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Mushrooms with Bacon
Fry a few slices of nice bacon, if well-streaked with lean so much the better. When almost done turn into them 1 dozen or more good-sized mushrooms, that have been cleaned in the usual way. Fry very slowly until tender. The mushrooms will absorb nearly all the bacon fat, and make a nice breakfast relish.
A two-ingredient breakfast dish that depends entirely on heat control: the mushrooms are meant to poach slowly in the rendered fat rather than sear.
- Keep the pan lowThe instruction to fry very slowly is the whole recipe. Over high heat the mushrooms throw their water, steam, and the bacon fat spits away instead of being absorbed. Medium-low, uncovered, 15-20 minutes.
- What "cleaned in the usual way" meantPeriod cooks bought or gathered open field mushrooms and peeled the cap skin, trimmed the stem and often scraped the gills. With cultivated mushrooms none of that is needed: wipe with a damp cloth and trim the stem base.
- Wild mushroomsThe original assumes field mushrooms picked locally. Do not gather wild mushrooms without confident identification; several deadly species resemble the common field mushroom closely enough that experienced pickers have been killed by them.
- A dozen good-sized mushroomsRoughly 1 lb of large white or cremini caps, or 4-6 portobellos halved. That serves two or three as a breakfast side.
- The baconBacon of the period was generally dry-cured. Modern wet-cured supermarket bacon tends to release water along with the fat, so there can be less usable fat left in the pan. Use thick-cut streaky bacon and expect to add a spoonful of butter if the pan runs dry.
- SeasoningNo salt or pepper is specified, presumably because the bacon supplied both. Taste before salting; black pepper and a little chopped parsley or thyme at the end suit the dish.
- ServingThe recipe calls it a breakfast relish, meaning something eaten alongside the main breakfast dishes rather than a plated vegetable; eggs or hot buttered toast suit it. Spoon the pan fat over whatever it accompanies.
Mushrooms with bacon belongs to the English and American breakfast tradition rather than to fine cookery. Mushrooms were then largely a seasonal crop, gathered in late summer and autumn pasture, cheap when in season and dearer preserved out of season. Commercial mushroom growing in caves and cellars existed by this period but was still small in scale, and field mushrooms -- with skin to peel and grit to wipe away -- remained the familiar kind for home cooks. The phrase "breakfast relish" is worth noticing: a relish here means a savoury item eaten with the main breakfast dishes to sharpen the appetite, a usage that also covered devilled kidneys, potted meats and grilled bones.