Important: Safety Warning
This page offers rules for telling edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. No such rules are reliable, and these identifications predate modern mycology. Deadly species closely resemble edible ones, and mistakes are regularly fatal. Never eat a wild mushroom on the strength of this text.
In addition, this page describes home-canning methods from before the causes of botulism were understood. Canning low-acid foods without a pressure canner, as described here, can allow the growth of Clostridium botulinum, whose toxin is among the deadliest known. Follow current USDA home-canning guidelines instead.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Home › The Principles of Cookery › Ketchup, Mushroom
Ketchup, Mushroom
Take large flap mushrooms, freshly gathered; put a layer in a deep earthen jar, then a layer of salt, and so on alternately. Let them remain two or three hours, then pound them well with the hands. Allow them to remain two days, stirring and mashing them well each day. Pour them into a stone jar, and to every quart add one ounce of whole black pepper. Stop the mouth of the jar, set it in a stewpan of hot water, and keep it boiling for two hours. Take out the jar, and pour the juice through a sieve, without squeezing the mushrooms, into a clean stewpan; let it boil gently for half an hour, then strain through a flannel. Add a table-spoonful of brandy to each pint of ket-chup; bottle, and, when cold, cork and seal. Keep in a dry cool place.