Studies of American Fungi. Mushrooms, Edible, Poisonous, etc. Part 31

Bring the vinegar to boiling point, and pour it over; seal and put aside.

This may be served alone as any other pickle, or on lettuce leaves with French dressing as a salad.

=Escalloped Clavaria.=--Wash, separate and cut the clavaria as in first recipe. To each quart allow a half pint of chicken stock, a teaspoonful of salt, a tablespoonful of chopped parsley. Put a layer of bread crumbs in the bottom of the dish, then a layer of chopped clavaria, and so continue until you have the dish filled. Pour over the stock, which you have seasoned with salt and pepper; dot bits of b.u.t.ter here and there over the top, and bake in a moderate oven thirty minutes.

This recipe is excellent for the young or b.u.t.ton _Hypholoma_, except that the time of baking must be forty-five minutes.

PUFF-b.a.l.l.s.

To be eatable, the puff-b.a.l.l.s must be perfectly white to the very center. Pare off the skin; cut them into slices; dust with salt and pepper. Have ready in a large, shallow pan a sufficient quant.i.ty of hot oil to cover the bottom. Throw in the slices and, when brown on one side, turn and brown on the other; serve at once on a heated dish.

=A la Poulette.=--Pare the puff-b.a.l.l.s; cut them into slices and then into dice; put them into a saucepan, allowing a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter to each pint of blocks. Cover the saucepan; stew gently for fifteen minutes; lift the lid; sprinkle over a teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Beat the yolks of three eggs until light; add a half cup of cream and a half cup of milk; pour this into the hot mixture, and shake until smoking hot. Do not allow them to boil. Serve in a heated vegetable dish, with blocks of toast over the top.

=Puff-Ball Omelet.=--Pare and cut into blocks sufficient puff-b.a.l.l.s to make a pint. Put a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter into a saucepan; add the puff-b.a.l.l.s, cover and cook for ten minutes. Beat six eggs without separating, until thoroughly mixed, but not too light; add the cooked puff-b.a.l.l.s, a level teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper. Put a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter into your omelet pan; when hot, turn in the egg mixture; shake over the hot fire until the bottom has thoroughly set, then with a limber knife lift the edge, allowing the soft portion to run underneath; continue this operation until the omelet is cooked through; fold and turn onto a heated dish. Serve at once.

Other delicate mushrooms may be used in this same manner.

=Puff-b.a.l.l.s with Agaricus campestris.=--As the _Agaricus campestris_ has a rather strong flavor and the puff-b.a.l.l.s are mild, both are better for being mixed in the cooking. Take equal quant.i.ties of _Agaricus campestris_ and puff-b.a.l.l.s; pare and cut the puff-b.a.l.l.s into blocks; to each half pound allow a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter. Put the b.u.t.ter in a saucepan, add the mushrooms, sprinkle over the salt (allowing a half teaspoonful always to each pint); cover the saucepan and stew slowly for twenty minutes. Moisten a tablespoonful of flour in a half cup of milk, add it to the mixture, stir and cook for just a moment, add a dash of pepper, and serve in a heated dish.

This recipe may be changed by omitting the flour and adding the yolks of a couple of eggs; milk is preferable to stock, for all the white or light-colored varieties.

MORCh.e.l.lA.

Select twelve large-sized morels; cut off the stalks, and throw them into a saucepan of warm water; let them stand for fifteen minutes; then take them on a skimmer one by one, and drain carefully. Chop fine sufficient cold boiled tongue or chicken to make one cupful; mix this with an equal quant.i.ty of bread crumbs, and season with just a suspicion of onion juice, not more than ten drops, and a dash of pepper. Fill this into the mushrooms, arrange them neatly in a baking pan, put in a half cup of stock and a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, bake in a moderate oven thirty minutes, basting frequently. When done, dish neatly. Boil down the sauce that is in the pan until it is just sufficient to baste them on the dish; serve at once.

