MUSHROOMS, Baked (a Breakfast, Luncheon, or Supper Dish).
Ingredients.—16 to 20 mushroom-flaps, butter, pepper to taste. Mode.—For this mode of cooking, the mushroom-flaps are better than the buttons, and should not be too large. Cut off a portion of the stalk, peel the top, and wipe the mushrooms carefully with a piece of flannel and a little fine salt. Put them into a tin baking-dish, with a very small piece of butter placed on each mushroom; sprinkle over a little pepper, and let them bake for about 20 minutes, or longer should the mushrooms be very large. Have ready a very hot dish, pile the mushrooms high in the centre, pour the gravy round, and send them to table quickly, with very hot plates. Time.—20 minutes; large mushrooms, ½ hour. Average cost, 1d. each for large mushroom-flaps. Sufficient for 5 or 6 persons. Seasonable.—Meadow mushrooms in September and October; cultivated mushrooms may be had at any time.
MUSHROOMS, Broiled (a Breakfast, Luncheon, or Supper Dish).
BROILED MUSHROOMS.
Ingredients.—Mushroom-flaps, pepper and salt to taste, butter, lemon-juice. Mode.—Cleanse the mushrooms by wiping them with a piece of flannel and a little salt; cut off a portion of the stalk, and peel the tops; broil them over a clear fire, turning them once, and arrange them on a very hot dish. Put a small piece of butter on each mushroom, season with pepper and salt, and squeeze over them a few drops of lemon-juice. Place the dish before the fire, and when the butter is melted, serve very hot and quickly. Moderate-sized flaps are better suited to this mode of cooking than the buttons: the latter are better in stews. Time.—10 minutes for medium-sized mushrooms. Average cost, 1d. each for large mushrooms. Sufficient.—Allow 3 or 4 mushrooms to each person. Seasonable.—Meadow mushrooms in September and October; cultivated mushrooms may be had at any time.
MUSHROOMS, Dried.
Mode.—Wipe them clean, take away the brown part, and peel off the skin; lay them on sheets of paper to dry, in a cool oven, when they will shrivel considerably. Keep them in paper bags, which hang in a dry place. When wanted for use, put them into cold gravy, bring them gradually to simmer, and it will be found that they will regain nearly their usual size.
MUSHROOMS, Pickled.
Ingredients.—Sufficient vinegar to cover the mushrooms; to each quart of mushrooms, 2 blades of pounded mace, 1 oz. of ground pepper, salt to taste. Mode.—Choose some nice young button mushrooms for pickling, and rub off the skin with a piece of flannel and salt, and cut off the stalks; if very large, take out the red inside, and reject the black ones, as they are too old. Put them into a stewpan, sprinkle salt over them, with pounded mace and pepper in the above proportion; shake them well over a clear fire until the liquor flows, and keep them there until they are all dried up again; then add as much vinegar as will cover them; just let it simmer for 1 minute, and store it away in stone jars for use. When cold, tie down with bladder and keep in a dry place: they will remain good for a length of time, and are generally considered delicious. Seasonable.—-Make this the same time as ketchup, from the beginning of September to the middle of October.