Creamed Mushrooms

A one-line camp supper that assumes you have just read the fried-mushroom entry preceding it. Treat it as: mushrooms cooked in fat until their water has gone, then finished with cream.

• "Fry and season as above"The method it points back to is not on this page. Frying mushrooms typically means fat in a hot pan, salt and pepper, and cooking until the released water has boiled off and the edges brown. Adding cream to mushrooms that are still weeping water gives a grey, thin sauce.
• Canned milkMost likely unsweetened evaporated milk rather than sweetened condensed. Evaporated milk is roughly the consistency of thin cream and is less prone than fresh milk to curdling over a camp fire; sweetened condensed milk would make the dish sweet.
• Two to three minutes is rightThe short simmer is only to let the cream take up the pan juices and thicken slightly. Longer and evaporated milk takes on a scalded, caramel note; cream will break if the pan is left over direct flame.
• Thickening without flourThere is no roux here, so the sauce thickens only by reduction. If it stays loose, pull the pan half off the heat and let it bubble another minute rather than adding more dairy.
• The toastButter the toast before the mushrooms go on, and serve at once. Untoasted or cold bread collapses under the sauce.
• QuantityThe recipe gives none. As a rough guide, about a pound of mushrooms with half a cup of cream or evaporated milk will feed two as a supper, four as a side.
• If the mushrooms are gatheredOnly cook wild mushrooms identified with certainty by someone competent; several dangerous species are close lookalikes for common edible ones, and cooking does not destroy their toxins.