom, the tastes of those that are to eat 

 them and the conveniences at hand. Many of them can 

 be cooked in the same manner as a beefsteak. It is 

 customary to cook them in a very simple manner, either 

 by frying in butter or broiling gently with a little butter 

 added and seasoning to taste. They may also be stewed or 

 baked. The skillful cook will devise many ways of cooking them 

 and various recipes will be found in cook books and in works on 

 edible fungi. Too much cooking may spoil a mushroom as well 

 as an oyster or a tender beefsteak. My efforts to make a tough 

 mushroom tender by steaming have not been successful, but the 

 experiments have not been numerous nor long continued. 

 Species too tough to be eaten with pleasure or digested with 

 comfort have sometimes been utilized by making of them a kind 

 of soup or broth which could be eaten with relish and comfort. 

 Sometimes mushrooms are used in small quantity to give flavor 

 to meats or other dishes. Those of inferior flavor are sometimes 

 made more agreeable by cooking with them a few specimens of 

 some more highly flavored species. The same species may vary 

 in flavor according to the method of cooking and the kind of 

 seasoning used as well as by reason of the circumstances previously 

 mentioned. 



Mushrooms may be dried and kept for future use. The best 

 method of drying them is to place them in a current of warm air. 

 Dry them as quickly as possible without burning them, and keep 

 the drying process in operation till completed. A common fruit 

 evaporator would doubtless be a good instrument for drying 

 them. The drying of thick and moist ones would be facilitated 

 by cutting them in slices. 



The general opinion is that mushrooms constitute a very nutri- 

 tious and sustaining diet. Chemical analysis and personal 

 experience indicate this. The former has shown that in 

 their dry matter they contain from twenty to fifty per cent, 

 of protein or nitrogenous material. They may, therefore, 

 well be called a kind of vegetable meat and be used as 

 a substitute for animal food. Like other vegetables, they are 

 largely composed of water, which is from eighty to ninety 

 per cent, of the whole. In consequence of this they shrink greatly 



