MUSHROOMS

For luncheon or for an invalid

Poach yolk of egg and rub through coarse strainer; beat white stiff with a trifle of salt and place in mound on a gilt edged plate or small platter; dot with riced yolk, sprinkle with salt, press slightly salted, green tinted, whipped cream through pastry tube in small roses on to the top. Serve immediately with wafers or long strips of zwieback.

This dish gives both the yolk and white in their most digestible form. A little thick tomato pulp may be added to the white. The cream may be dropped on with a teaspoon.

Egg creams, in their great variety, are the most delightful ways of serving uncooked eggs, both for desserts and for invalids.

For preparing them, the ingredients and all utensils and dishes should be as nearly ice cold as possible.

The white of the egg should be beaten very stiff. The milk and cream should have been sterilized.

The creams must be prepared just at the time of serving as they become liquid and lose their creamy consistency very soon.

Set the glass or dish of cream on to a small plate with a doiley, and if possible lay a delicate flower or leaf beside it.

The recipes are given for one egg but several may be prepared at once, when required, by using a cake bowl for beating.

Lemon juice added to the white renders it stiffer, but other juices and liquids soften it, so small quantities of them should be used and they should be mixed in very lightly.

High colored fruits and juices should be poured between layers of the egg, not mixed with it.

Sprinkle a trifle of salt on to the white of an egg in a bowl and beat with a revolving egg beater to a very stiff froth; then add 1 tablespn. of sugar and beat until smooth and creamy. Remove the egg beater, chop in lightly 2 teaspns. of lemon juice and remove ⅓ of the beaten white to a cold plate. Add the yolk and another teaspoon of lemon juice to the white remaining in the bowl. Chop them in lightly and quickly, not mixing very thoroughly. Drop this egg mixture into a cold glass and on top of it lay the white which was taken out. Serve at once.

All of the white may be beaten with the yolk if preferred. The whites of 2 eggs and yolk of one may be used.

A company of ladies to whom I once served this cream as a dessert pronounced it “the most delicate boiled custard” they had ever tasted.

Beat the white of 1 egg to a stiff froth with 1 teaspn. of sugar, chop in the yolk with 1 tablespn. of cream, drop a spoonful or two into a glass, then pour over a little rich red raspberry juice or drop on a few crushed or stewed berries. Continue this until all the egg is used. Serve at once.

A little lemon juice may be mixed with the raspberry if desired. The cream may be omitted. A part of the white may be left for the top. Strawberry, grape, currant and other juices may be substituted for raspberry. Pineapple and orange juices can be mixed with the egg: they are improved by combining with lemon juice.

Combine 1 or 2 tablespns. of fresh banana pulp and 1 tablespn. of cream with a beaten egg, leaving a part of the white on top if desired.

Beat the white of an egg with 1–2 teaspns. of sugar, reserving a little for the top; chop in the yolk with 1 tablespn. of cream and a delicate flavoring of vanilla; serve in a glass, with white on top of yolk mixture.

Or, for a change, beat the white and yolk separately, add half the sugar and cream to each, flavor yolk with vanilla, pile white in a dainty glass dish and pour yolk mixture over it. A little of the white may be chopped with the yolk.

Use 1 teaspn. almond butter, mixed to a thick cream with water, in place of dairy cream, in preceding recipe. Vanilla may be omitted.

Beat the white of an egg, add ⅔–1 tablespn. of maple syrupor of honey (malt extract sometimes); chop in yolk and if desired, 1 tablespn. of cream.

Beat white of 1 egg, add 2 teaspns. of sugar, beat, chop in yolk; pour over, stirring, the hot liquid made from boiling 1½–2 tablespns. of cereal coffee in ¾ cup of water to which 1 teaspn. of melted cocoa butter has been added. Liquid may be added cold, with a few drops of vanilla instead of cocoa butter.

Take 1–2 teaspns. of sugar and 3 tablespns. of milk, with the beaten egg in vanilla cream.

Beat whole egg with 1–2 teaspns. of sugar until creamy; add a few drops of vanilla and pour over ½ cup boiling milk, stirring.

