(Excellent.)
Cut the stems closely from a quart or more, of small just-opened mushrooms; peel them, and take out the gills. Dissolve from two to three ounces of fresh butter in a well-tinned saucepan or stewpan, put in the mushrooms, strew over them a quarter of a teaspoonful of pounded mace mixed with a little cayenne, and let them stew over a gentle fire from ten to fifteen minutes; toss or stir them often during the time; then add a small dessertspoonful of flour, and shake the pan round until it is lightly browned. Next pour in, by slow degrees, half a pint of gravy or of good beef-broth; and when the mushrooms have stewed softly in this for a couple of minutes, throw in a little salt, and a squeeze of lemon-juice, and pour them on to a crust, cut about an inch and a quarter thick, from the under part of a moderate-sized loaf, and fried in good butter a light brown, after having been first slightly hollowed in the inside. New milk, or thin cream, may be used with very good effect instead of the gravy; but a few strips of lemon-rind, and a small portion of nutmeg and mushroom-catsup should then be added to the sauce. The bread may be buttered and grilled over a gentle fire instead of being fried, and is better so.
Small mushrooms, 4 to 5 half pints; butter, 3 to 4 oz.; mace, mixed with a little cayenne, 1/4 teaspoonful: stewed softly 10 to 15 minutes. Flour, 1 small dessertspoonful: 3 to 5 minutes. Gravy or broth, 1/2 pint: 2 minutes. Little salt and lemon-juice.
TRUFFLES AND THEIR USES.
The truffle, or underground mushroom, as it has sometimes been called, is held in almost extravagant estimation by epicures,[[109]] and enters largely into what may be termed first-class cookery, both in England and abroad; though it is much less generally known and used here than in France, Germany, and other parts of the Continent, where it is far more abundant, and of very superior quality.
[109]. It has been named by a celebrated gastronomer of past days, “Le diamant de la cuisine.”
As it is in constant demand for luxuriously-served tables, and has hitherto, we believe, baffled all attempts to increase it by cultivation, it bears usually a high price in the English market,[[110]] and is seldom to be had cheap in any; but although too costly for common consumption, where the expenditure is regulated by rational economy, it may at times be made to supply, at a reasonable expense, some excellent store-preparations for the breakfast and luncheon-table; as a small portion will impart its peculiar flavour to them.
[110]. Varying from eight to sixteen shillings the pound at the best foreign warehouses. The truffles which are pared, bottled and steamed like fruit, are more expensive still; but they can be kept after the season of the fresh ones is entirely past. English truffles—which are found in Hampshire (in the New Forest)—and in some few other of our counties, are very good, though seldom or ever equal in quality to those of France, Germany, and of different parts of Italy. The most esteemed of the French ones are from Perigord.
The blackest truffles are considered the best. All are in their perfection during the latter part of November, December, and January; though they may be procured usually from October to March; yet as they are peculiarly subject to decay—or, properly speaking, become really putrid—from exposure to the air, it is an advantage to have them as early in their season as may be. In sumptuous households the very finest foreign truffles are often served as a vegetable in the second course.