by Tom Stobart
MUSHROOMS and other fungi provide some of the most delicious items in our diet, but most types, from *truffles downwards, are gathered in the wild. Continental Europeans are often fanatical about bringing in the yearly crop of wild fungi, which provides healthy exercise and the excitement of the chase. Pressure on some sorts of fungi is so great that they must be treated like game, with close seasons and laws to prevent them becoming extinct. As a friend wrote to me from Switzerland, ‘Everyone knows his mushrooms to such an extent that if you come on one still standing after 4 a.m., you can be quite sure that it is no good, European countries have popular names for all the common or delicious sorts; to make sure that the boxes of wild fungi on sale in the markets are good, they have professional fungus inspectors and regulations defining what may be sold (usually species that are not easily confused with poisonous ones).
Contrast this with the Anglo-Saxon approach, which is to regard all fungi except the Field mushroom (Agaricus campestris) as poisonous. The rule of thumb is also that it should grow in an open field and not in a wood or even near a tree. This is silly, because the best fungi grow in forests, and such prejudices deny people thousands of tons of free food every year. There are few popular names. Attempts to interest the British public in using ‘toadstools’ have so far failed. A brave and enterprising gentleman, William Delisle Hay, in 1887 wrote a book in which he gave hundreds of fungus recipes and invented many English names. He even gave the menu for a Fungus Feast, with ten courses and 32 dishes, starting with consommé of oak tongue and going on to puffball fritters with jam and savouries.
Most fungi are not poisonous. In Europe, a few people make themselves ill every year and perhaps one or two die from eating harmful species, but the casualty rate is minute when set against the total amount of fungus gathered, which reaches many thousand tons. Among European species, there are about half a dozen known killers, a number that will make the eater rather ill, and a lot that taste nasty; the majority are harmless, although they may not be worth gathering. It takes relatively little effort to learn how to recognize the really poisonous ones and to know the commonest and best edible sorts where you live. A feast will then await you when you scour the autumn woods.
Poisonous fungi. What complicates the fungus hunter’s life is that the poisonous species are not restricted to a few easily recognizable groups but are scattered among the various sorts of fungi. Thus even the relatively safe and easily recognizable genus Boletus which includes the delicious cèpe (B. edulis) also embraces several unpleasantly bitter species and at least one poisonous but not deadly one, B. satanas. Anyone who wishes to eat wild fungi will not be content with the negative approach of merely recognizing the killers but will want to go after as many of the good ones as possible. For this, a good book on fungi, such as Collins Guide to Mushrooms and Toadstools by Morten Lange and F. Bayard Hora, is essential.
The star performers among killer fungi belong to the genus Amanita, as do one or two quite delectable species such as the oronge (A caesarea) and the tawny grisette (A fulva).The species of Amanita have a ring round the stalk (but so do mushrooms) and a volva, an outer membrane that at first encloses the entire fungus but is ruptured as the cap expands. Usually it leaves a cup round the base of the stalk (so always dig doubtful specimens out of the ground) and often bits of broken volva on the cap. Unfortunately, the cup may have disintegrated or been eaten by snails and the bits washed off the cap by rain. A single specimen of anything may be misleading or atypical, which is why, at least to begin with, identification of fungi to eat should be made from several specimens.
Amanita muscaria, which has a red cap with white dots and is much favoured by gnomes and pixies, is far from being the most poisonous of the genus, although it used to be ground up in milk and used to kill flies – hence its name, fly agaric. It is hallucinogenic and seriously poisonous in quantity, especially when raw, but is eaten in small amounts by people who want to take a dangerous ‘trip’. After treatment, it can be used as food, but it is not advisable to experiment with it. A similar but brown-capped species, A. pantherina, is more poisonous and causes serious nervous disorders; it can be confused with the blusher (A. rubescens) which is eaten in some places but is best avoided for risk of mistakes. It is advisable to reject all species of Amanita that, like these, have white gills, as they include the really deadly ones: the Death cap (A. phalloides) and its even more dangerous sisters, A. vriosa, A. vema and A. bisporigera – more dangerous because they are more easily confused with the Field mushroom (but edible mushrooms all have no volva and have gills that start pink or grey and get darker). In September 1918, 31 children died at a village near Poznan (which is now in Poland) when a few poisonous Amanitas got into the school stew. Even a taste can cause serious illness, and as little as 20 g (¾ oz) will kill.
