Paper-bag Cookery

by Countess Vera Serkoff

These are particularly good cooked in a paper bag. They must be freshly gathered, if they are to be really nice. Cut off a portion of the stalk, peel the top, and wipe the mushrooms carefully with a piece of flannel and a little salt. Put them into a buttered bag, with a piece of butter on each mushroom. Cook for twenty minutes. This method preserves all the aroma and flavour of the mushroom.

CAULIFLOWER.

There is no more delicious way of cooking a cauliflower than by cooking it in a paper bag. Cut away all the green, carefully cleanse the cauliflower, cutting the stalk crosswise to secure equal cooking. Lightly butter the cauliflower all over, put very carefully into a bag with half a tumbler of water, and cook thirty minutes.

PARSNIPS.

Wash, pare, and cut into slices as many parsnips as may be required, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Put them into a greased paper bag, with a cup of water and a little thickened milk. Cook for twenty minutes.

ONIONS.

The onion is rich in nitrogenous matter, induces sleep when taken at night, and is excellent as a remedy for colds. It has a soothing action on the nerves, and is beneficial to the kidneys. Take moderate-sized Spanish onions, remove the outer skin; cut off the tops to form lids, and hollow out a little of the onion. Fill this with sausage-meat, cored and skinned sheep's kidney, or a little minced and seasoned meat. Rub over with dripping, put into a well greased bag, and cook for an hour.

ONIONS AND TOMATOES.

These two vegetables go particularly well together. One excellent method of cooking them is to take as many tomatoes as there are onions, slice off the tops, scoop out some of the pulp, and carefully fix them in the hollow of onions, which have been steamed till tender and a hollow scooped in each. Put a piece of butter in the tomato centres, drop an egg into each, sprinkle with salt and pepper, add a tiny bit more butter, replace the top of the tomato, cover with the piece of onion previously cut off, put into a well greased bag, and cook for fifteen minutes.

TOMATO STEW.