The mushroom has
to be my favorite fungus. Well, with the
possible exception of penicillin, which probably saved my life on more than one
occasion. But as beneficial as
penicillin has been to humanity, I think we can all agree that mushrooms almost
certainly taste better.
To fit in with
the blog topic, I sought out a few, slightly off the beaten path
varieties. I figure pretty much
everybody has tried the regular commercial type (called, among others, the
common, the button, or the table mushroom) as well as portabellos and the
amusingly named shiitake. The kinds I’ll
discuss here are the chanterelle, morel, straw, and nameko mushrooms.
Mushrooms as a
food are, of course, a double-edged sword.
On the positive side, nutritionally they’re very sound—low in calories,
fat, and carbs, yet high in B vitamins, potassium, selenium, and copper. The downside is that some varieties can kill
you. In very bad ways—painfully, with
various organ shutdowns. Some are even
sneaky about it, as it can take up to twenty days after eating before the
victim succumbs to their poison. Other
kinds don’t kill you, but can cause significant gastrointestinal distress. So, as an important safety tip, don’t consume
mushrooms you’ve picked yourself unless you really know what you’re doing. Some poisonous types look very similar to
harmless kinds, and most of the folk sayings (that the deadly mushrooms all
taste bad, or are brightly colored, or stain silver, etc.) are tragically
wrong. (One risky kind is known as “The
fugu of Finnish cuisine,” after the puffer fish that’s delicious, but if
prepared even slightly incorrectly can kill you. While I don’t think I’d take the chance
myself, I do find this expression funny.
I almost wish every country had examples of these—“The fugu of
Liechtensteiner cuisine,” “The fugu of Djiboutian cuisine,” and so on.)
As is my usual
practice, I’ll review worst to first. I
should state that I’m a big fan of mushrooms overall—either on pizza, mixed in
other meals, or by themselves. So none
of these were bad, but some were better than others.
Chanterelles were
once associated with European royalty, as they were often on the menus of noble
families. I found these dried, in my
favorite grocery store, Wegman’s. Their
appearance is like yellowish-brown broccoli spears—thin with an atypical head,
or cap. I sautéd them for about twenty
minutes, added some salt and pepper, and then ate them plain, then, with
condiments (Worchestershire Sauce and ketchup).
They were okay, but a bit bland.
Oddly, some people maintain that chanterelles taste better dried, that
it makes their flavor improve.
The straw
mushrooms I had canned, with no preparation.
They were similar to the typical common mushroom in shape, but a little
thinner and lighter. They’re most
popular in Asian cuisine. They were
slightly more flavorful than regular mushrooms.
The nameko
mushrooms are, as the names suggests, a favorite in Japan . Here in the U.S. they’re sometimes called
butterscotch mushrooms. Like the straw
kind I had these plain, out of the can.
Their shape was also like regular button mushrooms, only smaller and
skinnier. And they were better than the
straws, noticeably tangier.
Now we get to
morels. If I can mix a metaphor here,
these are the White Whale of mushrooms.
They’re found mostly in the Midwest portion of the U.S. , and in a
tight time frame, in early spring (April and May). I first heard about them while digging on a
project in Iowa
in the late 90’s. Several landowners,
when they cleared us to go onto their property, only did so after confirming
that we weren’t after their morels. They
weren’t threatening, exactly, but they were firm about this. (As an aside, we archaeologists do sometimes
get threatened. One old lady threatened
to bash my boss’s head in with a baseball bat.
Another guy told some friends/colleagues of mine that he had a backhoe,
and lots of land, so that no one would ever find their bodies. And finally, one woman threatened another
boss of mine right in front of the police officer who was mediating their
discussion. The trooper was reportedly
amazed and almost amused by her casual stupidity.) For the morel is said to be the most tasty
mushroom, yet apparently it’s rarely if ever commercially cultivated. Among its other charms, it’s evidently one of
the easier mushrooms to gather, as it has a distinctive shape. It has a slightly amorphous, oval cap, which
is very spongy-like, with giant holes in it.
Kind of ugly looking, to be honest.
Anyway, I’d heard
so much about it, but never had the chance to really try it. Until a few months ago, when I found it, in
dried form, along with the chanterelles in the Wegman’s. I cooked both together, so the morels also
were sauted, seasoned, and eaten first plain and then with condiments. Their texture was markedly different—chewy,
and almost meaty. Certainly very good,
and the best of the four types I’m rating today. But here’s the thing—I wasn’t dazzled. With all the hype, and the difficulty in
getting them, and the absurdly high price ($9 for half an ounce!), I expected
to be blown away, and wasn’t. To be
fair, they were dried, and as I’ve noted, my cooking skills are primitive at
best. So I would eagerly eat them again,
but if/when I do they’ll be fresh, and obviously picked by someone who mycology
skills I respect. Oh, and be forewarned,
morels should always be cooked, as raw they tend to cause digestive issues
(non-fatal ones, but still). Finally,
the morel goes by many names, some of them weird and entertaining. Dryland fish, Molly moochers, and hickory
chickens, to list three.
I guess to be
technical, truffles are a type of fungus, so they’re also on my “to try”
list. Alas, their price makes morels
look cheap in comparison. A hamburger
topped with them will set you back $150 in a posh New York City restaurant, and a pound is
going for up to $3600 (depending on the subtype). A two pound specimen was auctioned off for
$330,000 a few years ago. I think that’s
more expensive than cocaine, or heroin! (Not surprisingly, organized crime has begun
to get involved in the truffle trade.)
So unless I win the lottery, or my books start selling like crazy I
doubt I can justify purchasing them.
Oh, and to those that celebrate, have a great Thanksgiving!
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