Beat an egg, all together, with salt, add 1–3 tablespns. of cream and as much carbonated water as desired.

Fruit juices may be used, with or without dairy or nut cream.

The carbonated water may be used with the beaten egg only.

EGG POACHER

The delightful flavors of mushrooms make them a valuable adjunct to the vegetarian dietary, whether or not they are classed with meat foods.

No one need to be in ignorance as to the edible ones with the many reliable books now published in regard to all varieties. But if you have not studied the subject, consult some one who is a judge before you use those you have gathered. Or, use only canned ones or those sold in the markets. Many cases of sickness have come from using mushrooms partially decayed, rather than from poisonous varieties; so be sure to reject those not entirely sound.

Mushrooms will not admit of many combinations without losing character. The simplest ways of preparing them are the best. It is a waste of time to peel any of the varieties except the puff ball.

Puff ball mushrooms are all edible when gathered at the white stage.

Overcooking toughens mushrooms. 5–20 minutes is sufficient time for any, except, perhaps, when cooked in a double boiler, then a half hour may not be too long.

Cream with water develops the flavors better than milk. Butter when used gives the same result.

When necessary to wash mushrooms, rinse up and down in cold water, rub the caps quickly, shake and drain in a colander. Often they will require rubbing only, with a soft flannel. Always cut off a thin slice from the end of the stalk and throw it away.

When the caps only are to be used in a dish, chop the stems and imperfect caps and cook for soups and sauces. Mushrooms are not expensive, as a few fresh or dried ones go a long way for flavoring. Unless plentiful, do not use mushrooms in timbalesor roasts but in the sauces, where they will count. In the recipes, fresh ones are meant unless canned ones are mentioned.

GRAPE FRUITMUSHROOM GLOBE AND DISH,P. 219CREAMED MUSHROOMS

TRUMESE PIE,P. 167

Remove stems, place in fine wire broiler, turn the gills first to the fire for 5 m., then the other side. Put a small piece of butter in the center of each mushroom, sprinkle with salt, broil 5 m. Lay carefully on to pieces of toast or thin toasted wafers or slices of broiled trumese, skin side up, and serve at once. Melted butter may be poured over mushrooms on toast instead of putting butter into them while broiling. Caps are sometimes dipped in salt and olive oil and broiled after standing in a cold place for an hour. The heat should not be too intense for broiling.

Cut off part of stems, lay tops down in shallow baking pan, dust with salt, put a small piece of butter in each mushroom, bake 20 m. in hot oven. Serve in pan, or on toast with sauce from pan poured over.

Put mushrooms in saucepan or double boiler with salt and no water. Cover close, cook 20–30 m. Add hot cream or butter mixed with a little flour, heat. Serve on toast, cutlets of corn meal porridge, rice cutlets or slices of broiled trumese. Butter, 2 tablespns. to the pound of mushrooms, may be added when put to cooking and no milk or cream used.

Cut mushrooms into sixths or eighths or slices. Cook in small quantity of water 10–15 m., add cream, or milk and butter, enough to moisten toast. Heat, serve on toast.

Stew mushrooms in a larger quantity of water, add cream, and thicken to the consistency of very heavy cream. Serve in daintyshells of pastry crust, or on toast or wafers, surrounded with green peas or not.

A small quantity of mushrooms will go a long way in this way.

Add cooked fresh or dried mushrooms to thickened consommé. Serve over rice or macaroni or in rice border.

Drain mushrooms, if large cut into quarters and put into rich egg or cream sauce without further cooking.

Canned mushrooms (except home canned) are esteemed more for the feeling between the teeth than for their flavor and are at their best in pies, scallops and creams.

Wash dried mushrooms well, soak 4–12 hours in water or milk, simmer for 5 m. only, in the liquid in which they were soaked. Use in soups, sauces or stews, in small quantities, as the flavor is very rich.

Soak mushrooms pickled in salt, for 24 hours, changing the water several times; drain, and if to be cooked in batter dry between the folds of a towel. Use cutlets of trumese batter with them, or with soaked dried mushrooms.

Pare and cut puff ball mushrooms into half-inch slices. Simmer in butter or olive oil, with or without dipping in egg, and season with salt. Or, stew and serve as other mushrooms.

