SC - Mushrooms!

[Emily Epstein]

Greetings from Alix Mont de fer.

On Fri, 2 May 1997, Countess Berengaria wrote:
> Okay:  I got a five-lb flat of fresh mushrooms in lovely shape as 
> part of a bonus for working with the SCA group at the public TV 
> station this week.  Since I'm not going to eat that much stroganoff 
> in the next week or so, I'd like some suggestions/recipes/sources on:
> 	-interesting ways to pickle
> 	- interesting snack/appetizer things for a Pelican vigil next Friday
> 	- things other than stroganoffing or sauteeing


Here are a couple of recipes that I've served at events in the Shire of
Spinning Winds some years ago. The pickled mushrooms became sort of a
signature dish of mine-- they always seemed to go over well. These are
taken from my files with very little alteration- they were tinkered with
at Shire Cooks' Guild meetings over the course of several months before
the feast. Most of the work on the Funges was done by Lady Lisbet, who
probably has a surname by now, but I don't know what it is. For powder
fort we just used my usual formula (I keep it on hand, ready to use.) 

Hurts and Promises, Feb. 17, 1990, Shire of Spinning Winds. 

PICKLED MUSHROOMS (Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book p. 173) 

Take your buttons, clean ym with a spunge & put ym in cold water as you
clean ym, then put ym dry in a stewpan & shake a handfull of salt over ym,
yn stew ym in their own liquor till they are a little tender; then strain
ym from ye liquor & put ym upon a cloath to dry till they are quite cold.
Make your pickle before you do your mushrooms, yt it may be quite cold
before you put ym in. The Pickle must be made with white-wine,
white-pepper, quarter'd nutmeg, a blade of mace, & a race of ginger. 

Brine:
1 c. Rhine wine (or other white wine)
12 white peppercorns
1/8 t. grated ginger
1 nutmeg, broken
approx. 1/8 t. mace

Combine wine and spices in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer ca.10
minutes. Cool. 

8 oz. mushrooms
1/2 t. salt (In period, they probably used more salt)

Put mushrooms in a heavy saucepan (Visions works well). Sprinkle with
salt. Cook over high heat, stirring frequently and stew them in their own
juices.  until they're tender and there's almost no juice left (about 10
min.) Drain off excess mushroom juice. Cool. Pack into jars, cover with
brine, and cover tightly. 



Served at Morgana's Althing 1993, Shire of Spinning Winds
FUNGES 

Take funges and pare hem clene, and dyce hem; take leke and shrede hym
small, and do hym to seeth in gode broth. Colour it with safroun, and do
therinne powdour fort. 

 1 lb mushrooms
 1 cup beef or pork broth
 1/2 teaspoon powder forte
 2 oz. leeks

Clean mushrooms and leek. Cut mushrooms in a rough dice, chop leek finely.
Add spices and broth. Bring to a boil and simmer 5 min. 

Hieatt, Constance B. & Butler, Sharon, eds. Curye on Inglysch. London:
Oxford University Press for the Early English Text Society, 1985. iv 12 p.100

Do not freeze- texture gets nasty
Course 1 - 1 recipe/4 tables (32 people)

I hope you find these useful.

Ly. Alix Mont de Fer (m.k.a. Emily Epstein)
Shire of Caer Galen, Outlands
epsteine at spot.colorado.edu