“No despicable dish, though perhaps not quite equal to the common mushroom.”—M. C. Cooke.
“If I had my choice, I think there is no species I should prefer before this one: it is singularly rich, tender, and delicious.”—Worthington G. Smith.
Dr. M‘Cullough, Dr. Chapman, Elmes Y. Steele, Esq., and some other members of the Woolhope Club, hold Mr. W. G. Smith’s opinion as the result of considerable experience. It must be noted, however, that when too young this agaric is rather deficient in flavour, and its fibres tenacious. Its flavour is most rich, and its texture most delicate when the gills show the pink colour with sepia margins.
Modes of Cooking the Coprinus comatus.—The best and simplest method is to broil it and serve on toast in the ordinary way. It may be added also with great advantage to steaks and made-dishes, to give flavour and gravy.
Comatus Soup.—Take two quarts of white stock, and put in a large plateful of the maned agaric roughly broken out; stew until tender; pulp through a fine sieve; add pepper and salt to taste; boil and serve up hot. Two or three table-spoonfuls of cream will be a great improvement.
The agarics for this soup should be young, in order to keep its colour light and good. The maned agaric is recommended on all sides for making ketchup, but here, also, it should be quickly used, and the ketchup quickly made.
Agaricus gambosus (the True St. George’s Mushroom).
Pileus thick and fleshy, convex at first, often lobed, becoming undulated and irregular, expanding unequally; the margin more or less involute, and at first flocculose; from three to four inches across; of a light yellow colour in the centre, fading to almost opaque white at the edges; it is soft to the touch; more or less tuberculated, and often presenting cracks. Gills yellowish-white, watery, narrow, marginate, annexed to the stem with a little tooth: they are very numerous and irregular, with many smaller ones interposed, “lying over each other like the plaits of a frill” (from 5 to 11, Vittadini). Stem firm, solid and white, swelling at the base in young specimens; but in older ones, though usually bulging, they are frequently of even size, and when in long grass they occasionally even taper downwards. This agaric is usually nearly white, smooth, soft, and firm, like kid leather to the touch, and, as Berkeley has happily said, “in appearance it very closely resembles a cracknel biscuit.”
They grow in rings; have a strong smell, and appear about St. George’s Day (April 23), after the rains which usually fall about the third week in April. They continue to appear for three or four weeks, according to the peculiarities of the season. They are usually to be found on hilly pastures in woodland districts.
The St. George’s mushroom cannot well be mistaken for any other. The fact of its appearance at this early season, and growing so freely in rings, when so very few other funguses are to be found, is almost enough to distinguish it. It has, however, very distinctive characters in itself in the thickness of its pileus; the narrowness of its gills, which are very closely crowded together; and the solid bulging stem.