Mushroom Ketchup

For those of you who embraced the oxtail recipe posted last week, kudos! I appreciate all the lovely feedback I received….no pun intended. But what remains is the conundrum of the mushroom ketchup. No doubt it is confusing for those who have never heard of the historically popular condiment. Allow me to enlighten you and hopefully provide a new delightfully savory taste to your kitchen.

This earthy pungent ingredient is originally British. Go figure. During a time when tomatoes were considered poisonous and the alternative fungi being so prevalent, we can imagine the thought process behind the operation. From my studies, we don’t know exactly when the first batch of mushroom ketchup was created. We only find the term mentioned as an ingredient in the earliest cook books of Britain. The first record of ‘mushroom’ ketchup in colonial America arrives in 1770 within the manuscript of Harriott Pinckney. For you tomato ketchup loving crowd, my condolences, you’ll have to wait until the next century.

The ingredients in mushroom ketchup somewhat evolved with the generations. Traditionally it required, of course, the mushrooms of brown variety (collected in the wild), mace (the hull of the nutmeg), nutmeg, and your choice of kitchen pepper (this would include a variety of seasonings you used often and was simply mixed together). The idea is to cater your ketchup to your individual taste. Lemon peel, cloves, and black pepper are also found in other recipes. Harriott Pinckney suggests adding two egg whites to your mixture in order to ‘clarify’ your final product. Honestly, in my opinion, save your egg whites for pudding. If done properly, the concoction has its own refined presentation.

Without further delay, let’s get on to the main event!

 

Mushroom Ketchup

 

Ingredients:

2.5 pounds of mushrooms

(Button and shitake mushrooms are perfectly acceptable. Unless you have years of knowledge on wild mushrooms, do NOT go gathering random ones on your own. You may end up with a bottle of Death Cap sauce instead.)

3 tablespoons of course sea salt

½ tablespoon of nutmeg

½ tablespoon of cloves

½ tablespoon of black pepper

½ tablespoon of grated ginger

(If you love your food on the spicy side, feel free to swap the ginger for horseradish paste.)

Slivered peel of 1 lemon, leave the white pith behind

Half  of a large onion, just peeled

3 bay leaves

¼ cup of cider vinegar

 

Hardware :

Non reactive cooking pot.

Muslin cloth, unbleached, 2ft by 2ft is fine for size. Or a very fine mesh strainer.

Large glass bowl

 

After cleaning your mushrooms

so there is no dirt to be found, chop them up in a course dice, and toss them in a large non-reactive pot. I suggest glass, ceramic, or fine stainless steel. Add the salt and stir for at least two minutes. You want salt to reach each bit of mushroom to insure they all seep their lovely essence. Then add your bay leaves and stir likewise. Cover your pot with a lid and let sit overnight or up to 36 hours.

 

Don’t give me that look. Perfection takes time.

 

The next day or after their long soak, your mixture should look like bits of mushroom in amazing ebony liquor. The smell will be extremely earthy and pleasant. If you’re a gardener or just like to work soil, you will feel right at home. Next you will want to move your ketchup base to another cooking pot if the one you’re using isn’t heat safe.

Slowly bring it to a simmer and add your lemon peel, nutmeg, cloves, cider vinegar, ginger, black pepper, and onion half. Remember you can add other seasonings to your liking. These are just the ones I prefer.

Let this simmer, with the lid on, for half an hour or until the half union is cooked. Not only is the onion a good indicator that everything is cooked thoroughly, it also adds lovely flavor.

Turn off the heat and let this cool down. The squeezing is much easier.

In your glass bowl, line with the muslin cloth, and spoon your mushroom ketchup brew in the bowl. The bigger your bowl and piece of cloth is, the easier this will be. The muslin cloth has a very fine weave which allows for the liquid to separate better. You will end up with clearer ketchup this way. If you don’t mind cloudy ketchup feel free to use a fine mesh strainer.

Do opt for the muslin cloth, it’s much more fun and is easily washed with your laundry load for reuse.

Squeeze as much of the liquid out as you can.

Set the cloth full of mushroom mush aside. DON’T discard them. We have more enticing uses for them.