Other deadly species include a tiny parasol mushroom, Lepiota helveola, and the small Cortinarius orellanus which is brownish red with a paler stem. This is so unlikely to be gathered that it has only recently been recognized as the runner-up to Amanua phalloides in the toxicity stakes; its symptoms are similar but may not develop for 15 days after eating. Various other species may cause vomiting or more serious digestive or nervous disorders, but are usually fatal only to the elderly or infirm. Many of them belong to genera that include edible species, such as Corinarius (again), Clitocybe, Tricholoma, Ramaria, Russula and Agaricus. As this last genus includes the mushrooms, it is worth mentioning here that the two species which can be poisonous, A. xanthoderma and A. placomyces, can be detected because the flesh at the base of the stalk (and sometimes other parts) in both species goes bright yellow immediately it is cut.
When you are about to take a new fungus into your repertoire, it is best to start by eating just one and to wait a few days to make sure that there are no ill effects. What you should not do is listen too much to local advice. Local people will teach you about the good kinds they know but will often say that perfectly good fungi are poisonous when they are not. In the Caspian area of Iran I once noticed a village green so covered with what looked like mushrooms that I stopped the Land-Rover and went to investigate. I thought I had better ask for permission before picking any, as they turned out to be a species of field mushroom and it looked as if the villagers were purposefully growing them. They warned me that the mushrooms were poisonous. It is always possible that what goes in one country is not the same in another. I therefore ate only one that night. Later we returned and picked baskets full, but the people of the village never believed us.
Many fungi which are excellent to eat when cooked, salted, dried or otherwise treated, are poisonous when raw. For this reason, never go into a market and buy unknown fungi without asking how they should be prepared. Other fungi may be good if fresh, but dangerous stale. Into this category comes Gyromitra esculenta, an odd-looking fungus that resembles a tangled coil of rope on a stem, rather than having the conventional toadstool shape. The knobbly cap is brownish, and the stem whitish. In spite of its name, esculenta, and the fact that it is sold in many Continental markets, it is poisonous when raw but safe when dried – and then only if the specimens were fresh and not rotted. As some people are allergic to it anyway, care is necessary.
I have only once been poisoned by fungus. I had eaten at a restaurant in Ulm in South Germany. Following dinner with a senior German businessman from Cologne, I woke at about two in the morning on the verge of vomiting and promptly made myself sick. After drinking several glasses of water, I repeated the process. I was trembling and in not very good shape, but eventually went back to bed. In the morning, I learned that the businessman had been taken back to Cologne by ambulance, following a heart attack. A call to the hospital revealed that the diagnosis had been incorrect – he had fungus poisoning. The wrong one from an inadequately checked batch had got into the dish. After prompt action, I was suffering no more than a slight headache.
The unpleasant effects of fungi are not always straightforward. There is the case of Coprin
us atramentarius, a small species of ink cap, which grows commonly in clumps in grassy places, especially on manure. lt is mentioned here not because it is very poisonous, but because it causes alarming symptoms to people who are drinking or are allergic to it. The substance that causes the symptoms is the same as a drug called Antabuse which is produced from another source and is used in the treatment of alcoholism.
First aid. Make yourself sick. Most people need only to press with a finger far back on the tongue; keep on doing this, then drink plenty of water and repeat the process. It is prudent, in cases of doubt, to keep the vomit in the hope that experts will be able to identify the fungus causing the trouble. Also, retrieve any trimmings from the dustbin. If the mushroom has been digested, castor oil (15 g or one tablespoon to a child and twice that amount to an adult) can be given. Drink plenty of water. If it is known that Amanita phalloides (or its friends) have been eaten, give a teaspoon of salt in a glass of water every 30 minutes and race the victim to hospital, although it may already be too late.
