Fried Celery

Take fine large celery, cut it into pieces three or four inches in length, and boil it tender, having seasoned the water with a very little salt. Then drain the pieces well, and lay them, separately, to cool on a large dish. Make a batter in the proportion of three well-beaten eggs stirred into a pint of rich milk, alternately with half a pint of grated bread-crumbs, or of sifted flour. Beat the batter very hard after it is all mixed. Put into a hot frying-pan a sufficiency of fresh lard; melt it over the fire, and when it comes to a boil, dip each piece of celery twice into the batter, put them into the pan, and fry them a light brown. When done, lay them to drain on an inverted sieve with a broad pan placed beneath it. Then dish the fried celery, and send it to table hot.

Parsnips, and salsify, (or oyster plant) may be fried in butter according to the above directions. Also the tops of asparagus cut off from the stalk, and the white part or blossom of cauliflower.

Cold sweet potatos are very nice, peeled, cut into long slips, and fried in this way.

Fried Artichokes

The artichokes must be young and tender. Cut them into quarters, remove the choke part, and strip off the leaves. Having washed the artichokes well and laid them an hour in cold water, put them into a pot of boiling water, and keep them boiling steadily for a long time, till you find by trying them with a a fork that they are tender all through. Then take them out immediately, and drain them. Have ready a sufficiency of batter, made in the proportion of the yolk of one egg to a large table-spoonful of milk, and a tea-spoonful of flour. The eggs must be well beaten before they are mixed with the milk; then beat in the flour a spoonful at a time. Have ready over the fire some fresh butter, or lard, in a frying-pan. When it has boiled hard, dip the artichokes into the butter, (each piece should be twice dipped,) and fry them brown. Then drain them well, and send them to table hot.

Parsnips may be fried as above. Salsify also.

Another way of frying artichokes, parsnips, and salsify, is, after they have been boiled tender, to dip each piece first in beaten yolk of egg, (without milk or flour,) and then roll it in finely grated bread-crumbs. Then put them into the pan and fry them in butter or lard, or a mixture of both.

In boiling artichokes, observe to take them out as soon as they are tender. If they remain in the water after they are done, they turn blackish and lose their flavor.

Mushroom Omelet

Take some fresh-gathered mushrooms; remove the stalks, and rub the flaps or heads very slightly with a little salt, mixed with cayenne. Then stew the mushrooms in a small sauce-pan, with barely sufficient cream or rich milk to cover them. Put in with them a small onion; and if the onion is found to turn blackish, throw away the whole; it being proof that there is among them a false or poisonous mushroom. Stir them with a silver spoon, and keep on the lid of the pan closely, unless when you are stirring. If the spoon turns black, the mushrooms should not be eaten.

After they have come to a boil, take them off the fire; drain them, and when cool, chop them small. To a pint or more of the minced mushrooms, allow six or seven eggs. Beat the eggs till very light and thick, (omitting the whites of two,) and then mix in, gradually, the mushrooms, stirring the whole very hard. Put three ounces of fresh butter into a hot omelet pan, or a small frying-pan; place it over the fire and stir the butter as it melts. When it has boiled hard, put in the omelet mixture, and as it fries, stir it till it begins to set. Do not turn the omelet; but brown the top by holding close above it a red-hot shovel. When done, drain off the butter, fold over or double the omelet, and serve it up immediately on a hot dish.

In gathering mushrooms, those that are fit to eat may be known by their being of a pale pearl color, or of a grayish white, instead of what is called a dead white; and the underside of the flap or head (if good) is of a light pink, or a pinkish salmon color. The best mushrooms grow on uplands, or in high open fields where the air is pure and good, and they should be gathered early in the morning before the dew is off. All that are found in low swampy ground, or in the woods, or under large trees, are poisonous.