Maine crab and lobster mushrooms inside that crunchy crust

At the risk of jinxing things I have to say this is shaping up as a boffo mushroom year (in Midcoast Maine, anyway.) We haven’t had much chance to go out, but when we do we are finding things, including lobster mushrooms, which seem to be unusually abundant.

I am of the school that feels they get their name from their brilliant color. To me, the flavor is meaty, not fishy. But others claim they also taste faintly crustaceanlike. This isn’t as farfetched as it sounds; mushroom cell walls are primarily composed of chitin, the same material that makes crab and lobster shells.

Either way, they have a great affinity for Maine crabmeat, one of the world’s greatest seafoods.

Those bright red bits are the mushroom

Maine Crab and Lobster Mushroom Cakes

For 4 roughly 3-inch cakes, rich enough to be dinner for 4 if there’s something else fairly substantial on the menu:

4oz. lobster mushrooms, weighed after cleaning (see below), enough to make  @1 cup cooked and chopped*

8 oz. Maine crabmeat

2 tbl. thick homemade mayonnaise, half olive oil and half peanut oil*

½ tsp. chopped capers, or more to taste

½ tsp. minced lovage, or more to taste – omit if you don’t have any

1 cup panko

1 lemon

1 egg

2 tbl. butter

peanut oil for shallow frying

1. Put the pieces of cleaned lobster mushroom in a shallow pan just large enough to hold them in one layer. Pour in water to come up a scant ¼ inch. Bring to a simmer, cover the pan and cook until the mushrooms are fully cooked; they will look translucent.

2. There will be some liquid in the pan, how much depending on mushrooms, pan shape etc. Remove mushrooms with a slotted spoon, boil liquid until it’s reduced to thick syrup, then lower heat, replace mushrooms and cook, stirring, until there is no free liquid. Turn off the heat. Let the mushrooms cool in the pan.

lobster mushrooms ready to be cooked

cooked lobster mushrooms being chopped (I forgot to shoot them when they were still in large pieces).

3. Chop the mushrooms into roughly quarter-inch chunks, big enough to taste , small enough to blend with the crabmeat. Mix with crabmeat, mayonnaise, herbs and a pinch of salt. Taste and adjust seasonings.

4. Put the panko on a plate and grate the lemon zest over it. Toss with your fingertips to mix. Beat the egg in a shallow bowl. Set out a wire rack to hold the cakes.

5. Divide the mixture in 4 parts and form each into a patty about ½ inch thick. Pressing firmly should be enough to have it (barely) hold together. If necessary, bind with a bit more mayonnaise.

6. As each patty is formed, put it in the beaten egg and turn – gently! – to coat. Place it on the panko. When all the cakes have been formed, coat each heavily with the panko, turning and pressing to get a thick, even covering.

As each is completed, put it on the rack, then let them sit at least half an hour to firm up. (Refrigerate if you must hold them longer than about 75 minutes, then let come back to room temperature before cooking.)

7. Melt the butter over medium heat in a shallow pan  large enough to hold the cakes without crowding. Add enough oil to make a layer @ ¼ inch thick. When the oil is hot, add the cakes and fry, turning once, until both sides are richly browned, about 5 minutes a side. Drain briefly on paper towel or newspaper, then serve with

Cilantro Nectarine Sauce for Crabcakes

For about 1 3/4  cups:

1 cup thick thick homemade mayonnaise, half olive oil and half peanut oil*

2/3 cup finely minced cilantro

1 very ripe small white nectarine, peeled and chopped to pulp, @ 1/2 c. pulp

1 tsp. lemon juice, or more to taste

pinch of salt

Mix thoroughly, taste. Adjust lemon and salt.

*Substitutions:

Actual lobster can be used instead of the mushrooms, but it will of course elbow aside the more delicate crab.

Commercial mayo – Hellman’s, please – is ok, but it’s thinner, sweeter and more aggressively flavored than the homemade kind. This will make more difference in the sauce than in the crab cakes themselves. Be ready to correct with more lemon juice and maybe choose a slightly less ripe nectarine.

Preparing Lobster Mushrooms

The first thing to know is that lobster mushrooms (Hypomyces lactifluorum) are really lobsterized mushrooms. The color, flavor and texture are all created when a parasitic mushroom – the Hypomyces – colonizes another mushroom.

The host may be any of several species of Russula or Lactarius, but their individual traits are overwhelmed by the lobsterization. From the culinary point of view, all that’s left is the shape and sometimes not even that.

As the process proceeds, the host becomes yellowish, then orange, then flaming red, then flaming red with burgundy weepings. Flavor and texture are best at the orange stage. Red is alright if and only if the mushroom is firm and the inside is white when you cut into it. Anything soft or discolored ( brown or grey) is decaying and should be discarded. **

left to right: Just starting; Just right; Just gorgeous, but probably over the hill

The next thing to know is that lobster mushrooms are often extremely dirty.

