COOKIKG MUSHROOMS. 
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 mushrooms, you pour some boiling 
water over them and into this drop a little vinegar or 
lemon juice, then drain them off 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 we 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 unopen 