Shape cups of steamed or boiled rice in muffin rings, fill with creamed mushrooms or Boundary Castle sauce, protose and mushrooms à la crême, thin, or with mushroom stew.

Put into close covered vessel in oven, bake 25–35 m. Onion may be omitted.

Use all mushrooms in recipe for celery and mushrooms à la crêmep. 115, or all fresh mushrooms in trumese and mushrooms à la crêmep. 165.

Cover the bottom of a porcelain dish with toast. On the toast pile mushrooms, gills down, several rows high, sprinkling with salt. Pour ⅓–½ cup of cream on to the mushrooms, cover with the globe or bell and simmer on the top of the stove 20–30 m.

The cover is removed after the plate is placed before the guest. This quantity is served for luncheon when the dish is the principal one of the meal. For a single course, a smaller portion of toast would be required and not more than 4 or 5 mushroom caps.

The dishes may be baked in the oven.

Simmer onion in butter, add parsley, flour, and milk or consommé. Remove from fire, add yolks of eggs beaten with the tablespn. of milk, salt and mushrooms. Fill small molds which have been garnished as desired, bake in pan of water 20 m. or until set. Unmold on to rounds of toast, surround with thick mushroom sauce.

The timbales may be made of canned mushrooms and served with rich cream sauce.

Sauce—

Mix the flour and butter, pour boiling water over, stirring, add cream and salt.

Put cooked oyster plant and mushrooms in pieces (⅔ oyster plant, ⅓ mushrooms), 1 pt. in all, into baking dish. Pour sauce over, cover with universal or pastry crust and proceed as in trumese pie.

Substitute stewed potatoes for oyster plant with either crust, or cover with a thin crust of mashed lentils, or use celery in place of oyster plant and cover with a rice crust.

Cook chopped imperfect caps and stems of mushrooms in water 5–10 m. Add more water if necessary and heavy cream; thicken with flour to the consistency of heavy cream. Add salt and a few cooked caps if desired, or, from 1–3 caps may be placed in each dish when the soup is served.

This soup cannot be improved upon.

Add sufficient water with salt to Boundary Castle sauce to make of the consistency of soup. Very delicious.

Directions for canning and drying mushroomspp. 71and72.

The quantity of liquid, if any, must be determined by the purpose the dressing is to be used for and the dryness of the ingredients. As a rule, dressings are better without eggs.

Dressings may sometimes be put over the top of suitable meat pies for the crust.

They may also be put into the bottom of a well oiled tin or pudding dish with slices of or minced nut meat or mashed legumes on top, baked and inverted on a platter or chop tray for serving; garnished with halves of nut meats, accompanied of course with a suitable gravy.

Whole pine nuts, or broken nuts of different kinds may sometimes be used in stuffings.

Dip slices of stale bread into salted hot water quickly. Lay them in a baking tin and sprinkle delicately with powdered leaf sage or savory. When a sufficient number of layers is prepared, sprinkle with crumbs and a little more water if necessary. Bake in a quick oven about 20 m., or until browned over the top. Serve on a platter with some ragout over it.

Or, bake in a pudding dish and send to the table to be served with the meat dish with gravy.

Crumbs, egg or not, butter or oil, parsley, thyme, sage, summer savory, onion juice and salt.

A few sage leaves may be substituted for the parsley for a sage and onion stuffing.

Equal parts bread crumbs and finely-sliced celery, salt and butter.

To bread crumbs, melted butter, thyme, sage, grated onion and salt, add a few seeded raisins and chopped English walnuts.

½ cup each mashed green peas, onions in oil, stewed celery, stewed carrot and finely-sliced raw celery, salt, 1 or 2 eggs.

Mashed boiled chestnuts, salt, butter or a little heavy cream.

Beat.

“Perfection in the art of cookery is attainable only by lengthened experience and careful study of the qualities of foods and the application of sauces and seasonings.It is chiefly in knowing how to make and apply sauces that a cook shows her skill.”—Old Writer.

—Old Writer.

Use pastry flour for gravies and sauces.

The sauce should be a little more salt than the food with which it is to be served.

