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Broiled Mushrooms
Take the large flat mushrooms, and with a knife remove as much of the outside skin as you can without breaking the mushrooms; then lay them on a double-wire broiler, well greased to prevent them from sticking; place them on the fire and broil, first on one side and then the other; a few minutes will broil them; when they steam out sprinkle them with pepper and salt; lay them on a very hot dish and pour melted butter liberally over them. They are nice served on buttered toast in the same way .
A very short recipe that depends almost entirely on heat and fat. The original assumes an open coal or wood fire and a hinged double-wire broiler, both of which have straightforward modern substitutes.
- The hinge: high, dry heatMushrooms are mostly water, and a moderate heat makes them stew in their own juices rather than brown. Get the broiler element or grill as hot as it goes, or use a ridged cast-iron pan over high heat, and do not crowd them.
- "Place them on the fire"This means directly over glowing coals in a hinged wire broiler that can be flipped as a unit. Under a modern overhead broiler, set the rack 3-4 inches from the element; the mushrooms will not need turning as often, but check them after two minutes a side.
- "When they steam out"The visual cue the recipe relies on: liquid beading on the gill side shows the caps are giving up their water and are close to done. That is the moment the recipe says to season; seasoning earlier is generally avoided on the grounds that salt draws out water and slows browning.
- PeelingRemoving the skin was standard practice with field mushrooms, whose cuticle can be tough and gritty. Cultivated portobellos and large white caps need no peeling at all -- just wipe them and remove the stem.
- Timing"A few minutes" is accurate: four to six minutes total for a large flat cap. Past that they collapse and turn leathery.
- GreasingMushrooms stick badly and tear. Brush the grate or pan and both sides of the caps with butter or oil rather than relying on grease in the broiler alone.
- YieldFigure two large flat caps per person as a side dish, one per slice of toast if serving on buttered toast as suggested.
Broiling was the standard English treatment for the large field mushroom, Agaricus campestris, gathered in late-summer pasture and prized for a flavour far stronger than the cultivated button. Turn-of-the-century American cookbooks gave the same method, along with the instruction to peel -- sensible for a wild cap that had spent the morning in wet grass. The double-wire broiler named here was a common piece of kitchen ironmongery: two hinged grids that clamped food between them so a whole batch could be turned over a fire at once, and it appears throughout books of this period for chops, fish and small game as well as vegetables. Serving on buttered toast, mentioned almost as an afterthought, was the usual way to catch the juices.