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Mushrooms, Grilled
Cut the stalks, peel, and score lightly the underside of large mushroom flaps, which should be firm, and fresh gathered. Season them with pepper and salt, and steep them in a marinade of oil or melted butter. If quite sound, they may be laid on a gridiron, over a slow, even fire, and grilled on both sides, but they are best done in the oven if at all bruised. Either way, serve with a sauce of melted butter, or on a hot dish, with a piece of melted butter, or on a hot dish, with a piece of butter on each mushroom, and a squeeze of lemon-juice. Time, about twelve minutes to grill; forty minutes to steep in marinade. Sufficient, one large mushroom for each person.
A method rather than a formula, written when "mushroom" meant the field mushroom brought in that morning. The instructions translate directly to a broiler or a hot oven.
- "Flaps" and what to buyFlaps are the open, flat caps of mature field mushrooms, gills fully exposed. Large portobellos are the closest supermarket equivalent; four-inch caps work well, one per person as the original says.
- Skip the peelingPeeling was standard when caps came in gritty from a pasture. Cultivated mushrooms need only a wipe with a damp cloth, and the skin holds the cap together on the grill.
- Scoring the undersideA shallow crosshatch through the gills helps the marinade penetrate and lets steam escape so the cap browns rather than stews. Cut no more than a few millimetres deep.
- Salt at the last momentThe original seasons before the forty-minute steep. Salt draws a great deal of water out of mushrooms; if you want a browned cap rather than a poached one, oil them for the steep and salt just before they go over the heat.
- Gridiron, grill, broilerA "slow, even fire" is a bed of embers past their peak, not flames. Medium heat on a grill pan, or a broiler rack set well back from the element, is the nearest equivalent; the recipe's twelve minutes is a rough guide, gill side up first so the juices collect.
- The oven alternativeNo temperature is given because none could be. Bruised or fragile caps do well at 400F on a shallow tray, roughly 15 to 20 minutes for a large flap, until the cap has slumped and the gills are dark and glossy.
- A garbled lineThe words "or on a hot dish, with a piece of" appear twice in the original ("...with a piece of melted butter, or on a hot dish, with a piece of butter on each mushroom"), most likely a printing slip. The intent is clear: butter and lemon, either poured over or set on each cap.
- Wild gathering"Fresh gathered" assumed a household that knew its own fields. Several dangerous species resemble the field mushroom closely, and identification should come from a current regional guide or an expert, not from a Victorian cookery book.
Cassell's belonged to a period when British mushroom cookery still ran largely on the wild autumn crop from pasture and downland; mushroom forcing existed but had not yet made the fungus a year-round grocery item, which is why the recipe specifies "fresh gathered" and allows for caps arriving bruised. Grilling over a gridiron was the plainest treatment available, and the book also carries a number of recipes for mushroom ketchups, powders and essences, against which this entry is a reminder that the fresh flap had a brief season and was worth eating simply. Butter and lemon juice on a hot dish is a common Victorian dressing for grilled things generally, from a chop to a sole.