As a rule, the sauce should be poured around, not over the food.

No positive general rule can be given for thickening, as flour varies and different kinds of liquid require different proportions. Also the evaporation of liquids, in different quantities, varies.

About one tablespoon of flour may be calculated for each cup of water; but for milk, cream or tomato that amount is quite too much.

Do not make sauces too thick. A sauce should not be a paste. The consistency of medium cream is about right for nearly all; some should be thinner, and a few slightly thicker.

As they thicken by standing, make sauces thinner at first than required.

A Roux is a mixture of oil or butter, and flour, heated together for thickening sauces. It is used in the following manner;

Heat the oil, without browning, in a saucepan; add the flour, rub smooth with wire batter whip, then add liquid, hot, stirring until smooth. The sauce should come to the boiling point only and be removed at once from the fire as otherwise the oil will separate.

Adding flour to hot oil cooks it more perfectly than a boiling liquid and obviates the raw flour taste.

Directions for flavoring,pp. 24–27.

1 tablespn. raw nut butter, 1 pt. water. Mix butter with water, boil ½ hr., add salt with water to make 1½–2 cups; thicken slightly.

Serve with nut and legume dishes, over boiled rice and with some vegetables. Steamed nut butter may be used instead of raw.

Cook sliced onions with plain sauce.

Use ⅓ tomato instead of all water in plain sauce. A little browned flour sometimes.

Cook browned flour, onion, garlic, bayleaf and a very little tomato with plain sauce. A little sage occasionally.

Thicken nut and tomato bisque,p. 93, slightly.

May use steamed or roasted nut butter, nutmese, or the water from boiled peanuts with a little lemon juice, for nut sauces.

Follow directions for making sauce with roux.

Simmer without browning sliced or chopped onion in oil, before adding flour to brown sauce.

Add a delicate flavoring of leaf sage to brown or brown onion sauce.

A little tomato, onion, a trifle of thyme and bay leaf with nut cream in brown sauce. Simmer, strain.

Consommé with more browned flour and tomato or onion, thickened. Roux may be used.

Add celery to hot oil, then flour and hot consommé with more salt if necessary.

Throw crushed or finely-chopped garlic into oil and proceed as for sauce with roux, adding parsley last, of course. The sauce is nice without the parsley. Raw or steamed nut butter may be used.

Rub butter smooth with tomato, heat to boiling, add salt and serve.

This sauce heated with stewed okra makes a delightful omelet sauce, or side dish, or dressing for trumese, toast or rice.

Blend the flour with cold water or milk, stir into boiling milk, boil up and add salt. Or, put 1–1½ tablespn. of oil in a saucepan; when just hot add the flour, then hot milk, stir until smooth and add salt.

Mix cream and flour, pour boiling water over, stirring constantly, to make of the desired consistency; boil thoroughly, add salt, serve. The gravy may be flavored.

Follow directions for sauce with roux. Or, heat milk, without oil, in an oiled frying pan, to just boiling; add slowly, stirring, flour blended with water or milk. Boil up well, remove from fire, add salt.

¼–⅓ cream and ⅔ water may be used instead of milk.

For vegetables the sauce should be thinner. A teaspoonful of sugar improves the flavor with carrots and turnips.

Especially suitable for mashed peas or sweet potatoes.

Add ½ cup rich strained tomato and more salt to each pint of cream sauce.

Thicken boiling tomato, add cream, remove from fire, add salt.

Do not add the salt before the cream.

Simmer onion in butter without browning, add flour, hot tomato, cream and salt.

20 Mint Cream—Add chopped mint to cream sauce. Use for green peas, mashed dry green peas, poached or hard boiled eggs and other dishes.

21 Cream of Celery—Use water in which celery was cooked, with cream, or milk and oil or butter, for cream sauce, and add stewed celery.

22 Cream of Onion—Add stewed, crushed, boiled onions to cream sauce. Or, add cooked onions to roux in pan, then add milk. Or, simmer without browning, chopped raw onions in oil, before adding flour.

23 Cream of Parsley—Chopped parsley in cream sauce.

24 Cream of Spinach—Pour cream sauce gradually stirring, into macerated, cooked spinach; heat; strain through wire strainer if necessary.

