Wild Mushrooms

[EstebanSexface]

Thats sounds like something Bill Hicks said

[glenshane]

Massive compliment to Bill hicks

[glenshane]

I prefer WILD mushrooms ( see what I did thete?)

[Malarkey]

@ironmoth

I know. It’s not much of a ‘recipe’ in fairness, but it is very tasty and quick. I was out again at lunch time and got a kilo of field mushrooms. Mushrooms on toast (from the HFW/John Wright book) to follow.

I have a dozen or more books dealing with mushrooms, betwixt and between, in whole or in part. Some are foraging centred and some are game centred. Needless to add, pretty much, the most useful ones (and the most enjoyable ones) are that John Wright handbook and Jane Grigson’s The Mushroom Feast.

What I do not get is that most writing on mushrooms implies the main edible varieties are nigh equally flavoursome. My tuppence is that field mushrooms – what the French call les gris – and ceps are well out ahead, with chanterelles and morels in joint third. Truffles are in a category of their own. I have obviously eaten them, along with black trumpets, blewits, chicken of the wood, parasols, puffballs and shaggy inkcaps.

Caesar’s mushroom, cauliflower mushroom, dryad’s saddle and hedgehog mushroom are all meant to be excellent. I would love to try them. Have not eaten any other boletes, such as Slippery Jack, which are probably tasty.

But I do find it funny when writers imply that parasol mushrooms are as delicious as les gris…

[Fagan_ODowd]

@ironmoth

We’ve some very decent spots near the house, where the grass is nice and short. It makes finding them very easy. I wasn’t long off-loading them either, as two neighbours filled their boots. Some of my earliest memories are of picking mushrooms with the auld lad on foggy August mornings. We had horses in the field next to the house and you’d have white clumps of deliciousness dotted all over the place. The auld lad always reckoned that horses were the key to a good harvest of mushrooms.

That’s my memory of picking mushrooms on my uncles farm in Carlow. Granny sending us down the fields on a dewy August morning.

[TheBird]

I remember gathering them into my helmet at the hurling pitch fadó fadó. The pictures in here are putting a longing on me.

[the_mixer_walsh]

How dangerous is it to go foraging for mushrooms without being armed with a comprehensive knowledge of what’s safe and not safe. Aren’t there mushrooms that appear to be very safe but are actually deadly ? Or is the danger of mushrooms a bit exaggerated?

[ironmoth]

I genuinely think that the John Wright book is more than enough. The way he describes the psychedelic varieties always brings a smile, and he has a good handle on how daft the laws are. Chicken of the Wood would be high up on my list, but using the simple metric of effort in to flavour out, the field mushroom walks it. The little ‘snap’ when I pick a fresh one brings my childhood memories flooding back.

Anyway, chicken breasts and field mushrooms for dinner today. An early one, as we’ll be on the road to Thurles.

[ironmoth]

If you’re somewhat cautious and stick with some of the more easy to identify types, it’s hard to go wrong. There are plenty of mushrooms that will sicken you, and a lot less that will kill you.

[Malarkey]

@the_mixer_walsh

How dangerous is it to go foraging for mushrooms without being armed with a comprehensive knowledge of what’s safe and not safe. Aren’t there mushrooms that appear to be very safe but are actually deadly ? Or is the danger of mushrooms a bit exaggerated?

You very much need to know what you are doing. But field mushrooms are pretty straightforward.

The only real problem is yellow stainers, which I think I explained earlier in this thread.

I picked another bucket of mushrooms yesterday at home and there was one yellow stainer in the field.

[the_mixer_walsh]

Good to know, I’ll be out early in the morning for a few, hopefully avoiding yellow stainers

[Malarkey]

@ironmoth

I genuinely think that the John Wright book is more than enough. The way he describes the psychedelic varieties always brings a smile, and he has a good handle on how daft the laws are. Chicken of the Wood would be high up on my list, but using the simple metric of effort in to flavour out, the field mushroom walks it. The little ‘snap’ when I pick a fresh one brings my childhood memories flooding back.

Anyway, chicken breasts and field mushrooms for dinner today. An early one, as we’ll be on the road to Thurles.

I agree. Ounce for ounce, with ease of access factored in, les gris are the business.

Am just about to eat some. And am going to make an oxtail casserole with some more of them this evening.

[Malarkey]

@Malarkey

@Julio_Geordio

How do you know if a mushroom is magic or just a disappointing tasteless fungus?

Jaysus, sin é tough one. But, first and foremost: never ever eat a mushroom about which you are not a million per cent.

I am not interested in magic mushrooms whatsoever. Other lads can give their tuppence.

There are books. But, short answer: you have to grow up with mushrooms – same as with a lot of other things. You learn more from your parents in one walk than ever from a book. Still, some books – and YouTube, increasingly – are not to be scorned.

I do not think you can confuse (delicious) field mushrooms with too much else – and not readily with poisonous items. The pink gills – running to brown as they age – are significant.

The main problem is a yoke called ‘yellow stainer’. I bring a penknife to snick stalks in the field, which eliminates a yellow stainer on the rare occasion I have run across them:

Yellow Stainer

That said, someone once gave me a package of mushrooms – later realized to include yellow stainers. As I fried the package’s contents, the smell of ink and muted urine – yellow stainers’ signature when cooked – was unignorable. Had to throw out the whole lot – still more acutely annoying because 2017 was a poor summer for mushrooms.

But this thread is not for such advice…

This post.

[gaillimhmick]

@Malarkey

@ironmoth

I know. It’s not much of a ‘recipe’ in fairness, but it is very tasty and quick. I was out again at lunch time and got a kilo of field mushrooms. Mushrooms on toast (from the HFW/John Wright book) to follow.

A kilo is fair going…

Galway always seems good for mushrooms, as is Kilkenny. But a friend from West Tipperary said to me last year that she had no consciousness of mushrooms, growing up on a farm there, and reckons they would not be plentifully found roundabouts. Another friend from Offaly (Lusmagh) said pretty much the same thing. Mushrooms just not a thing, he said, in his neck of the Faithful woods.

It’s to do with the fairies/faeries.

[Tassotti]

Hup out of it

[ironmoth]

Any auld pookies hiding at the back?

[fistoffury]

Clapham common’s finest ,

[TheUlteriorMotive]

I thought all the new posts were about the Cork hurlers

[flattythehurdler]

@ironmoth

Anyway, chicken breasts and field mushrooms for dinner today. An early one, as we’ll be on the road to Thurles.

You could have offered me a lift you bolox.

[Fagan_ODowd]

Re Mushrooms in Offaly