Good mushrooms are only found in clear open fields where the air is
pure and unconfined. Those that grow in low damp ground, or in shady
places, are always poisonous. Mushrooms of the proper sort generally
appear in August and September, after a heavy dew or a misty night.
They may be known by their being of a pale pink or salmon colour on the
gills or under side, while the top is of a dull pearl-coloured white;
and by their growing only in open places. When they are a day old, or a
few hours after they are gathered, the reddish colour changes to brown.
The poisonous or false mushrooms are of various colours, sometimes of
a bright yellow or scarlet all over; sometimes entirely of a chalky
white, stalk, top, and gills.
It is easy to detect a bad mushroom if all are quite fresh; but after
being gathered a few hours the colours change, so that unpractised
persons frequently mistake them.
It is said that if you boil an onion among mushrooms the onion
will turn of a bluish black when there is a bad one among them. Of
course, the whole should then be thrown into the fire. If in stirring
mushrooms, the colour of the silver spoon is changed, it is also most
prudent to destroy them all.
TO STEW MUSHROOMS.--For this purpose the small button mushrooms are
best. Wash them clean, peel off the skin, and cut off the stalks. Put
the trimmings into a small sauce-pan with just enough water to keep
them from burning, and covering them closely, let them stew a quarter
of an hour. Then strain the liquor, and having put the mushrooms into a
clean sauce-pan, (a silver one, or one lined with porcelain,) add the
liquid to them with a little nutmeg, pepper and salt, and a piece of
butter rolled in flour. Stew them fifteen minutes, and just before you
take them up, stir in a very little cream or rich milk and some beaten
yolk of egg. Serve them hot. While they are cooking, keep the pan as
closely covered as possible; shaking it round frequently.
If you wish to have the full taste of the mushroom only, after washing,
trimming, and peeling them, put them into a stew-pan with a little salt
and no water. Set them on coals, and stew them slowly till tender,
adding nothing to them but a little butter rolled in flour, or else a
little cream. Be sure to keep the pan well covered.
BROILED MUSHROOMS.--For this purpose take large mushrooms, and be
careful to have them freshly gathered. Peel them, score the under side,
and cut off the stems. Lay them one by one in an earthen pan, brushing
them over with sweet oil or oiled butter, and sprinkling each with a
little pepper and salt. Cover them closely, and let them set for about
an hour and a half. Then place them on a gridiron over clear hot coals,
and broil them on both sides.
Make a gravy for them of their trimmings stewed in a very little milk,
strained and thickened with a beaten egg stirred in just before it goes
to table.