Toadstools, mushrooms, fungi, edible and poisonous; one thousand American fungi / How to select and cook the edible; how to distinguish and avoid the poisonous, with full botanic descriptions. Toadstool poisons and their treatment, instructions to students, recipes for cooking, etc., etc.

by Charles McIlvaine; Robert K. Macadam

TO COOK PLEUROTUS OSTREATUS.

Remove tough stem-part, if any, and use only such parts of the plants as seem fresh and tender.

To Stew.—Cut in small pieces across the grain. Stew twenty minutes over slow fire with a little water. Add cream or milk with a little thickening; season with butter, pepper, salt.

To Fry.—Cut into pieces about the size of a medium-sized oyster, dip in egg and bread crumbs, and fry in hot butter or oil, as oysters are fried.

McIlvaine.

With Cheese—au gratin.—Cut into medium-sized pieces. Stew slowly, rather dry, for fifteen minutes. Pour off liquor; save it. Place in baking dish (or in individual dishes, clam shells, etc.) a layer of ostreatus, buttering and seasoning each layer, sprinkle with bread crumbs and grated cheese and so on until dish is filled, placing cheese on top. Pour liquor over the dish. Place in slow oven and bake until well browned.

This manner of cooking is a favorite. Any toadstool may be cooked in this way.

McIlvaine.

Wash. Put them into a chafing dish with one ounce of butter to each half pound of plant. Sprinkle over half a teaspoonful of salt, cover the dish and cook slowly for five minutes. Beat the yolks of two eggs with one gill of good milk, lift the lid, add the mixture of eggs and milk; when smoking hot serve. Do not allow the mixture to boil or the eggs will become curdled.

Recipe No. 2.—Wash. Dust with salt and pepper, dip in egg, then in bread crumbs and fry quickly in smoking hot olive oil.

The following recipe was given me by a chef:

“Put into the saucepan a tablespoonful of butter, add a clove of garlic, a thin slice of onion, stir until slightly brown and add a tablespoonful of flour. Mix carefully, add a quarter of a teaspoonful of beef extract dissolved in half a cup of water and the same quantity of cream. Bring to boiling point, add a tablespoonful of chopped carrot, a bay leaf, and a blade of mace. Stand the mixture on the back part of the stove where it will scarcely boil, for ten minutes. Strain and add half a pound of ostreatus. Cover and cook for ten minutes. Serve on toast.”

Mrs. S.T. Rorer.