The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-11-18
THE DELICATE MUSHROOM.
NOW TO COOK AND nov TO EFT
HIM.
Many People Only Spoil TEem-The HON
ing Sense in Animals-How Two
Women Slept-Early Marriages in

Holland.
IAN Irish Epicure'' writes to the st.
Jamcs's Gazette as follows: Mushroom
tinle-the present season is a good aver
age one-however pleasant to the chill
dren who gather and to the grown-up
persons who eat them, is not always a joy
GUS time for the conscientious rural house
keeper, especially in Ireland. 1t brings
cures which must be endured, and duties
which must, if we may say so, be taken
on the hop. Mushrooms are capricious i'll
their growth, and, moreover, very sensi
tive to atmospheric influences. Thu lady
so much admired by King Solomon. she
whose household was cloJhed in scarlet,
would not postpone her annual mushroom
work q day longer h she could help.
Her buttons" surely were picked, ala
her flaps" turned into ketchup, While
her dawdling n%eighbors were still indo-
lently inquiring about the yield. How
pleased, then, must nave been the owner
of SO much virtue when, next year, spend
ing u few weeks at the seasise, at Joppa,
he had honest ketchup to season his tnun-
MES and anchovies Instead of the deleter-
ious tasteless stuff sold in the shopsl
How many of our housewives, even of
those who are spending August in the
SOuAtl ACu VAC oCuoOA P0Sc NtNhOAp pm
ling "a single button or extracting the
precious juice from a single flap! What
does it Iuatteri Ketchup is cheap. IL
can be got every day to next August"
By no means. O indolent housewife.
Ketchup is not cheap. The s~hopkeepers
make a large profit out of it, and their
ketchup is never good. In the first place
it is weak-the strong heart of it broken
and wasted with water or vinegar or l
know not what. Aud do you think that
these large manufacturers who mak it
by the ton put the mushrooms to soak the
day they are culled. or cut off the earthly
stem-ends, or clear away the adhering
grass, or even work on field mushrooms
at all, and not rather on those that are
bred by the million in reeking hot beds?
Gave me, please, the liquid that is made
at home, and by one who knows that she
and her beloved family will nSu
what she makes. And SO waste no more
time, but make your years supply at
once, and ave a couple of pounds, which
are not always as plentiful as one could
wish. By-the-way, the reduction of
mushrooms to ketchup is a process which
may be observed by the ignorant with
some surprise.
had the pleasure of witnessing it the
other dayin the house of my excellent but
not juvenile friend, Miss Dorcas EARLY.
where l am as well domesticated as her
taYorite cat. what a nice cool pantry"
I observed, as | followed Miss EARLY into
her sanctum. II my friend has q fault, it
is that of being a little too susceptible tot
compliment on the score of her housekeep-
thing is here, really like the house Of
Menelausl" II don't know that person."
she answered a little tartly; "but l be-
lieve it is clean;'' INT the good lady sur
veyed her little realm with some justifi-
able pride. "And so these are our mush-
De- 49, ~ 49, @%--GE ELA--
lie soaking in? Vinegar" what do
you mean?" 81 mean this black stuff
here. You soak the mushrooms in
some liquid or other; I wan to know
what it Is" "Oh. | see, = said Miss Early,
smiling benignly. II put in no
liquid at all. What you see is their own
the juice out of them?" with salt. /
scatter a layer of salt owe every layer of
mushrooms. That gets the juice out of
them fast enough, with the aid Of a little
breaking and bruising." "They seem
to sink down prodigiously in the process"
heaped up rs high as thls?n Yes
"And what is the next step?" After
three days soaking l boil them, juice and
all; then strain off the juice, add spices,
and boil again; then bottle and store
away" "This is very interesting. I
have often noticed the excellence of your
.S 6stsup yo and make nm very f. |si! .B Rssasf | a N is verg
careful about my mushrooms, " answered
Miss EARLY. "Some people are SO care
less. For example. If 0 use mlish-
rooms gathered too 500 after rain, your
catsup won't keep. You may have to
fling away the whole of your years sup
ply"
nimbly to her kitchen to resume her
mornings work of picking buttons, while
| gazed with admiration after the light,
alert figure OF my pattern housekeeper.
i wish she were more intellectual. That
apt allusion of mine to the house of Meme
laus was not only quite thrown away upon
her, but actually awoke her displeasure.
But then her house is all as clean rs
spring water; never in my life have / seen
so clean q house; and her hbrary-she has
an excellent one, the property of the
late Dean Early, whose Commentary
on the Epistle to the Ephesians was SO
highly CONFERENCE.-The always at my dis
posal.
After our conversation in the pantry, /
roamed ABOUT in the garden, wondering at
the curious old cottage herbs there-yer-
bena, sage lavender, etc.-and watched
the bees till matchmaking. Amongst
other good things provided here Tor
my ~delectation was a neat little dish
of baked mushrooms piping hot, and
piled up into the shape of u pyramid
rising Il of a little black sea OF mush-
room juice. The Deans portrait,
holding a book in his hand Iii
was the COMMANDMENTS behind
and above Miss Early as we sat at meat.
He seemed to watch me with unfriendly
eyes as / helped myself, not sparingly, to
those fragrant and steaming flaps. Il
observe there are no buttons here" said
I, as / worked into the neart of the pyra-
mid. 81 suppose they don't bake WE'LL
NO" replied my hostess, with emphasis,
buttons for stewing, flaps for baking
medium-sized are the best" thought
OF the Roman Emperor who loved mush-
rooms not wisely but too we'll; but never
theless transferred the last flap to my
plate, and that though the Deans look
showed the greatest asperity. / wonder
had mushrooms anything to do with his
demise?
What an excellent thing it would be,
Miss Early" / said aloud, IF we could
preserve mushrooms SO as to lave a dish
such as this at any time in the year."
My hostess laughed sweetly at such
ignorance. why / preserved a jar of
them myself this morning. The process
is quite simple. You peel your mush-
rooms, put them in water with a little
lemon-juice, remove and dry them. Stew
them till dry in butter, lemlon-juice, salt
and pepper When quite dry store them
up in jars, pouring clarified butter over
the top"
"To keep out the air,"I observed, in
telligenIly.
Exactly so; but for a man who likes
mushrooms SO we'll you know surpris-