ir, or you will break the mushrooms. As
soon as they have reached the boiling point, push them to the back part
of the stove for five minutes; serve on toast. These will be exceedingly
dark, are very palatable, and perhaps are the most easily digested of
all the varieties.

LEPIOTA.

These mushrooms, having very thin flesh and deep gills, must be quickly
cooked to be good. Remove the stem, take the mushrooms in your hand,
gill side down, and with a soft rag wash carefully the top, removing all
the little brown scales. Put them into a baking pan, or on a broiler.
Melt a little butter, allow it to settle, take the clear, oily part
from the top and baste lightly the mushrooms, gill sides up; dust with
salt and pepper. Place the serving dish to heat. Put the mushrooms over
a quick fire, skin side down, for just a moment; then turn and boil an
instant on the gill side, and serve at once on the heated plate.

In this way _Lepiota procera_ is most delicious of all mushrooms; but if
cooked in moist heat, it becomes soft, but tough and unpalatable; if
baked too long, it becomes dry and leathery. It must be cooked quickly
and eaten at once. All the edible forms may be cooked after this recipe.

These are perhaps the best of all mushrooms for drying. In this
condition they are easily kept, and add so much to an ordinary meat
sauce.

OYSTER MUSHROOMS (Pleurotus).

Wash and dry the mushrooms; cut them into strips crosswise of the gills,
trimming off all the woody portion near the stem side. Throw the
mushrooms into a saucepan, allowing a tablespoonful of butter to each
pint; sprinkle over a half teaspoonful of salt; cover, and cook slowly
for twenty minutes. Moisten a tablespoonful of flour in a half cup of
milk; when perfectly smooth, add another half cup; turn this into the
mushroom mixture; bring to boiling point, add just a grating of nutmeg,
a few drops of onion juice, and a dash of pepper. Serve as you would
stewed oysters.

To make this into a la poulette, add the yolks of two eggs just as you
take the mixture from the fire, and serve on toast.

=Mock Oysters.=--Trim the soft gill portion of the _Pleurotus ostreatus_
into the shape of an oyster; dust with salt and pepper; dip in beaten
egg, then in bread crumbs, and fry in smoking hot fat as you would an
oyster, and serve at once. This is, perhaps, the best method of cooking
this variety.

RUSSULA.

While in this group we have a number of varieties, they ma