Cultivated fungi. Attempts to cultivate edible fungi have been made with some success from the earliest times. Agrocybe aegerita was grown by the ancient Greeks and Romans on discs of poplar, and goodness knows how long the Chinese and the Japanese have been growing other species on logs of oak, pine or chestnut – for instance, the shiitake (Lentinus edodes) and matsutake (Tricholoma matsutake), the cultivation of which is documented in Japan as far back as AD 199.The mushroom Agaricus bisporus, a species that grows on dung rather than among grass, was first cultivated in Paris at the turn of the 18th century, and for this reason is still called champignon de Paris in many countries. Mushrooms were grown on composted horse manure at first outdoors, but later in cellars. They vary from white to russet brown and may be scaly; some are very dense and hard, others soft and more like the Field mushroom. No cultivated mushrooms have the flavour of wild mushrooms, especially as buttons, and devices such as sweating them in vine leaves or cooking them with a fine sliver of garlic are attempts to improve matters. The inclusion of a few dried and soaked Boletus is another method. In the past, button mushrooms or larger ones with slightly open caps were sold; the stalks were separated for soups and flavouring. The stage at which mushrooms are picked depends on market preference and on growers’ considerations. For one thing, once caps are open and the spores ripe (the gills have gone brown), it is easier for disease to spread round the production unit if it happens to be introduced. At one time, large open mushrooms were sold cheaply and were not grown intentionally, but they are now common as they have a better flavour.
In warmer countries, which have come under Chinese influence and where the temperature is not below 21°C (70°F), the Paddy Straw fungus (Volvariella volvacea) is commonly cultivated on rotting rice straw. It is best gathered as a button, with the volva still intact. These are excellent edible fungi, whether fresh or dried.
Other species can be cultivated, such as the Ink Cap (Coprinus comatus), which has too short a life to be a commercial proposition, and various wood fungi, such as Chinese Wood ears (Auricularia polytricha) and even Horns of Plenty (Craterellus cornucopioides). Unfortunately, most of the best will not thrive on dead wood or rotting vegetation alone, but need to be in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of growing plants or trees. Some success has attended the cultivation of morels and even truffles, but may be limited to planting the necessary trees and introducing the fungus into the place, rather than the intensive production used for mushrooms.
Dried fungi. Huge quantities of fungi are dried and can be bought in the shops. They vary from the sliced and dried *cèpes (Boletus edulis), which have a meaty flavour and are much used in Italian cooking (as funghi porcini), to the Chinese Wood ear. The Paddy Straw fungus from China is dried over charcoal for 12 hours. If these dried mushrooms get damp, they acquire a bad smell which goes when they are cooked.
The Japanese shiitake and matsutake are mainly dried in the sun or over charcoal fires, but they are also available canned or pickled. These fungi must be used or preserved when young and just beginning to produce white spore powder. After that, they become tough.
Dried fungi are very useful in the kitchen, and should be kept handy as a flavouring. Funghi porcini need to be rinsed in warm water before use, and other species may have to be soaked for up to 24 hours. The easiest fungus to dry at home is the Fairy Ring mushroom (Morasmium oreades), which is common in fields and is easily recognized. It is necessary only to string the caps on cotton thread and to hang them in a warm, dry place. Once bone-dry, they can be put into jars, and they keep indefinitely.
Pickled fungi, salted fungi, and fungi under oil. Some countries with extensive forests, such as Russia, produce a glut of wild fungi, and pickling or salting are of great importance. Indeed, some of the species which are not so good when fresh (e.g. the Russian or Polish gruzd, Lactarius scrobiculatus) and are perhaps too acrid or even poisonous, become sought after and expensive once treated. In Britain, the only use made of the huge quantities of wild mushrooms that once grew (before pastures were ploughed up and stagged) was to extract the juices with salt and make mushroom *ketchup. Ordinary bottling must be done with care to avoid botulism, and a pressure cooker should be used. There are many methods of preserving fungi with salt, vinegar or oil.
