The use of mushrooms in the 1950s
middle-class home kitchens makes my mouth water! The list of recipes is a long one and
includes Beef Stroganoff, Salisbury Steak, Tuna Noodle Casserole, Chicken ala
King Chopped steak recipes of that time call
for adding lots of ingredients like onions and garlic … to good beef that has
been hand-chopped (not just ground beef as we know it today). Those hearty steaks were topped with sliced
mushrooms and onions braised in butter.
In many places, this is still a popular entrée! The breakfast tables of the 1950s were
frequently laid with creamed eggs and mushrooms, and if you were upper
middle-class, you might have had a chaffing dish to hold that delightful
covering for toast corners or puff pastry shells.
French restaurant menus from the
earliest part of the century included many recipes for preparing mushrooms. The mushroom itself was the focus. They were not used as additions to recipes. One of great interest to me is all about cooking
mushrooms under a glass bell. Imagine the elegance of this: Rounds of toast were covered with a mound of
a few stemmed mushrooms. The mushrooms
were basted with melted butter, sprinkled with salt and pepper. A couple Tablespoons of sweet cream were
added to each toast/mound. All was
covered with the bell, baked for about twenty minutes, then sent to the
table. The glass bell was a part of the
presentation, but when it was lifted at the table … the aroma was
wonderful! That is my kind of food.
Other indulgent French recipes from
the early 1900s include chopped mushrooms cooked with bone marrow and spread on
toast tips … big mushrooms filled with an oyster and covered with bechamel
sauce … and mushroom caps stuffed with all kinds of delightful ingredients.
Mushrooms were found at the
beginning of time. Historians know that
prehistoric people ate fungus and mushrooms.
Mushrooms were foraged and easily became a part of their meals. Ancient Romans enjoyed the taste of mushrooms
and actually grew them. In the 16th
century, mushrooms were cultivated in France.
Text in www.foodtimeline.org
explains that many varieties of mushrooms were eaten by common people in Switzerland,
Germany and Austria … but in Greece and Rome, mushrooms were expensive and only
available to the elite. Chinese and
Japanese people grew shitake mushrooms.
Here in my Southern Illinois home,
now is the season to forage for morel mushrooms. Folks hit the woodlands and
look in some well-hidden places for these delicious fungi! Newspapers host competitions to see who can
get the most or the biggest. It delights me to know that although mushroom
cultivation reached America by the 1890s … that was also the time that
mushrooms became a fad. Mushroom clubs
emerged along with illustrated literature educating amateur foragers … and
mushroom hunting was fun!
I am such a fan of mushrooms. I love them raw in a spinach salad. I love them breaded and fried for an
appetizer. I especially love them ‘scalded’
in butter and used as a topping for pasta or grilled steaks. No pizza is
complete without mushrooms. Mushrooms
make most foods better!
The first recipe I’m sharing today
is a simple lunch or supper favorite in my family. Mushrooms in a creamy sauce, topping
toast. It is just as delicious topping
biscuits or waffles!
Creamed Baby Bellas on Toast
Clean and slice 8 ounces of Baby
Portabella mushrooms. Sauté them in 2
Tablespoons of butter and 1 Tablespoon of olive oil. The addition of olive oil
will keep the butter from burning. I’ve
used the word ‘sauté’, but I like to scald the mushrooms first, so they
caramelize.
Begin with high heat, toss in the mushrooms and stir them a bit. Then … turn down the temperature and let them finish by sautéing. When the mushrooms are soft, remove them from the skillet. To make the cream sauce, add 2 more Tablespoons of butter to the skillet and stir in 2 Tablespoons of flour to make a light roux. Let the flour cook for a minute, then add 2 ups of Half and Half. Cook the sauce until it is thick. Season it with salt, pepper and a grind of nutmeg. Add the mushrooms back in and serve over toast, biscuits or waffles. Delicious!
Double this recipe if you are feeding more than 2 people. Of course, any mushroom can be used in this
recipe.
Chicken Chardonnay with Mushrooms
6 chicken tenders
1 egg plus little water for egg wash
1 cup of flour
Salt and pepper to season
½ teaspoon onion powder
Olive oil for frying
Make an egg wash with the egg and a
little water. Use a table fork
and whip the combination a little. Season
the flour with salt, pepper and onion powder.
Dip the chicken pieces into the egg wash and then into the flour. Fry in olive or canola oil until they are
nicely browned and done (internal temp of 165 degrees)
When you remove the chicken from the
skillet, add 4 – 8 ounces of cleaned and sliced mushrooms. I used a mixture of several kinds the last
time I made this. Let the mushrooms cook
gently in the remaining oil in the skillet.
Add a splash of your favorite chardonnay to the skillet … just so the
mushrooms absorb a little of the flavor.
Remove the mushrooms and prepare to make the creamy sauce.
Add 3 Tablespoons of butter to the
skillet and let it melt. Add 1 cup of
parmesan cheese (the kind out of the green box) and stir it until it begins to
sizzle. Pour in 2 cups of Half and Half
and 1 cup of chardonnay. Whisk the
ingredients to make it smooth and let the sauce cook until it begins to
thicken. Add a sprinkle of salt and
pepper. It should thicken without any addition of
flour … but if it doesn’t you can add a little bit of a slurry made with corn
starch mixed with cold Half and Half. The
corn starch slurry will not make lumps!
When the sauce is thick, pour it
over the chicken and top everything with those delicious mushrooms. Sometimes I add a handful of frozen peas to
this sauce. You can also add a cup of
chopped fresh spinach or kale. I also
spritz the chicken with a little lemon juice before I sauce it. That adds a layer of flavor to this very ‘rich’
dish!
How to Make Air Fried Mushrooms!
I love fried mushrooms, but I do my
best to stay away from too much real fried food. These are air fried and couldn't be easier!
Slice fresh mushrooms and dip them
in egg wash. Dredge lightly in flour. Place in the basket of the air fryer and
spritz with a tiny bit of olive oil. Fry
them at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
They are delicious! They are tender
inside but crispy on the outside with nearly no amount of oil used.
This article is a part of my 2020
Vintage Vegetable project. If you’d like
to see similar articles, just click the Vintage Vegetables menu tab. I’ll also be sharing with a couple blog
parties, so check my sidebar and visit.
Stay safe … and stay well.
