CHICKEN POT-PIE.—Cut up, and par-boil a pair of large fowls, seasoning them with pepper, salt, and nutmeg. You may add some small slices of cold ham; in which case add no salt, as the ham will make it salt enough. Or you may put in some pieces of the lean of fresh pork. You may prepare a suet-paste; but for a chicken pot-pie it is best to make the paste of butter, which should be fresh, and of the best quality. Allow to each quart of flour, a small half-pound of butter. There should be enough for a great deal of paste. Line the sides of the pot, two-thirds up, with paste. Put in the chickens, with the liquor in which they were parboiled. You may add some sliced potatoes. Intersperse the pieces of chicken with layers of paste in square slices. Then cover the whole with a lid of paste, not fitting very closely. Make a slit in the top, and boil the pie about three-quarters of an hour or more.
This pie will be greatly improved by adding some clams to the chickens while par-boiling, omitting salt in the seasoning, as the clams will salt it quite enough.
BROILED MUSHROOMS.—Take the largest and finest fresh mushrooms. Peel them, and cut off the stems as closely as possible. Lay the mushrooms on their backs, upon a large flat dish; and into the hollow or cup of each put a piece of fresh butter, and season it with a little black pepper. Set a clean gridiron over a bed of clear hot coals, and when it is well heated, put on the mushrooms, and broil them thoroughly. The gridiron should be one with grooved bars, so as to retain the gravy. When the first gridiron-full of mushrooms is well broiled, put them with their liquor into a hot dish, and keep them closely covered while the rest are broiling. This is an excellent way of cooking mushrooms.
AN EASY WAY TO PICKLE MUSHROOMS.—Take two quarts of small freshly-gathered mushrooms. With a sharp-pointed knife peel off, carefully, their thin outside skin; and cut off the stalks closely. Prepare eight little bags of very thin clear muslin, and tie up in each bag six blades of mace; six slices of root-ginger; and a small nutmeg (or half a large one) broken small, but not powdered. Have ready four glass jars, such as are considered to hold a quart. Lay a bag of spice in the bottom of each; then put in a pint of the mushrooms, laying a second bag of spice on the top. Have ready a sufficiency of the best cider-vinegar, very slightly seasoned with salt; allowing to each quart of vinegar but a salt-spoon of salt. Fill up the jars with the vinegar, finishing at the top with two table-spoonfuls of sweet oil. Immediately close up the jars, corking them tightly; and pasting thick paper, or tying a piece of leather or bladder closely down over the corks.
These mushrooms will be found very fine; and as they require no cooking, are speedily and easily prepared. When a jar is once opened, it will be well to use them fast. They may be put up in small jars, or in glass tumblers, such as hold but a pint altogether; seeing that the proportions of spice in each jar or tumbler are duly divided, as above. Keep them in a very dry place.
If you wish the mushrooms to be of a dark colour when pickled, add half a dozen cloves to each bag of spice; but the clove-taste will most likely overpower that of the mushrooms. On no account omit the oil.
If you cannot obtain button-mushrooms, cut large ones into four quarters, first peeling them and removing the stems.