=A Second Method.=--Select large-sized morels; cut off the stalk; wash well through several waters. Put into a frying pan a little b.u.t.ter, allowing about a tablespoonful to each dozen mushrooms. When hot, throw in the mushrooms, and toss until they are thoroughly cooked; then add a half pint of milk or stock; cover the vessel, and cook slowly twenty minutes; dust with salt and pepper, and serve in a vegetable dish. This method gives an exceedingly palatable and very sightly dish if garnished with sweet Spanish peppers that have been boiled until tender.

=Another Method.=--Remove the stems, and wash the morels as directed in the preceding recipe. Make a stuffing of bread crumbs seasoned with salt, pepper, chopped parsley, and sufficient melted b.u.t.ter to just moisten. Place them in a baking pan; add a little stock and b.u.t.ter; bake for thirty minutes. When done, dish. Into the pan in which they were cooked, turn a cupful of strained tomatoes; boil rapidly for fifteen minutes until slightly thickened; pour this over the mushrooms; garnish the dish with triangular pieces of toasted bread, and serve.

GENERAL RECIPES.

In the following recipes one may use _Agaricus campestris_, _silvicola_, _arvensis_, or _Pleurotus ostreatus_, or _sapidus_, or _Coprinus comatus_, or any kindred mushrooms. The _Agaricus campestris_, however, are to be preferred.

=To Serve with a Boiled Leg of Mutton=, wash well the mushrooms and dry them; dip each into flour, being careful not to get too much on the gill side. In a saucepan have a little hot b.u.t.ter or oil; drop these in, skin side down; dust them lightly with salt and pepper. After they have browned on this side, turn them quickly and brown the gills; add a half pint of good stock; let them simmer gently for fifteen minutes. Take them up with a skimmer, and dish them on a platter around the mutton.

Boil the sauce down until it is the proper consistency; pour it over, and serve at once. These are also good to serve with roasted beef.

=Mushroom Sauce for Game.=--Wash well one pound of fresh mushrooms; dry, and chop them very fine. Put them into a saucepan with one and a half tablespoonfuls of b.u.t.ter; cover, and cook slowly for eight minutes; then add a half cup of fresh rubbed bread crumbs, a half teaspoonful of salt, a saltspoon of white pepper; cover and cook again for five minutes; stir, add a tablespoonful of chopped parsley, and, if you like, two tablespoonfuls of sherry; turn into a sauce-boat.

=A Nice Way to Serve with Frica.s.see of Chicken.=--Wash and dry the mushrooms; sprinkle them with salt and pepper. Put some oil or b.u.t.ter in a shallow pan; when hot, throw in the mushrooms, skin side down; cover the pan, put in the oven for fifteen minutes; baste them once during the baking. Lift them carefully and put them on a heated dish. Add to the fat in the pan two tablespoonfuls of finely chopped mushrooms, a half cup of good stock; boil carefully for five minutes. Have ready rounds of bread toasted; dish the mushrooms on these; put on top a good sized piece of carefully boiled marrow; season the sauce with salt, and strain it over. Use these as a garnish around the edge of the plate, or you may simply dish and serve them for breakfast, or as second course at lunch.

=Oysters and Mushrooms.=--Wash and remove the stems from a half pound of fresh mushrooms; chop them fine; put them into a saucepan with a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter, a half teaspoonful of salt, and a dash of pepper; cover closely, and cook over a slow fire for ten minutes. Have ready, washed and drained, twenty-five good sized fat oysters; throw them perfectly dry into this mushroom mixture. Pull the saucepan over a bright fire; boil, stirring carefully, for about five minutes. Serve on squares of carefully toasted bread.