25 Lavender—Finely-chopped, cooked purple cabbage in cream sauce.

26 Golden—Mashed or grated cooked carrots in cream sauce, with or without onion and garlic.

27 Brown Cream—Use 1–1½ (according to brownness) tablespn. browned flour in cream sauce recipe.

28 Egg Cream—Add yolks of 2 eggs to each pint of cream sauce.

29 Egg Cream No. 2—1 tablespn. butter, 1 teaspn. flour, 1 cup milk, 2 beaten eggs, salt, 1–2 tablespns. lemon juice if desired, chopped parsley.

30 Egg Cream-non-starch—For stewed cucumbers, oyster plant, asparagus and carrots. To each pint of vegetables, ½ tablespn. butter, ½ cup thin cream or rich milk, yolk of 1 egg, salt. Richer cream may be used and butter omitted. Use the yolks of 3 eggs only for a pint of cream.

31 Egg—Add hard boiled eggs in dice or coarsely-chopped, to cream sauce.

Soak crumbs in half the milk in double boiler till soft; beat until smooth; add salt and the remainder of the milk, heat, strain through coarse strainer, if necessary. If the milk is not rich a little butter may be added just before serving. Browned coarse crumbs (fine croutons) may be sprinkled over the dish with which the sauce is served.

Flavor sauce with onion, onion and sage, chives, celery salt, or onion and parsley, sometimes.

Milk from raw nut butter gives another sauce.

Rub butter and flour together, pour boiling water over, heat to boiling, remove from fire and add salt; or, follow directions for sauce with roux.

35 Cream—Use 1¼ cup milk instead of water in preceding recipe.

36 Tomato—Use ¼–½ cup of strained tomato, and water to make 1¼ cup, in drawn butter. Flavor with onion if desired.

37 Egg—Chopped or sliced hard boiled eggs in drawn butter.

38 Sour—½ to 1 tablespn. lemon juice to each cup of liquid indrawn butter.

39 Onion—Add crushed boiled onions to drawn butter. Use sometimes 1¼–1½ tablespn. browned flour No. 1, instead of white flour. May simmer (without browning) sliced or chopped raw onion in butter before adding flour.

Add ½ cup of cream to plain drawn butter.

Add 3–4 tablespns. chopped parsley to drawn butter of 1 pt. of water. 2 or 3 teaspns. lemon juice may be added, also a little mint and sugar sometimes.

A nice way to prepare the parsley is to wash it well and boil 10 m. in salted water, drain, chop and bruise to a pulp. Milk with less flour may be used for the sauce.

Substitute finely-chopped fresh tarragon for parsley in preceding recipe. Use a little lemon juice if desired.

Rub together 5 tablespns. oil or melted butter and 5 to 6 tablespns. of flour; add 1 qt. boiling water, boil well, add salt. Or, make as sauce with roux.

Allow a few slices of onion to stand in sauce for 10 m., then strain and it is nice for the table for any use.

corn meal porridge, macaroni and rice.

For rice, macaroni or cutlets of corn meal porridge.

Thicken milk with flour blended with water and combine with lentils; heat. Add finely-sliced celery and chopped parsley for some dishes.

Mix nut butter with water and add with tomato to mashed lentils. Heat to boiling, strain through fine strainer, add salt.

Heat lentils, browned flour and onion together for 10 m. Thicken with white flour stirred smooth with water. Add salt, strain, reheat.

Simmer vegetables and bay leaf in oil for 10 m. Do not brown. Add brown and white flour, tomato and water; boil. Remove bay leaf; add salt, thyme and parsley; serve. Celery tops may be used instead of sliced stalks. The gravy may be strained.

Prepare sauce in the usual manner and add sliced or chopped olives just before serving.

For Rhode Island Johnny cakes, corn meal porridge, macaroni and potatoes.

Make thin cream of roasted nut butter, boil up, add chopped or sliced ripe olives and salt if necessary. A little tomato may be used.

For a cold sauce, stir nut butter smooth with tomato or water and add chopped olives.

