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Stewed Mushroom Stems
Cut into fairly-sized pieces the stems of mushrooms which have been used either for baking or broiling; put them into a pan over the fire with one heaping tablespoonful of butter to one pint of stems, together with a seasoning of salt and pepper, and stew gently until they are tender. Have ready a slice of toast and serve the mushroom stems on it, or mince and scallop them with an equal quantity of breadcrumbs, a seasoning of salt and pepper, and brown them in a hot oven.
A frugal scrap dish from a hotel kitchen that broiled and baked mushroom caps by the hundred. It works in a home kitchen too, provided you treat the stems as the tougher cut they are.
- The hinge: give them timeStems are denser and more fibrous than caps, so "stew gently until tender" is likely to mean 15 to 30 minutes over low heat, not the few minutes you would give sliced caps. Rushing them leaves them woody.
- Trim before you startDiscard the dried, sandy base of each stem and any part that is hollow or blackened. Shiitake stems in particular can stay leathery however long they cook, and portobello stems are tougher than most; button and cremini stems are the reliable choice here.
- QuantitiesA pint of cut stems is somewhere around 6 to 8 ounces by weight, depending on how tightly they pack -- the trimmings from a couple of pounds of whole mushrooms. One heaping tablespoon of butter to that is generous, and it is the only liquid the recipe puts in the pan at the outset.
- They need moistureButter alone will scorch before older, drier stems soften. Cover the pan so the mushrooms' own liquid stays in, and add a spoonful or two of water, stock or cream if the pan goes dry.
- "Scallop" and "a hot oven"To scallop here means to layer the minced stems with breadcrumbs in a shallow dish and bake until the top browns. "Hot oven" in this period is usually taken to mean somewhere around 400 to 450F; ten to fifteen minutes is enough for colour, and dotting the crumbs with butter helps.
- ToastCut the toast thick and from a firm loaf. Stewed mushrooms release a good deal of liquid and modern sandwich bread collapses under them.
- YieldA pint of stems serves two on toast as a savoury or light supper course, or four as a side.
Oscar Tschirky's book came out of the Waldorf's kitchens, where mushroom caps were broiled and baked in quantity. An entry like this reads as a professional habit written down for domestic readers, the same instinct that produced stock from bones and croquettes from yesterday's roast. Serving a stewed savoury on a slice of toast was standard English and Anglo-American practice, the toast acting as both plate and sop for the juices, and it turns up throughout the period in dishes from mushrooms on toast to devilled kidneys. Cultivated mushrooms were still relatively costly in 1896, grown in cellars and under greenhouse benches rather than shipped in bulk, which is reason enough not to throw half of one away.