=Tomatoes Stuffed with Mushrooms.=--Wash perfectly smooth, solid tomatoes; cut a slice from the stem end, and remove carefully the seeds and core. To each tomato allow three good sized mushrooms; wash, dry, chop them fine, and stuff them into the tomatoes; put a half saltspoon of salt on the top of each and a dusting of pepper. Into a bowl put one cup of soft bread crumbs; season it with a half teaspoonful of salt and a dash of pepper; pour over a tablespoonful of melted b.u.t.ter; heap this over the top of the tomato, forming a sort of pyramid, packing in the mushrooms; stand the tomatoes in a baking pan and bake in a moderate oven one hour. Serve at once, lifting them carefully to prevent breaking.

Or, the mushrooms may be chopped fine, put with a tablespoonful of b.u.t.ter into a saucepan and cooked for five minutes before they are stuffed into the tomatoes; then the bread crumbs packed over the top, and the whole baked for twenty minutes. Each recipe will give you a different flavor.

FOOTNOTES:

[E] The recipes for Agaricus are intended for the several species of this genus (Psalliota).

CHAPTER XXII.

CHEMISTRY AND TOXICOLOGY OF MUSHROOMS.

By J. F. CLARK.

Regarding the chemical composition of mushrooms, we have in the past been limited largely to the work of European chemists. Recently, however, some very careful a.n.a.lyses of American mushrooms have been made. The results of these investigations, while in general accord with the work already done in Europe, have emphasized the fact that mushrooms are of very variable composition. That different species should vary greatly was of course to be expected, but we now know that different specimens of the same species grown under different conditions may be markedly different in chemical composition. The chief factors causing this variation are the composition, the moisture content, and the temperature of the soil in which they grow, together with the maturity of the plant. The temperature, humidity, and movement of the atmosphere and other local conditions have a further influence on the amount of water present.

The following table, showing the amounts of the more important const.i.tuents in a number of edible American species, has been compiled chiefly from a paper by L. B. Mendel (Amer. Jour. Phy. =1=: 225--238).

This article is one of the most recent and most valuable contributions to this important study, and anyone wis.h.i.+ng to look into the methods of research, or desiring more detailed information than is here given, is referred to the original paper.

TABLE I.

===================================================================+ FRESH IN WATER-FREE MATERIAL. MATERIAL. ------------------------------------------------------------------- W D M T N P N E E S I P A F A A R A O I R I T X O N E L I S T Y T T T O T H T L R C B H E T A R T R E R U 8 O R R E L O E O R A B 5 C H E R G I G C L E O E D E T E N L N N T ------------------------------------------------------------------- % % % % % % % % Coprinus comatus 92.19 7.81 5.79 1.92 3.3 56.3 7.3 12.5 Morch.e.l.la esculenta 89.54 0.46 4.66 3.49 4.8 29.3 8.7 10.4 Polyporus sulphureus 70.80 9.20 3.29 2.23 3.2 27.8 3.0 7.3 Pleurotus ostreatus 73.70 6.30 2.40 1.13 1.6 31.5 7.5 6.1 c.l.i.tocybe multiceps 89.61 0.39 5.36 1.98 6.0 57.2 9.6 11.5 Hypholoma 88.97 1.03 4.28 2.49 2.5 44.4 12.1 13.9 candolleanum Agaricus campestris 91.8 8.2 4.75 3.57 3.72 -- -- 11.6 ===================================================================+

=Water.=--Like all growing plants, the mushroom contains a very large proportion of water. The actual amount present varies greatly in different species. In the above table it will be seen that _Polyporus sulphureus_, with over 70 per cent. of water, has the least of any species mentioned, while the species of _Coprinus_ and _Agaricus_ have usually fully 90 per cent. water. The amount of water present, however, varies greatly in the same species at different seasons and in different localities, and with variations in the moisture content of soil and atmosphere, also with the age and rapidity of development of the individual plant.

=Total Nitrogen.=--The proportion of nitrogen in the dry matter of different species varies from 2 per cent. to 6 per cent. This comparatively high nitrogen content was formerly taken to indicate an unusual richness in proteid substances, which in turn led to very erroneous ideas regarding the nutritive value of these plants. The nitrogenous substances will be more fully discussed later, when we consider their nutritive value.