Wild fungi are gathered all over the world. Some of them are large enough to make a meal for several people (I have a photograph of one from Zaire which is big enough to use as an umbrella); others are tiny. I would recommend particularly the Boletus species, which it is almost impossible to go wrong with, since the ‘sponge’ (where the gills are normally) keeps them entirely separate from any lethal species. Inedible species of Boletus either taste horrid or are only mildly poisonous.
When gathering fungi, it is best to take a flat basket or trug, and to lay the specimens down carefully, after inspecting them and cutting off the dirty stalk. Put the stalk downwards, so that grit cannot fall into the sponge or gills. Doubtful species should be kept quite separate until identified, as the spores from poisonous kinds can contaminate the others. Do not eat soft, old or maggoty specimens, as some species then become harmful.
In a peasant economy, people gather everything edible, and keen fungus amateurs may do the same just for fun. However, the cook, especially to begin with, had best limit the search to the very best fungi from a gastronomic viewpoint and to the sorts which are plentiful locally. There is a great divergence in opinion as to which fungi are best, and those most sought after in one country may be considered inferior in another. For instance, in Mediterranean countries, the Field mushroom is rated only second class. Culinary value varies sharply between species in the same genus. Thus, the Jew’s ear (Auricularia auricula), which is closely related to the Chinese Wood ear, tastes of very little. Experts, too, differ in their opinions – Jane Grigson in The Mushroom Feast (Grub Street) writes off the St George’s mushroom (Tricholoma gambosum),which fungus books rate very highly, in the last resort, you have to make up your own mind.
[Mushroom – French: champignon German: Pilz Italian: fungo Spanish: hongo]
MUSSELS. Familiar bivalves, mussels of various species are found in most seas and are usually dark blue to almost black, but may be yellowish brown, and one New Zealand species is bright green. The species found in Europe are the Edible mussel (Mytilis edulis) and the Mediterranean mussel (M. galloprovincialis), which are very similar and overlap in distribution. M. edulis and the similar M. californianus are found on the West Coast of the US and are sometimes sold in San Francisco. On the whole, though, Americans do not eat mussels, except locally on the coast or among particular ethnic groups. In Britain, the neglect of the mussel is not traditional: in the middle of the 19th century, mussels were ‘farmed’ in Britain to the extent that people complained of harbours being blocked. Today, there are mussel farms, bouchots, around the coasts of France and of many other European countries where mussels are keenly eaten. They will no doubt be cultivated even more in the
future on account of the tremendous bulk of protein per acre that they make (4,535 kg or 10,000 lb of mussel meat per acre). Mussels take three years to grow to some 5 cm (2 in) long. They prefer slightly brackish water and tend to grow best near estuaries or in harbours, as the Victorians complained. In these days, such locations also offer sewage and pollution – if you gather your own, bear this in mind and make sure that your catch has come from a clean place.
Although other members of the mussel family lie buried upright in mud or bore into rocks, the mussels of the genus Mytilus attach themselves to rocks and harbour piles, or to the hurdles and ropes of the mussel farms, with a bunch of horny hairs called the byssus or beard. In the more civilized (and so usually more polluted) countries, mussels spend some time in purifying tanks before being sold. Even so, a few people are allergic to mussels, and even in the last century it had been observed that at certain seasons some suffered from rashes, asthma and other typically allergic reactions after eating them. Mussels, like oysters, can be poisonous, although the poison can be destroyed by cooking the mussels. Most people can eat mussels regularly all their lives without experiencing anything but benefit, since they are rich in *trace elements. Unless you are certain that mussels have been cleansed, place them in clean water with a little salt dissolved in it (some people put in a little flour or oatmeal) for a couple of hours, but no more or they will asphyxiate. Mussels must always be scraped to remove barnacles and weed, then scrubbed and well washed to get rid of sand.