The home cook book

Set the mushrooms in a buttered pan, place them in the oven with good bottom heat, cover the top with buttered paper (but in a way that the paper will not touch the forcemeat) and bake till the forcemeat is firm to the touch. Serve with cream sauce. [See illustration, Plate XIX.] BOILED OKRA Wash young okra and cut the spears in slices about half an inch thick. Have boiling in a porcelain saucepan enough salted water to almost cover the okra. Drop in the slices, cover and boil gently till tender, which will be in from twenty-five to forty minutes. The water will be almost boiled away. To a quart of okra stir in a heaping tablespoon of butter, a tablespoon of vinegar, and, if you like it, a dash of catsup and cayenne. Serve hot. This vegetable is oftenest eaten with chicken. FRIED OKRA WITH HAM A LOUISIANA DISH In a porcelain saucepan fry half a pound of minced boiled ham in a tablespoon of butter and add two minced onions. When browned add two dozen sHced spears of okra. Stir constantly until the okra browns. Add one teacup of tomato juice, allow it to simmer down until all the juice is absorbed and the vegetables begin to brown again, when the okra will be done. Serve in a vegetable dish. BAKED ONIONS Peel white onions and have a Boston bean pot for their baking. Put a layer of onions in the pot and sprinkle in half a teaspoon of salt and lay in a tablespoon of butter. Add half a cup of boiling water. Repeat this layer with the salt and butter, and as many times as you wish to make the quantity of onions. Set the cover of the pot on tight and bake in a moderate oven four or five hours. The closed pot does not allow the fumes to escape and annoy people, and no one knows you are cooking a most wholesome vegetable. Onions may be cooked this way without water or butter, in their own juice. Do not have the oven too hot. BOILED ONIONS Peel good-sized white onions, taking off the thick outer skin. Lay in cold water half an hour, and then put them in a tin saucepan of boiling water. Boil ten minutes, then pour off the water and cover again with fresh boiling water. Add a little salt. Boil until tender enough to allow a straw to run through. When done, turn out carefully into a colander. Lift each one with a spoon and lay into a hot vegetable dish. Sprinkle over each a good deal of salt and pour over a small quantity of melted butter ; no pepper. CREAMED ONIONS Peel the onions, cover with salted boiling water and cook till they are quite tender all through. Onions of average size commonly take one hour or at times one hour and a half to cook through thoroughly. Pour off the water that remains — much will have boiled away — and add enough sweet cream to rise through the onions and half cover them. Boil up and taste. If they need salt, add a little. Take each onion separately from the saucepan and lay it in the serving dish in order to keep its form perfect. Pour over the hot cream and serve. SPANISH ONIONS STUFFED