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scarecrow
Joined: 15 Dec 2004
Posts: 115
Location: Manchester, Up North
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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 Posted: Thu Dec 23, 04 4:02 pm Post subject: |
 
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| 3mariners wrote: |
I'd be interested to no if Cab agrees, but from my limited experience, there are actually very few good eating mushrooms, by that I mean big, tatsty and 'meaty' enough to bother with.
I was advised by my local Iti. mush guru to recognise a few quality examples and stick to those e.g. st Geoges, field, chanterelle (as opposed to falsies), hedgehog, blewits, types of puff ball, ceps, funnel caps et al.
I've seen and been tempted to pick many small varieties but not bothered simply because of the potential quantity required and the flavour. |
This is the kind of topic that divides mushroomers!
There are basically three cultures of mushrooming. Southern European, Eastern European, and North Western European/New World.
In Southern Europe, most pickers will stick to a few species that are big, tasty, easy to identify, and abundant. And there's no debating whether they're good, they're all marvellous mushrooms. So go out with an Italian, or someone of Italian descent, and most likely they'll be eyeing up all the spots where you're likely to see ceps (and their relatives), chanterelles, maybe puffballs, and morels.
In Eastern Europe, they eat all manner of things. Mushrooms are picked as a major foodstuff, and the culinary culture is one of hoarding things away for winter. So they pick all manner of things that we'd mostly leave, and they tend to scare feck out of the Southern Europeans. Some, such as the wooly milk cap, can't even been eaten till they're ensilaged.
Western Europe has a differen culture; it's more experimental, more about picking lots of different sorts of things and experimenting to see what is best, but it is far from being a 'survival' cuisine, or a way of ekeing out a low income like it traditionally can be in Eastern Europe. The guide books and recipe books from Britain and the United States tend to have more mushroom species, but less recipes, if that makes sense, than Southern Europe, but they tend to be less concerned with salting, drying and otherwise preserving than Eastern Europe.
I'm definitely in the Western School! I pick a wide variety of mushrooms, and for me the joy is in best expliting what can be found. I pick a lot of the larger, meaty mushrooms (the familiar boletus, species of agaricus, St. Georges, puffballs, some of the funnel caps, etc), but I also get quite excited by some of the less meaty ones (fairy ring champignons, anise caps, amethyst deceivers, russulas, etc). They may not pack the same meatiness, but the intensity of flavour can be stunning. The fairy ring mushrooms, for example (Marasmius oreades) is abundant, but small, and has a stunning almondy flavour quite unlike any other mushroom. It dries superbly either for use on its own or blended with other mushrooms. Similarly, amethyst deceivers (Laccaria amethysta) has a colour that remains throgh gentle cooking; it might not be all that flavoursome, but added with, say, some boletus it adds some extra 'mushroomy' intensity, and it makes the dish look far better.
There are some little ones I can't see the point of; the common funnel cap, for example. All of the smaller, edible species of ink cap. But unless I'd tried them out, I'd never have come to that opinion.
On a final note, I don't agree that there are only a few big, meaty species! There are ten or more big, tasty species of Agaricus alone, three species of blewit, heaven knows how many Boletus, a whole load of puffballs, not to mention Pluteus, Volvariella, Pleurotus, Macrolepiota and a whole raft of other genera! |
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McLay455
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 89
Location: West of Scotland
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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jema
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28111
Location: escaped from Swindon
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Behemoth
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds
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deerstalker
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 589
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jema
Downsizer Moderator
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28111
Location: escaped from Swindon
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Behemoth
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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| Posted: Tue Jan 04, 05 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Deerstalker wrote: |
Considering what I do, I spend a lot of time in the woods and fields.
Although I would like to know more, I really don't see that many mushrooms!
The books tell me such things as found on chalk soils or under beech.
Cab, your list is impressive, but you don't say what part of world you come from, or how far you have to travel?
I have only really started looking since early last summer but haven't seen that much.
Am I looking in the wrong direction or is the soil geology that important? |
Soil geology matters. But most places will yield you -something- edible.
The best advice is to keep your eyes down, looking out for markers that might indicare mushroom growth. Rings on the grass or in the undergrowth, bare patches, oddly coloured patches. Be aware of the smells; sometimes you can have a good find by smell. And low down-ish as well as forward-ish.
Most of my foraging is done in some really scrubby local woodland- in a really small patch too! I also find a lot of mushrooms on the local housing estates in North Camridge. It's probably the worst place I've lived for mushrooming (dry, poor soil and naff geology for it), but it's still not all that bad. Occasionally (once a year maybe) we head as far afield as Thetford, also picked a few mushrooms in Epping last year. |
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deerstalker
Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 589
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Behemoth
Joined: 01 Dec 2004
Posts: 19023
Location: Leeds
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cab
Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429
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