Mushroom foraging risks

Amazing the risks some will take in order to eat certain foods.
Asia appears especially susceptible, but I could be mistaken

 

A quick goog seems to offer no simple answer to whether cooking should even be expected to help. Seems like there may be some mushrooms that might be made more edible by such means, many that are not, some that may be made more toxic, and some that may sicken you from the fumes while cooking.

Well, I guess that boils down to "should not be expected to help".

 

Can lab mice be reliably used to test mushrooms?

Bob Wilson

 

I'm only a couple of dozen miles from the mushroom capital of America. Always great mushrooms in the grocery stores and farmers markets, and the prices are always low too.

That level of quality and convenience hasn't left me with much urge to gather wild.

 

I get a variety growing in the yard almost yearly, some years I get multiple growth cycles per season. I've always been curious about identification, and there are some youtubes about it and some apps that can help identify. Spore counts are one the first things I learned about, but it's not one of those hobbies that is easy to learn.
Farming edibles is probably the easiest way to get a handle on what constitutes a non poisonous variety of shroom, it the look a likes that are the real fun,,,, NOT !

 

Adding to the foraging risk in the US is that the range of the death cap is expanding.

 

Any food foraging you need to be cautious. When I was young and less cautious, walking in the woods I noticed something grean-and-leafy, munched a bit, explaining how it was just like lettuce. About an hour later my throat started constricting. Luckily not bad; that wised me up.

 

I had four or five different mushrooms in tonight's Really Quite Bland Americanized Chinese Stir-Fry. I have to do them that way for my father; he just can't handle the O.G.

Ginger and garlic cooked in sesame oil followed by snow peas, white button, baby bella, oyster and shiitake mushrooms, carrots, green onions, sweet onions, daikon radish, cabbage, dou chi bean paste, bell pepper, celery, some salty Kikkoman gloop in a bottle and 350g of lean beef in small slices.

Family approved; they will keep me another day.

 

I did a side of spicy dan dan mien that worked pretty well, though I overcooked the noodles slightly and they got a little slimy. I used some of the same beef, through a very fine grinder attachment on the Kitchenaid. Love 1940s tech.

Very challenging to find the sui mi ya cai around here but perseverance paid off and we get to enjoy some real flavor alongside the gloop. Lots of ma la and sichuan peppercorns in there too.

 

D*mn it! Now I'm hungry.

Bob Wilson

 

I'm sure I could, but there are bothersome questions of where to leave it during how long of a fermentation.

A coal mine would be good for that, but we are on Pennsylvania's other big landform, no mines handy.