|
Deadly delicacy. These two words don't often appear together,
but in the case of mushrooms they go hand-in-hand. Eat the right
one and you are transported to heights of culinary (and sometimes
hallucinogenic) ecstasies. Eat the wrong one - and it could be
your last.
No one knows exactly when the first brave soul began to collect
and consume mushrooms, but their many qualities - culinary and
otherwise - have been appreciated since ancient times. The Egyptians
associated the mushroom (not unreasonably) with death and believed
that eating certain varieties gave immortality. The Greeks and
Romans also thought that mushrooms had mystical properties, and
certain kinds were reserved for the exclusive consumption of royalty.
Recent research has indicated that consumption of hallucinogenic
mushrooms may have played a part in several Graeco-Roman mystic
cults, including the great mysteries at Eleusis. Nor were the
poisonous characteristics of certain varieties overlooked - the
Emperor Claudius supposedly was murdered by the addition of a
poisonous species into his favorite mushroom dish. In the Far
East, the Chinese and Japanese always have valued the mushroom,
especially the enoki and the shiitake; in Central America, some
native inhabitants consumed them for food as well as for their
hallucinogenic qualities during religious rites.
Despite the considerable risks of eating the wrong kind, mushrooms
have always been highly prized for their distinct flavor and wonderfully
rich texture. They also were extremely expensive because mushrooms
could only be laboriously collected from the wild.
The main problem with mushrooms, at least from the human perpective,
was that their method of growth and cultivation remained a complete
mystery! No one knew precisely what a mushroom was (a plant or
something else entirely), how it grew or how to duplicate the
growing conditions artificially. In Europe, it was not until the
17th century that the gastronomic French (who else?), led by Louis
XIV's agronomist Olivier de Serres, were able to figure out that
if you dug up ripe white cap mushrooms (the kind you see in most
supermarkets) and brought them to an appropriate spot that duplicated
their growing conditions in the wild, you could somehow produce
another generation of mushrooms at the chosen site. At about the
same time or slightly earlier, the Chinese and Japanese also had
figured out pretty much the same thing with the enoki and shiitake.
Slowly, understanding of the mushroom increased, yielding larger
crops, which in turn increased demand for, and popularity of,
the mushroom. Part of the allure of mushrooms was still their
rarity - even under domesticated production, mushrooms could only
be grown in the warmer seasons of the year. The big breakthrough
came in the late 1700s, when it was discovered that the white
cap didn't need light to grow. Once again those great gourmands,
the French, came up with the terrific idea of growing mushrooms
in the many limestone caves around Paris. Suddenly mushrooms were
available year round; in the days before refrigeration, they became
one of the main ingredients in the winter diet. Mushroom growing
in caves reached the United States in 1865, and even with the
advent of the first climate-controlled mushroom-growing houses
in 1910, many regions of the world still grow a considerable portion
of their crop underground. Today, commercial production accounts
for almost all the mushrooms you see. There are one or two notable
exceptions, such as the delicate truffle, which can only grow
in the wild.
Mushrooms are fascinating organisms and largely misunderstood
by the general public. Technically part of the fungal kingdom
Eumycota, they are commonly known as "fleshy fungi"
and are nonphotosynthetic organisms that evolved from algae. Their
principal role in nature is decomposition: mushrooms live by breaking
down organic materials such as wood, manure and plant remains.
The part of the mushroom so prized by chefs is actually not the
principal part of the organism, but rather its fruit. The main
part of the mushroom consists of a fibrous mass of cells, often
white, which you may have seen many times when turning over a
compost pile or looking under a log. Many people, including myself,
mistake this whitish mass for mold. This network of cells, called
the mycelium, is the main, perennial part of the mushroom. Specifically
adapted to break down cells of organic matter, the mycelium then
consumes the nutrients released through the decomposition.
To reproduce, the mycelium must produce the fruit body - what
we know as a mushroom cap. This may occur only once or many times
during the life of the mycelium, depending on the species and
growing conditions. It is the fruit body that contains the genetic
material, which in the case of mushrooms are male and female spores.
When ripe, the cap slowly opens to reveal a set of gill-like tissues
that release the spores. The spores then scatter to the winds,
and if they alight upon a suitable spot, they form a preliminary
mycelium network. As this network begins to grow, it must encounter
a network of the opposite sex to survive. If it does, the cell
walls between the two networks dissolve, allowing for exchange
of the male and female genetic material - mushroom sex, as it
were - and the mycelium develops into a fully grown organism.
