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Morels, Stewed
Morels are seldom served at English tables, but when stewed fresh have a rich flavour, highly appreciated by connoisseurs; stew them in a little good gravy, powdered mace, pepper, salt, and a glassful of white wine for an hour. If large cut them into four; thicken the gravy with butter and flour, and add lemon-juice to taste; serve hot.
A plain brown-stew of morels in the Victorian manner, leaning on stock and mace rather than the cream most cooks reach for now. Two things need attention: the mushrooms themselves, and the hour on the stove.
- Morels must be cooked throughRaw or barely warmed morels contain compounds that cause gastric upset in many people, and they should never be eaten raw. Cook them thoroughly.
- Know what you haveTrue morels (Morchella) have a pitted, honeycombed cap fused to the stem and are hollow from tip to base when split lengthways. False morels (Gyromitra) have a brainy, lobed cap and are stuffed or chambered inside; they contain gyromitrin and should not be eaten. Split every specimen before it goes in the pan.
- CleaningThose pits hold grit and insects. Halve the mushrooms, rinse briefly in cold water, shake dry and cook soon after; a long soak waterlogs them and dilutes the flavour the recipe is after.
- An hour is longer than neededTwenty-five to thirty minutes at a bare simmer will cook them safely and concentrate the liquor. A full hour will not poison anyone, but the caps go slack and the woodsy aroma cooks off into the kitchen.
- "A glassful of white wine"In Victorian recipe books a wineglassful is usually reckoned at roughly 2 fl oz / 60 ml, not a modern 6-8 oz pour.
- "Good gravy"Not gravy in the American sense but a well-reduced brown veal or beef stock. Use about 1 cup / 250 ml of unsalted stock for 1 lb / 450 g of morels, and salt at the end once it has reduced.
- Thickening with butter and flourThis is beurre mani e: butter and flour worked cold in equal weight, about 1 tbsp each. Whisk it in off the boil in small pieces and return to a simmer for a minute or two to cook out the raw flour.
- MaceThe lacy outer coat of the nutmeg, warmer and less sweet. A quarter teaspoon of ground mace is plenty for this quantity; ground nutmeg can stand in at roughly the same amount.
- Dried morelsIf using dried, they take up water to several times their dry weight. Soak in warm water, lift them out rather than pouring, and strain the soaking liquid through a coffee filter into the stock -- the grit settles at the bottom.
- Yield1 lb / 450 g of fresh morels stewed this way serves about four as a savoury course or alongside roast meat; the recipe itself says only "serve hot".
Morels were, in the period of the recipe, among the prized edible fungi that had not been cultivated on any commercial scale, which explains the note that they are "seldom served at English tables" — they had to be foraged in spring, in a country whose cooks were, by the nineteenth century, reputed to be deeply suspicious of wild mushrooms. English kitchens of the period are often said to have kept to the field mushroom and to imported dried morels for sauces, and little else; French and German cooking used the wild flora far more freely. The stewing method itself — stock, mace, white wine, thickened with flour and butter and sharpened with lemon at the last moment — is the standard Victorian ragout treatment applied to almost any delicate ingredient, from sweetbreads to oysters, and tells you more about the house style of the period than about morels in particular.