Simply bottle your ketchup in a glass container or jar. Store in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks. If you want to preserve it longer, you can bring the liquid to a boil and seal it in mason jars. Just make sure the jars seal completely.

Use your mushroom ketchup as a steak sauce, marinade, substitute for Worcestershire sause, addition to your gravy, or anything you would enjoy it on.

 

As for your mushroom leftover bits

Discard the onion half. Place the bits and all the seasoning leftovers on a baking sheet and spread them out evenly. Bake in the oven at 200 degrees F for an hour or until they are as dry as beef jerky. Grind them in a food processor until you have a fine powder. This makes an amazing food additive for dry rubs, soups, stews, or whatever you’d like. For storage, keep completely dry in an air tight container.

This mushroom ketchup is completely vegan, gluten free, healthier than regular ketchup, and perfect for that 18th century soul who loves historical food. I find myself making batches every three weeks. It never lasts long in my house.

Dig into a beef pasty with mushroom ketchup gravy, enjoy some fire cakes with quince paste, and step back in time to the 18th century.

And as always...eat your history!

Tell me about the good old days

My upmost apologies for not sticking to the schedule created at the start of this blog. Due to the sudden death of my grandfather, my attention has had to be elsewhere. Regardless, during my absence, I have not stopped planning new articles and topics. This one struck me the day I drove to the hospice house to see my granddad. I drove past many of the places he took me as a child. One that will forever remain infamous is The Allison Tree. It was a local produce and garden shop nestled on one of those back roads I had always thought was our secret. Besides sharing the same name, the shop had some macabre history. The store is built on the site where the old town hanging tree used to be. Criminals were taken directly from the jailhouse only two miles away to carry out their verdict. Even the logo displayed the iconic tree with a noose and horse. It was here my granddad instilled my love of old fashioned and local. I heard stories of one-room schoolhouses, hog farms, and old Appalachian ghost stories.

 

“Back in my day,” as he would begin every story, it was custom to see sides of meat and bacon hanging from the ceiling, and shelves of tin cans containing lard so big my seven-year-old self could not carry. Dried beans were kept in half –sized wooden barrels. Everything you wanted to buy would be by the pound. My favorite of all of the tasty morsels was the hoop cheese. Yes readers, Appalachian hoop cheese. Also known as farmer’s cheese, only the left over dairy milk is used. Salt and cream is left out during the process. If you were lucky, you would have two types to choose from. The red kind or black kind, in reference to what color wax casing the cheese had. The red kind, which was my favorite, had been aged longer than the cheese in the black rind. Traditionally, you would see the huge wheel or hoop of cheese on display on the counter beside the butchers block. With exact precision, the clerk could cut whatever amount you desired to the ounce. I believe I only witnessed this practice two or three times before health regulations required better storage. Now you can find chunks of the cheese individually vacuum packed. Not as impressive, in my opinion.

 

 

The second item on our shopping list was ground cherries. These dainty fruits date back in the Americas during the time of the Puritans. (If you insist on calling them pilgrims, fine. Just keep in mind they were Puritans who just happened to make a pilgrimage and founded the Plymouth Colonies.) The fruit bares multiple names such cape gooseberries and Inca berries. They are part of the nightshade family like tomatoes and tomatillos. Once you peel back the husk leaf exterior, a cherry sized fruit remains and is immediately ready for eating.

 

Wait…did I say nightshade family? Yes, yes I did. Although the fruit and its cousins are related to the same family as Deadly Nightshade, they are perfectly acceptable for eating. Do not attempt to eat the stems, stalks, or leaves as they can make you sick.

 

But I digress. Being the complex thinker my granddad was, after buying two or three baskets of ground cherries, he set to growing them in his garden. Once we had harvested and dried the seeds we had our own growing by the next spring.

 

Memories like this help ease that troublesome transition of grief. It’s almost impossible to cry when I have so many memories to smile about. Deep in my soul I am thankful for having the opportunity to call this man my grandfather. His words, stories, and lessons will forever be a part of who I am and what I strive for to build my future. My lesson for you today is your own history is never that far away. I fervently suggest you go ask your grandparents about some of these things. They have stories that do not need to be lost.

"Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the trees."  

~Thomas Johnathon Jackson

 

And as always …eat your history.

Happy Birthday Michelangelo

When we hear the name Michelangelo, we automatically want to reference the Statue to David or the Sistine Chapel, maybe even St Peters Cathedral in Rome. But, do you begin to imagine his domestic life? Perhaps it is hard to imagine one of the greatest artists of all time needing to bathe, clean, or cook. From the pages of his biography, written by Paolo Giovio, we can see the less divine nature of Michelangelo. To quote Giovio, “His nature was so rough and uncouth that his domestic habits were incredibly squalid, and deprived posterity of any pupils who might have followed him.” For you faint hearts who prefer to understand him as IL Divino (the divine one), see the biography written by Giorgio Vasari, and never mind reading what is next.

 

Diet and Hygiene

The diet and hygiene of Michelangelo are two of the controversies that will surround him for eternity. Monetary and popularity wise, he was very successful with his profession as an artist. However, on his outward appearance, it was said you would not know him from a common beggar. Wealth was not something he thrived on nor did he exert himself on its benefits. His assistants would often remark they dreaded going within several feet of the man while he worked. His ‘personal stench’ was enough to drive them to quit. While painting the Sistine Chapel, records indicate the buckets of paint he desired were hoisted by poles so the apprentice would not have to go near him.

 

He ate very little. In the book, Italy for the Gourmet Traveler, Fred Plotkin discusses some of the favorite foods of the genius artist. Pears were a particular favorite of Michelangelo. There are accounts he would give them as gifts, 33 to be exact. It is recorded that he had a cheese cellar in which he kept different types of cheese. Most likely, they were sheep’s milk cheese. One type called Marzolino, as Plotkin writes, was his favorite. It was special because it was only made in March. Among his crops, Michelangelo had a vineyard and often grew olives for olive oil. Curious as to how a vintage 1503 would favor today. In addition, of course bread was always the centerpiece for any meal.

 

That’s about it folks. It’s acceptable to say he lived on his art more than his food. Many of his assistants would comment he often worked himself to great fatigue. They were not always sure if it was due to lack of nutrition or his own BO.

 

 

During his lifetime, he was the prominent genius ever to grace marble and fresco. And yet he was also the dread of anyone who had to breathe in his presence. Regardless, it was a system that worked. So well in fact, Michelangelo is the only Renaissance master to have his biography written while he was alive. So take a slice of cheese, glass of wine, maybe a pear or two, and let us toast to the birthday of Michelangelo!  543 never looked so good.

 

Maybe we should all take a lesson from this and acknowledge that even when it comes to food, less can be more.

And, as always, eat your history!

 

 

For more information regarding the life of Michelangelo check out:

Machelangelo. The Complete Paintings, Sculptures, and Architecture; TASCHEN Books

 

The Agony and the Ecstasy; Irving Stone

Welcome

If you have ever wondered, where your food comes from or how it became a custom to see it on our plate, this blog is for you. I am a self-taught, inspired, food critic and food historian. Since a young age, I have been inspired by the life work of the late Clarissa Dickson Wright and her infamous partner in crime, the late Jennifer Patterson. This dynamic duo was known as, the Two Fat Ladies. Together they shook the culinary world with their old world food and love of fresh, natural, and local ingredients. This inspired me to chase after all of those foods I have come to know, taste, and discover among my life’s travels. It will be my life’s mission to carry on Clarissa and Jennifer’s work. With each article, I diligently strive to remind people of the true power and control we have over what we eat. Processed and boxed food should be a thing of the past making headway for the old world charm of local, fresh, natural, and healthy: food that feeds the soul as well as the body.

 

Join me on the pathway through time, simply by using your palette. From ancient Greece to the courts of King Henry IIV, from food rations in WWII to the intense flavors of the West Indies: You will discover what it means to, truly, eat your history.

Stay tuned for more posts.

Chew On This ~ Every Wednesday

New Recipes ~Every Monday