While a few species are parasitic, feeding on living plants, most
mushrooms perform an invaluable service in nature, acting as one
of the principal decomposers of organic material. It has been
estimated that in some forests, almost 10 percent of the entire
soil biomass consists of the mycelium of various species, working
to break down the woodland debris.
Culinary mushrooms are not particularly difficult to grow indoors,
if you spend a bit of time learning about the varieties and choose
one that best conforms to the growing conditions you have on hand.
Each species of mushroom is genetically programmed to decompose
a particular material in a particular set of conditions, and therefore
their growing medium and environmental demands vary considerably.
Commonly grown varieties include the following:
Shiitake (Lentinula edodes),
which grows on logs, has been prized in the Orient for centuries.
Shiitake vary from very light tan to dark brown and have a characteristic
umbrella-shaped cap with an open veil and tan gills. The stems,
which are very tough, should be discarded. The caps, with their
firm texture and wonderful woody aroma, are used in soups, pastas
and a wide variety of other dishes. Until recently, Shiitake were
hard to grow under cultivation, but recent advances have made
this one of the easiest mushrooms to grow in cultivation.
Pearl oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus
and other subspecies) is another wood lover that can be successfully
grown on old espresso coffee grounds! The oyster mushroom comes
in different colors, depending on the exact type, including pink,
creamy yellow, white and gray. They vary in size from one to three
inches. Their mild, delicate flavor is ideal with pork, chicken,
veal and seafood. The colored varieties make an interesting garnish.
Enoki (Flammulina veltipes),
which grows on logs in the wild or on sawdust under cultivation,
is perhaps one of the most interesting-looking mushrooms. The
clumps of pencil-thin, long whitish caps look almost like tiny
flowers. They have a mild flavor and a bit of a crunch, which
make them ideal in salads.
Common White Cap (Agaricus bisporus,
formerly brunnescens) and its subspecies fruit in compost
or manure. These are the common mushrooms you see in almost every
supermarket these days and were the very first to be successfully
cultivated. They vary in color from white to light brown and can
range in size from small to quite large. The small brown varieties
are known as crimini, while the very large type is often called
portobello, but despite the different names, are all varieties
of agaricus. White caps are used raw in salads, and in cooking
are marinated, stuffed or sautéed. Any way you fix them
they are the perfect vegetable addition to almost any meal.
There are many other varieties that can be grown, and some, like
the famous morels, that you can sow outdoors in your garden during
the proper season. Perhaps one of the best ways to get started
growing mushrooms (and the method we chose) is to order a beginner's
kit from one of the suppliers listed at the end of this piece.
These starters are pretty much foolproof, produce a good crop
of delicious mushrooms and provide a good introduction into the
more advanced levels of mushroom growing, such as how to produce
your own growing mediums, spawn (the grower's term for mycelium)
and continued harvests. (The kits themselves provide a hardy harvest
of mushrooms, but as the organic material is consumed the harvest
eventually peters out. Assuring a continued crop is not difficult,
but requires a bit more research and commitment.) Hopefully, all
this has piqued your interest to try your hand at growing mushrooms
indoors. Not only is it fascinating, it's also fun and fairly
easy to produce a delicious harvest of organically grown, healthful
mushrooms with little effort. To quote from an article on growing
your own mushrooms in the 1881 edition of Vicks Illustrated
Monthly Magazine, from which the illustration at left  was
taken, "there is something so singular, almost wonderful,
about mushroom culture; no seeds or roots are planted - only a
few pieces of dirt, apparently, stuck into the bed - and yet a
crop of pearly whiteness is produced, as if by magic."
In closing, we give a view of what some mischievous and artistically
inclined boys did to a mushroom bed with the aid of a little black
lamp, converting the little fellows into goblins or fairies, or
something of the kind. Of course we present this as a thing to
be avoided and not imitated, and sincerely hope there may be no
mistake in the subject."
Books & Sources
These guides are invaluable to anyone seriously interested in
growing mushrooms, covering general background, mushroom growing
materials, conditions and a large list of varietal specifics.
Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms, by Paul Stamets
(Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA: 1993)
The Mushroom Cultivator, A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms
at Home, by Paul Stamets and J.S. Chilton (Agarikon Press,
Olympia, WA: 1983)
You can order the above books, as well as starter kits and growing
supplies, from:
Fungi Perfecti
P.O. Box 7634
Olympia, WA 98507
Phone: 360.426.9282
Fax: 360.426.9377
E-mail: mycomedia@aol.com or http://www.fungi.com
For Internet links to mushroom sites all over the world, try the
Kneebone Library Mushroom Collection Page at Penn State: http://www.libraries.psu.edu/crsweb/kneebone/txtbase.htm
|
