Harper's cook book encyclopædia

Mushrooms, Scalloped. — Cover the bottom of a buttered dish with stale bread-crumbs ; sprinkle over with pepper and salt and bits of butter. Place a layer of mushrooms alternately with the bread until the dish is full. Sprinkle bread and bits of butter on the top, pour over a pint of cream, cover, and set in the oven for one hour. Remove the cover, let brown, and serve immediately. Mushroom Stew. — Trim and wipe a quart of large, fresh mushrooms. Put 3 ozs. of butter into a saucepan and set over the fire until melted. Throw the mushrooms in with a pounded blade of mace, a little salt and pepper. Let stew until the mushrooms are tender. Add half a teacupful of butter, in which rub a table-spoonful of cracker meal. Stir until the mixture comes to a boil. Mushroom Toast. — Stew over a gentle fire a quart of nicely prepared mushrooms (just opened ones), first dissolving 3 ozs. of butter in the stewpan, and seasoning the mushrooms with white pepper or cayenne, a salt-spoonful of mace, powdered ; stir them carefully, and toss them in the pan to prevent burning, and until the butter is dried and slightly brown, when add half a pint of thin cream, the grated rind of half a lemon. Okra, Boiled Onions, Baked and a little salt, and stew until the mushrooms are tender. Beef gravy may be substituted for the cream, and the grated lemon-peel omitted. Serve on buttered bread, fried or grilled, which should be thick enough to allow of the inside being scooped out. Serve hot, and squeeze the juice of a lemon over. Time, fifteen minutes to stew in butter; five minutes in gravy. Okra, Boiled. — Take young tender pods of okra, and boil in salt water for twenty minutes. Drain, pour over a teacupful of cream, add a tablespoonful of butter, season with pepper, and let simmer five minutes. Serve hot. Okra, Fried. — Slice tender pods of okra. Have a frying-pan on the fire with hot pork drippings, put the okra in, and fry brown on both sides. Sliced onions may be added. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve hot. Okra and Rice. — Slice a quart of okra. Cut % lb. of lean ham into small pieces. Peel and cut up two large tomatoes. Put all together in a saucepan with a pint of stock, a pod of red pepper, and a slice of onion ; let simmer gently for half an hour. Wash a cupful of rice and put in; let cook until done ; add a table-spoonful of gumbo filet ; let boil up, and serve. Okra, Scalloped. — Slice well-grown pods of okra in thick slices. Put a layer in the bottom of a baking-pan, spread with grated crackers, bits of butter, salt, and pepper ; put over another layer of okra and season ; continue until the dish is full ; spread the top with bits of butter, pour over a teacupful of cream, and set in the oven half an hour. Okra with Tomatoes. — Wash pods of okra and cut in thin slices sufficient to fill a quart measure. Peel tomatoes to fill a pint cup when sliced. Put together in a saucepan. add a little salt, cover, and let simmer gently for half an hour ; add a tablespoonful of butter with pepper, and serve.