Take small fresh-gathered button mushrooms, peel them carefully with
a penknife, and cut off the stems; throwing the mushrooms into salt
and water as you do them. Then put them into a porcelain skillet of
fresh water, cover it closely, and set it over a quick fire. Boil it
as fast as possible for seven or eight minutes, not more. Take out
the mushrooms, drain them, and spread them on a clean board, with the
bottom or hollow side of each mushroom turned downwards. Do this as
quickly as possible, and immediately, while they are hot, sprinkle them
over with salt. When they are cold, put them into a glass jar with
slight layers of mace and sliced ginger. Fill up the jar with cold
cider vinegar. Put a spoonful of sweet oil on the top of each jar, and
cork it closely.
MUSHROOMS PICKLED BROWN.--Take a quart of large mushrooms and (having
trimmed off the stalks) rub them with a flannel cloth dipped in salt.
Then lay them in a pan of allegar or ale vinegar, for a quarter of an
hour, and wash them about in it. Then put them into a sauce-pan with a
quart of allegar, a quarter of an ounce of cloves, the same of allspice
and whole pepper, and a tea-spoonful of salt. Set the pan over coals,
and let the mushrooms stew slowly for ten minutes, keeping the pan well
covered. Then take them off, let them get cold by degrees, and put them
into small bottles with the allegar strained from the spice and poured
upon them.
It will be prudent to boil an onion with the mushrooms, and if it turns
black or blueish, you may infer that there is a poisonous one among
them; and they should therefore be thrown away. Stir them for the same
reason, with a silver spoon.