Freshly picked lobster mushrooms. Notice the dirt. Know that there is a lot more dirt inside the funnels and inside the inside creases.

So step one is wash the mushrooms. We’ll save the discussion of whether one should wash mushrooms for another day. Suffice it to say there are some mushrooms that must be washed and if you don’t think lobsters are among them please don’t invite me to dinner.

The most flavor conservative way to wash is to cut the mushrooms as necessary to expose the dirt, brush off all that can be brushed off, then immerse the pieces one by one in a bowl of tepid water and gently rub off what remains.

Now you have a bunch of wet mushroom parts. Put them on paper towel and let them dry for an hour or two. You can use them damp in recipes where they will be immersed in liquid; let them dry thoroughly if they will be sautéed.

Washed lobster mushrooms set out to dry off

Loosely wrapped in waxed paper, lobster mushrooms keep well refrigerated, both before and after washing – IF you let the washed ones dry thoroughly before putting them away. Don’t be alarmed by white bloom that forms on the surface or shows up on the waxed paper; that’s just the spores, reminding you that the mushrooms are rapidly maturing and should be used up promptly.

** To be absolutely safe, you should know what the host species is, in the unlikely case it’s one that should not be eaten. Out here in reality, once hypomization is well underway, there’s no way to identify the host without lab equipment, so you have to proceed at your own risk, something I have been doing for more than 30 years.

As the authoritative Milk Mushrooms of North America (Bessette, Harris and Bessette, Syracuse University Press, 2009) puts it “Hypomyces lactifluorum is a very popular edible mushroom even though the identity of the host species is usually undetermined.”  The only poisoning Bill has ever dealt with in all his years of consulting came not from the lobster mushrooms per se, but from the fact that the mushrooms in question were rotten.

Photography note: The first time I tried to photograph the cakes it was at night, with predictably dreadful results. (So far I draw the line at learning about lighting).

But there were serious deficiencies in the styling, too. No matter what I did, here were these intractable dark brown disks with pale, light-reflecting sauce. Mayo on top – no good; on the side – better;  underneath – probably the best solution but then there was this naked hockey puck that looked very silly crowned with a spring of cilantro.

So before trying again in daylight I googled crab cake images, hoping to kite off some useful ideas and you know what? Nobody can photograph crab cakes, at least nobody in the first 60 offerings, after which I gave up.

Bill didn’t expect much either, but he doesn’t need much; one obscure little poisonous tidbit he hasn’t photographed yet is enough to make his day.

We were right, there wasn’t much – if you don’t count the mosquitoes and one huge honking Boletus bicolor.

Bill with a Boletus bicolor that’s on the big side for a solo specimen

“One swallow doth not a summer make,” as my mother was fond of remarking. But that  swallow reminded me to remind you  to be careful what you swallow. Although bicolors are good edibles, they’re easy to confuse with not good not edibles (B. sensibilis complex).

So. Now that the season’s about to start bigtime, here are two suggestions for happy wild mushroom hunting: check out Bill’s Long Lived Wild Mushroom Eaters Golden Rules – without letting his detailed explanation scare you to death – and start out with the gold standard: Chanterelles.

They’re delicious. In a good year they’re abundant. And they’re right up there with morels for being easy to recognize and safe for amateurs to collect.

Unlike morels, chanterelles have meaty stems too dense to clip with fingernails. Don't leave home without your pocket knife.

Note: My husband, Bill, is an expert mycologist, a consultant to New England Poison Control (there’s a reason he wrote those rules), and a frequent blog contributor whose posts amount to a short course on wild mushroom hunting. They’re gathered – along with some recipes – in the category Wild Mushrooms, under the dropdown menu for In the Wild that appears at the top of each page. Individual species can usually be found through the search and/or the alphabetical index.

Pioneer Winecap mushroom at lower left. They'll come up thickly in this area for the next 6 weeks or so - then keep coming sporadically through summer and fall, if conditions are right.

Winecaps (Stropharia rugosoannulata) are among the tastiest wild mushrooms: firm and meaty, with a taste of the nutty/smoky quality that makes porcini so special. They’re also large, easy to clean and almost as easy to grow as potatoes. Bill wrote a complete how-to last year.

One time-honored part of the procedure is feeding the newly planted bed with a pet food soup. Really. Nutrients galore. We knew it worked, but Bill being Bill, he also set up an experiment. One new bed got the feeding treatment, one didn’t. Results are now in – or more accurately, up.

The cat food bed wins paws down. Big fat winecaps are popping up in it left and right, while the control bed is still mushroom free. You’ll have the food right on hand if you have a cat, which of course you should.