=Ether Extract.=--This consists of a variety of fatty substances soluble in ether. It varies greatly in quality and quant.i.ty in different species. The amount is usually from 4 per cent. to 8 per cent. of the total dry matter. It includes, besides various other substances, several free fatty acids and their glycerides, the acids of low melting point being most abundant. These fatty substances occur in the stem, but are much more abundant in the cap, especially in the fruiting portion. Just what nutritive value these fatty matters may have has never been determined.

=Carbohydrates.=--The largest part of the dry matter of the mushrooms is made up of various carbohydrates, including cellulose or fungocellulose, glycogen, mycoinuline, trehalose, mannite, glucose, and other related substances. The cellulose is present in larger proportion in the stem than in the cap, and in the upper part of the cap than in the fruiting surface. This is doubtless related to the sustaining and protective functions of the stem and the upper part of the cap. Starch, so common as a reserve food in the higher plants, does not occur in the mushrooms.

As is the case with the fats, no determination of the nutritive value of these substances has been made, but it may be a.s.sumed that the soluble carbohydrates of the mushrooms do not differ greatly from similar compounds in other plants.

=Ash.=--The ash of mushrooms varies greatly. _Polyporus officinalis_ gives but 1.08 per cent. of ash in dry matter, _Pleurotus ulmarius_ gives 12.6 per cent., and _c.l.i.topilus prunulus_ gives 15 per cent. The average of twelve edible species gave 7 per cent. ash in the stem and 8.96 per cent. in the cap.

In regard to the const.i.tuents of the ash, pota.s.sium is by far the most abundant--the oxide averaging about 50 per cent. of the total ash.

Phosphoric acid stands next to pota.s.sium in abundance and importance, const.i.tuting, on an average, about one-third of the entire ash. Oxides of manganese and iron are always present; the former averaging about 3 per cent. and the latter 5 per cent. to 2 per cent. of the ash. Sodium, calcium, and chlorine are usually present in small and varying quant.i.ties. Sulphuric acid occurs in the ash of all fungi, and is remarkable for the great variation in quant.i.ty present in different species; e. g., ash of _Helvella esculenta_ contains 1.58 per cent.

H_2SO_4 while that of _Agaricus campestris_ contains the relatively enormous amount of 24.29 per cent.

Any discussion of the bare composition of a food is necessarily incomplete without a consideration of the nutritive value of the various const.i.tuents. This is especially desirable in the case of the mushrooms, for while they are frequently overestimated and occasionally ridiculously overpraised by their friends, they are quite generally distrusted and sometimes held in veritable abhorrence by those who are ignorant of their many excellent qualities. On the one hand, we are told that "gastronomically and chemically considered the flesh of the mushroom has been proven to be almost identical with meat, and possesses the same nouris.h.i.+ng properties." We frequently hear them referred to as "vegetable beefsteak," "manna of the poor," and other equally extravagant and misleading terms. On the other hand, we see vast quant.i.ties of the most delicious food rotting in the fields and woods because they are regarded by the vast majority of the people as "toadstools" and as such particularly repulsive and poisonous.

Foods may be divided into three cla.s.ses according to the functions they perform:

(_a_) To form the material of the body and repair its wastes.

(_b_) To supply energy for muscular exertion and for the maintenance of the body heat.

(_c_) Relishes.

The formation of the body material and the repair of its wastes is the function of the proteids of foods. It has been found by careful experiment that a man at moderately hard muscular exertion requires .28 lb. of digestible proteids daily. The chief sources of our proteid foods are meats, fish, beans, etc. It has been as a proteid food that mushrooms have been most strongly recommended. Referring to Table I, it will be seen that nitrogen const.i.tuted 5.79 per cent. of the total dry substance of _Coprinus comatus_. This high nitrogen content, which is common to the mushrooms in general, was formerly taken to indicate a very unusual richness in proteid materials. It is now known, however, that there were several sources of error in this a.s.sumption.