Mushroom Catchup

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Ingredients 8 ingredients

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.
Sharp knives. Cut on a board that doesn't slip (a damp cloth under it helps), and curl the fingers of the hand that holds the food.

Take mushrooms that have been freshly gathered, and examine them carefully to ascertain that they are of the right sort.
Pick them nicely, and wipe them clean, but do not wash them.
Spread a layer of them at the bottom of a deep earthen pan, and then sprinkle them well with salt;
then another layer of mushrooms, and another layer of salt, and so on alternately.
Throw a folded cloth over the jar, and set it by the fire or in a very cool oven.
Let it remain thus for twenty-four hours, and then mash them well with your hands.
Next squeeze and strain them through a bag.
To every quart of strained liquor add an ounce and a half of whole black pepper, and boil it slowly in a covered vessel for half an hour.
Then add a quarter of an ounce of allspice, half an ounce of sliced ginger, a few cloves, and three or four blades of mace.
Boil it with the spice fifteen minutes longer.
When it is done, take it off, and let it stand awhile to settle.
Pour it carefully off from the sediment and put it into small bottles, filling them to the top.
Secure them well with corks dipped in melted rosin, and leather caps tied over them.
The longer catchup is boiled, the better it will keep.
You may add cayenne and nutmeg to the spices.
The bottles should be quite small, as it soon spoils after being opened.