Savoury Toasted Mushrooms (á la Jaelle)

This is based on an early 17th century English recipe called "Savoury Toasted Cheese". I was first introduced to it in the East Kingdom of the SCA in about A.S. XIII. That original recipe is in this cookbook as Savoury Toasted Cheese (East Kingdom Version). Over the years, there was a great contremps among the SCA cooks about what green vegetable to use with that recipe. My own cooking mentor, Mistress Jaelle of Armida, advised throwing the vegetables out with the bathwater and concentrating on the "gammon" mentioned in the original recipe (see the Documentation section at the bottom). So this is how I do it.

You'll find that the toast at the bottom catches all the juices and becomes very soft and flavorful. It mixes in with the mushrooms as you spoon up the casserole, and most people won't even know that it was there to begin with.

INGREDIENTS:

5 slices of dry toasted bread
2 tsp dry mustard powder
8 ounces Brie
8 ounces cream cheese
˝ pound of sliced bacon (you can leave this out if you want a vegetarian dish)
3 lbs.fresh mushrooms

PROCEDURE:

• Toast your bread ahead of time and let it be very dry. Place the slices to cover the bottom of a 13" x 9" pan.
• Fill a very large pot about half full with water and set it to boil.
• Put the brie (leave the rind on), and cream cheese in a bowl, and put in the microwave for about a minute to soften. Mix the cheeses together thoroughly until you have a thick, smooth paste.
• Cut the bacon strips in half, and fry them until done but not crisp. Pat dry on a paper towel and then cut into small pieces.
• Add your mushrooms to the boiling water (you don't need to clean them first, they're going in boiling water…). Parboil them for about two minutes and them pull them out with a slotted spoon and let them cool a bit and dry on folded papertowels.
• When the mushrooms are cool enough to handle, cut them in large chunks (squeezing out any excess water as you do so).
• Put the cut up mushrooms on top of the toast in your pan, sprinkle with the dry mustard, and add the bacon on top.
• Cover with the cheese mixture and spread it to seal from edge to edge of the pan.
• Bake at 375^o for about 30 minutes or until the cheese begins to brown nicely.
• Remove and let set five to ten minutes before serving.

DOCUMENTATION:

This may originally have been closer to a fondue than a casserole. I make it as a casserole to make it easier to transport and eat. I put the 'tosts' on the bottom to help sop up the juices, and often use American bacon rather than slices of a more ham-like British gammon. Yes, I use mustard instead of white pepper because of an allergy in my family. You can change the spices if you like. I dispense with the "Fire-shovel" entirely.

The recipe is from Sir Kenelme Digbie's The Closet Opened printed in 1669 by Digbie's nephew and including his uncle's store of recipes used at the royal court.

Savoury Tosted or Melted Cheese
Cut pieces of quick, fat, rich, well tasted cheese, (as the best of Brye, Cheshire, &c. or sharp thick Cream-Cheese) into a dish of thick beaten melted Butter, that hath served for Sparages or the like, or pease, or other boiled Sallet, or ragout of meat, or gravy of Mutton : and, if you will, chop some of the Asparages among it, or slices of Gambon of Bacon, or fresh-collops, or Onions, or Sibboulets, or Anchovis, and set all this to melt upon a Chafing-dish of coals, and stir all well together, to Incorporate them; and when all is of an equal consistence, strew some gross White-pepper on it, and eat it with tosts or crusts of White-breat. You may scorch it at the top with a hot Fire-Shovel.

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