Mushroom Ketchup Recipe

If you please,

I'll taste your tempting toasted cheese,

Broiled ham, and nice _mushroom'd ketchup_.

If you love good ketchup, gentle reader, make it yourself, after the

following directions, and you will have a delicious relish for made

dishes, ragouts, soup, sauces, or hashes. Mushroom gravy approaches the

nature and flavor of made gravy, more than any vegetable juice, and is

the superlative substitute for it; in meagre soups and extempore

gravies, the chemistry of the kitchen has yet contrived to agreeably

awaken the palate and encourage the appetite.

A couple quarts of double ketchup, made according to the following

receipt, will save you some score pounds of meat, besides a vast deal of

time and trouble, as it will furnish, in a few minutes, as good sauce as

can be made for either fish, flesh, or fowl. I believe the following is

the best way for preparing and extracting the essence of mushrooms, so

as to procure and preserve their flavor for a considerable length of

time.

Look out for mushrooms, from the beginning of September. Take care of

the right sort and fresh gathered. Full-grown flaps are to be preferred.

Put a layer of these at the bottom of a deep earthen pan, and sprinkle

them with salt; then another layer of mushrooms, and some more salt on

them, and so on, alternately, salt and mushrooms; let them remain two or

three hours, by which time the salt will have penetrated the mushrooms,

and rendered them easy to break; then pound them in a mortar, or mash

them well with your hands, and let them remain for a couple of days, not

longer, stirring them up, and mashing them well each day; then pour them

into a stone jar, and to each quart add an ounce and a half of whole

black pepper, and half an ounce of allspice; stop the jar very close,

and set in a stewpan of boiling water, and keep it boiling for two hours

at least.

Take out the jar, and pour the juice, clear from the settlings, through

a hair sieve (without squeezing the mushrooms), into a clean stewpan;

let it boil very gently for half an hour. Those who are for superlative

ketchup, will continue the boiling till the mushroom juice is reduced to

half the quantity. There are several advantages attending this

concentration: it will keep much better, and only half the quantity

required; so you can flavor sauce, &c., without thinning it; neither is

this an extravagant way of making it, for merely the aqueous part is

evaporated. Skim it well, and pour it into a clean dry jar or jug; cover

it close, and let it stand in a cool place till next day; then pour it

off as gently as possible (so as not to disturb the settlings at the

bottom of the jug), through a tamis or thick flannel bag, till it is

perfectly clear; add a tablespoonful of good brandy to each pint of

ketchup, and let it stand as before; a fresh sediment will be deposited,

from which the ketchup is to be quietly poured off and bottled in pints

or half pints (which have been washed in brandy or spirits). It is best

to keep it in such quantities as are soon used.

Take especial care that it is closely corked and sealed down. If kept in

a cool dry place, it may be preserved for a long time; but if it be

badly corked, and kept in a damp place, it will soon spoil.

Examine it from time to time, by placing a strong light behind the neck

of the bottle, and if any pellicle appears about it, boil it up again

with a few peppercorns.