Cook chopped stems and imperfect mushrooms in salted water for 10 m. Add water. Thicken a little more than for an ordinary sauce. Add a little heavy cream, heat.

Mushrooms may be cooked for 20 m. in milk and butter in a double boiler or on back of range.

Use asparagus liquor for part of the liquid in the preceding recipe and add a few cooked asparagus tips.

For timbales, mashed lentils, macaroni, rice, potatoes or toast, broiled trumese, croquettes, patties and corn meal porridge.

Simmer but do not brown onion in oil for 10 m., add browned and white flour mixed, then tomato, with water for thick sauce. Now add with their liquor, the mushrooms which have been cooked for 10 m. and water to make of the right consistency, with the salt and parsley.

When served with timbales decorated with truffles, use juice of truffles in sauce.

Heat oil, add onion and garlic, simmer, add flour, then liquid, and lastly the mushrooms which have been soaked for 2 hours, chopped, and cooked for 5 m. in the water in which they were soaked. Serve sometimes over split biscuit, on a platter, with slices of broiled trumese on top, sprinkled with chopped parsley.

For variety, add 1 teaspn. browned flour and 2 tablespns. tomato to the sauce.

For Italian Tomato Sauce, use ½ cup tomato instead of the mushrooms.

Proceed as in other similar recipes.

May add a few chopped dried mushrooms cooked 5 m. after soaking 4–5 hours. A little lemon juice may be added if liked.

Cook all except flour, oil and parsley together for 20 m. Strain, heat oil, add flour and the strained tomato mixture. Then add 1¼ to 1½ teaspn. salt (or enough to destroy the acid taste of the tomato), and the parsley.

Cook tomato, onion and bay leaf together until onions are tender; then add dry ingredients (which have been mixed together), and the lemon juice. Boil up well, put into jars and seal. Thyme and bay leaf may omitted.

Slice celery very fine, add with sugar and salt to the boiling tomatoes; cook until the celery is tender and the sauce rather thick.

Very delightful sauces may be made by cooking a consommé, the nut French soup and other suitable soups down thick.

Add cooked carrots cut into dice or fancy shapes, and cooked green peas, to thickened white soup stock,p. 77. They may be added to cream sauce or drawn butter.

Fruit color, or rich red beet juice in drawn butter or white sauce. Sauce may be flavored with onion, garlic and lemon juice or with celery.

Simmer chopped onion in oil 5–10 m. Add thick slices of apple with salt and a very little water. Cover close; cook until apples are tender. Serve with broiled trumese or nutmese, or with omelets or scrambled eggs.

Apples in quarters, not pared, grated onion, a little tomato, sugar, salt and celery salt, water to cook apples tender. Rub through colander.

Cook onion in water, with salt and sugar. When tender, add currants and celery salt; cook until currants are broken but not till the seeds are hard. Put into jars boiling hot. Seal.

Simmer all together until currants are broken. Seal in jars. Or, cook celery in salted water, add currants and sugar, and cook until currants are broken only.

Put all into baking dish, cover close, bake about an hour.

Make jelly and add a little at a time to raisins. Stir in orange rind and put into tumblers. Rind may be omitted.

Cook all together 1½, hour.

Soak cucumber in cold water over night, drain; cook with the sugar, raisins and part of the lemon juice until soft; add the other ingredients, heat well and seal in jars.

Grind tomatoes through food chopper, drain, pour cold water over and drain after 1 hr., mix all ingredients, let stand in stone jar over night.

In the morning set jar in kettle of cold water with something underneath to keep it from the bottom of the kettle; heat to boiling, cook 6 hrs., stirring occasionally. Seal in jars. May cook carefully in preserving kettle on pad or ring.

Chop fruit fine, boil in ½ the lemon juice and water with the sugar. Chop onions, shallots and garlic fine, mix with salt and remaining lemon juice and water and add to boiling fruit. Cook well together and put into jars.

Pour boiling water over mint, add lemon juice and sugar and stir until sugar is dissolved. Do not heat sauce. Proportions of mint, sugar and lemon juice may be varied and water may be omitted.

Add chopped mint to melted currant jelly. The addition ofparticles of thin yellow rind of orange makes a variation.

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