Make Shroom

I love my old cookbook collection. And this time of year, when you have to keep coming up with holiday party contributions, sometimes the retro noshes are the most fun.
I've made marinated mushrooms a zillion times before, and they usually come out fine, even without a recipe. But this time we decided to use a genuine antique recipe, from "Hors d'Oeuvres," a collection from the wives of ambassadors in Tokyo and beyond, published in 1959.
Yew! The recipe was a little strong on the vinegar. No, you aren't making a vinaigrette salad dressing; you don't want that much oil on the mushrooms, so there was more vinegar than oil. But the balance here was way off.
After the first batch, Cranky dumped a load of homemade vegetable stock into the remaining marinade, diluting the vinegar without upping the grease. We used this mixture for the second batch.
The recipe calls for simmering the mushrooms in water for 10 minutes; I'd say five minutes and be done with it — I might even try simmering them in the marinade instead of leaching off all that brown flavor in water that you just end up throwing away.
The only other flavorings in this mix were grated onion and slivered garlic. I think I'd go a little crazy with herbs next time, but... FUN. Pass the colored toothpicks.