Cookery

Marrows. — Put into a large vessel about forty small marrows with half a pint of salt, just cover with boiling water, let them stand for about twenty hours, take them out, wipe them dry, and lay them in large stone jars ; then heat some vinegar, and just before it reaches boiling point add to every quart of vinegar half an ounce of mace, one of whole black pepper and of mustard seed respectively, and a quarter of a large horseradish sliced. When this has boiled together pour it over the marrows at once, let them stand till cold, tie down with parchment, and keep in a cool place. Tomatoes. — As far as my personal experience goes they do not succeed very well when preserved whole ; but for garnishes, flavourings, or for use in soups they can be treated as follows : Choose them ripe, but perfectly sound and firm ; remove the green stalk and hard core, cut them in two, put them just as they are into preserving bottles, not too large, and with the ordinary wide mouth. Use bladder instead of corks for closing the bottles, and let this be previously soaked in lukewarm water to soften it. Tie it round with a piece of fine string, and over the first piece put a second bladder, tying it equally carefully. Heat the bottles in the bain-marie, just in the same way as shown previously for fruit. Before the tomatoes are used some of the juice had better be strained off, or they will be too liquid. Mushrooms. — Be sure these have been gathered in fine dry weather, and treat them on the same day. Wash them briskly, dry them, and put them into a pan over the fire with some butter, a good pinch of salt, a little water, and a few drops of citric acid ; cover them over, and let them boil for three minutes. Take them out with a flat strainer, and after letting the moisture drain off, put them into wide-mouthed bottles, packing them rather closely. Very little of the liquor should be poured into the bottles, though it is well to skim off the butter, and to add it to the mushrooms. Tie the bottles down with a bladder folded double, and after boiling the bottles as above, tie on another bladder, and seal the bottles. Dried Mushrooms are very useful all through the winter for sauces and stews. Boil them for a short time in salted water, strain them, thread them so that they shall not touch each other, and dry them in the shade or in a well-aired place, or in a slack oven, according to convenience. The salt keeps off the insects, but the mushrooms must be kept in an absolutely dry place, as the salt also tends to absorb the natural moisture. When dried, they can be pounded or ground, and kept in small tins for flavouring purposes. This fungus will not keep more than one season. Before using dried mushrooms whole they should be soaked in vinegar and water for half an hour.