Lillian Russell
CREAMED MUSHROOMS
Peel one pound of large mushrooms. Drop them into water to which the juice of a lemon has been added. Into a 2-quart chafing dish place a large lump of butter; when this is melted add the mushrooms (after draining off the water) in layers; add one Spanish onion cut in slices.
Put on the cover and let them simmer until they draw their own juices. When soft enough for a fork to pierce easily add half a cup of cream, salt and paprika to taste and just before serving add the juice of half a lemon. This lemon brings out the flavor of all the seasoning and mushrooms.
This is my favorite recipe and a dish that I love to fuss with myself. 2 Lillian Russell
HOW TO COOK
POTATOES PROP-
ERLY
First wash them thoroughly Place and cut off the ends. them in water; not boiling nor yet cold. Cover over and let boil fifteen or twenty minutes, then test with a fork. When the fork will enter the potato and just stop in the center, touching the so-called "bone," draw the water off and shake them over the fire from three to ten minutes until all the moisture has been steamed out and the potatoes are mealy; then serve.
Two recipes on one page: creamed mushrooms in a chafing dish, and boiled potatoes. Both are workable as written, with a few period assumptions worth naming.
- Peeling the mushroomsPeriod cookbooks routinely direct that mushroom caps be peeled. Modern button, cremini or portobello caps need only a wipe; trim the stem end and skip the peeling entirely.
- The lemon waterAcidulated water was to stop the cut surfaces browning. It also waterlogs the mushrooms, which is why the recipe insists on draining off the water before they go into the butter.
- Chafing dish or panA 2-quart chafing dish sits over a spirit lamp and gives low, indirect heat, which is why the mushrooms are covered and left to "draw their own juices." A wide heavy saucepan or skillet over low heat, lidded, does the same job in about 10-15 minutes.
- A large lump of butterRead that as 2 to 3 tablespoons for a pound of mushrooms. There is no flour or roux here, so the sauce is simply butter, mushroom liquor and cream, reduced.
- The Spanish onionA Spanish onion is a large, mild, sweet-tasting yellow onion. The recipe calls for a whole one to a pound of mushrooms; if that seems heavy to modern taste, half a medium onion sliced thin is a safer starting point.
- CreamCream of the period was unstandardised in fat content and often nearer what we would call light cream; heavy cream works well here. Add it at the end and let it reduce a few minutes to coat.
- The lemon at the finishThe instruction to add lemon juice just before serving matters: added early it risks curdling the cream and its brightness cooks away, while added at the last moment it lifts the seasoning, which is exactly what Russell says it does.
- YieldA pound of mushrooms serves two as a supper dish on toast, or four as a side.
- The potatoesStarting in warm rather than boiling water is deliberate: it lets the outside and center cook at similar rates so the surface does not fray. Fifteen to twenty minutes suits medium potatoes; large ones want longer. The "bone" is the firm, undercooked core.
- Drying over the fireDraining and then shaking the pan over low heat drives off surface water and makes a floury potato mealy. Three to ten minutes is generous — one or two over gentle heat is usually enough on a modern burner before they start to catch.
Lillian Russell's fame as an eater was inseparable from her fame as a soprano, and the story of her Delmonico's evenings with James Buchanan "Diamond Jim" Brady has been retold so often that it has hardened into legend more than documented record. What is genuinely of the period is the chafing dish itself. From the 1890s into the 1920s it was the fashionable apparatus of the American middle and upper classes: a spirit lamp, a water pan and a blazer, kept in the dining room or the parlor so a hostess could cook lightly in front of her guests. Whole cookbooks were devoted to it, and its repertoire was small and specific — rarebit, lobster Newburg, oysters, scrambled eggs and creamed mushrooms. That Russell offered a chafing-dish recipe to a celebrity cookbook is less a confession of modest tastes than a signal of exactly the right kind of sophistication for the period: informal, performed, and done with her own hands.