The housekeeper's guide to preserved meats, fruits, vegetables, &c

poisonous effects of the minority, and the post-mortem appearance of the organs of those who have died through partaking of them, are enough to alarm the most stout - hearted. Preserved mushrooms are used for making probably the majority of what may be termed “ made dishes.” There is, perhaps, no one single material used in cooking that would be so much missed by the cook as mushrooms. Probably the most common form in which they are served throughout this country is that of mushroom sauce. This can be made either brown or white, and there are also two distinct methods of preparing it — one in which the mushrooms are rubbed through a wire sieve, and the sauce served as a puree, and the other in which the mushrooms are chopped up very fine and served in the sauce in little pieces. First I will describe how to make white mushroom sauce very good: — Take a tin of mushrooms, chop them up, and add a small quantity of lemon juice. (This assists the sauce to keep its colour, though very little lemon juice need be used in the case of tinned mushrooms. But this is very important should the sauce be made from fresh mushrooms.) Then stew them for a short time in a small quantity of good white sauce, after which rub the whole through a wire sieve, and then add about an equal quantity of boiling cream. Brown mushroom sauce is made by stewing the mushrooms for a short time in some good, rich, brown gravy, and rubbing the whole through a wire sieve, when the consistency of this mushroom sauce should be about that of double cream. I have on several occasions in the present work mentioned double cream as a standard of consistency. Perhaps, however, there are many — especially those who live in London — who have not only never seen double cream, but Oven cream itself. Indeed, pure cream is almost unobtainable in London. The consistency of double cream is about the same as that of ordinary gruel. If white mushroom sauce is required, and cream cannot be obtained, the sauce can be made as follows : — Get some good white stock and reduce it till it is almost a glaze ; then add to it half a pint of boiling milk ; put in the mushrooms, and let them stew in the white sauce a short time ; then rub it through a wire sieve. A little pepper and salt should • be added according to taste. The other mushroom sauce I have mentioned is, of course, less troublesome, and cooks too often object to the process known as rubbing through a sieve. Instead of rubbing the mushrooms through a sieve they are chopped fine before being added to the sauce. Mushrooms form the base of so many delicious flavourings that space will not allow me to give more than a few of the most useful and generally known methods of using them. I will take first of all that delicious dish known as sole an gratin. I would here also mention that there are many kinds of fish which can be cooked in the same way. For instance, we can have fresh haddocks nil gratin, lemon sole au gratin, and, indeed, almost any kind of white fish. However, the sole is undoubtedly the best. Take a large 6ole, dry it, flour it, dip it in well-beaten-up yolk of egg, and sprinkle it over with some very fine bread-crumbs.