Can you spot the morel in this picture?

Last year, itself on the early side, Bill found the first black morels on April 25th,  but this year a prime indication – the fall of the forsythia flowers – suggested a look would be worthwhile, so off we went to a reliable spot, somewhat north of us but close to the river. No luck.

Indications there were more mixed: few wild columbines were blooming and the hepatica was still spotty. We only saw one in flower

Hepatica americana (aka H. nobilis var. obtusa and, just to make things interesting, Anemone americana or A. hepatica). Very cool little plant.

But one of the great things about walks in the second and third growth woods is the vast array of cultural artifacts left from the days when the land was open. Mushrooms may be lacking, but there’s always something to see.

Even after the cellar holes have filled in and the stone walls tumbled down, each spring uncovers bits of dishes, thick old bottles and horticultural hangers-on like clumps of refined hybrid narcissi, blooming away in the underbrush surrounded by barberries and poison ivy.

No morels, no problem. I’ll just photograph these. No tripod. Down on the knees. Multiple tries in hopes of one coming out not-too-shaky. Bill is calling, “time to go.”

“ Okay, honey, just one more,” I say, and then as I switch positions to get up. There it is.

Black Morel (Morchella elata/angusticeps/conica complex). This is the same picture, cropped to a close up of the rock just to the right of the narcissus clump

Sneaky bastards. Bill has written a black morel hunting guide that helps considerably, but missing more than you find just comes with the territory.

I didn’t step on it, but that’s not because I saw it before I put my foot down.

Hepatica in its more typical color, showing why the Doctrine of Signatures declared it good for curing liver ailments.

Hepatica flower and Leslie’s foot photos by Bill Bakaitis

It just goes to show how the collecting season varies here in the Northeast.

In Maine, where we had a poor mushroom season all year, the beginning of October brought with it a flush of Honey Mushrooms (Armillaria mellea complex) and the attendant Aborted Entoloma (Entoloma abortivum).  The Hen of the Woods (Grifola frondosus) has not yet appeared on trees that I know and those that are found in Farmers Markets are pitiful fist sized, dried out specimens.  I anticipate the big flush in the next week to ten days, conditions permitting.

Meanwhile, in the Hudson Valley and Catskills of New York, which had a fabulous mushroom year, the Honeys began in Mid-September, right on cue, but most of the Hens remained in their underground coops for another fortnight.

Bill finding a fat hen, on a fat oak

They are out now: succulent, fragrant, and large – with what appears to be an attendant flush of young chicks following big momma. Bring your basket and go get ‘em.

Nothing wrong with that – except that it tends to carry over where it isn’t essential, as in the case of sulfur shelf, Laetiporus sulphureus, aka chicken of the woods. When you find that, you generally find many pounds, plenty enough to play around with.

This curry is an example. The mushroom flavor is only one among several, but it's one that would be sorely missed if it were absent. The rice happens to have red peppers, gold raisins and pistachios. Just plain would be just as good or better.

I put “of the woods” in parentheses because I’m sure the curry would be good – albeit not this good –  with genuine chicken. The shortcut is prepared spice mixtures and the multi is Indian and Thai. Cooking the mushroom in coconut milk without a preliminary saute is what brings out the reds and pinks.

Multi-Cultural Shortcut Chicken (of the woods) Curry

For 4 servings ( it’s rich):

1 tablespoon corn oil

1 large onion, in 1/4 inch dice

roughly 3/4 inch square chunk of peeled ginger

1 very large or 2 medium cloves of garlic

1 teaspoon Madras curry powder

2 teaspoons Thai green curry paste

10 ounces sulfur shelf, sliced into thin strips – exact shape doesn’t matter, just be sure they’re not more than 1/3 inch thick or they may not cook through.

1 can (14 ounces) coconut milk

1 lime, cut into large wedges

1. Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Add the onion, turn the heat to low and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is well wilted and just starting to turn gold.

2. Shred in the ginger and garlic through the small holes of a grater. Keep cooking and stirring until they’re softened, then stir in the curry powder. Cook that for about half a minute then stir in the curry paste.

3. Give it another half minute or so, then add the coconut milk and mushrooms. Cover and cook over very low heat until the mushroom pieces are well and truly cooked, about 45 minutes. Taste and adjust the salt.

4. Serve over rice, with the lime wedges on the side. They are not for decor; the curry will be too sweet if you don’t squeeze in some lime juice.

Confetti rice just in case you’re curious – ours was leftover and it is not part of the recipe. Good though.

Cook the rice. Stir in sweet red pepper in tiny dice, pistachio nuts, golden raisins – only a few! – and the flesh of a lemon, cut into small dice.

BRIGHT HARBINGER OF FALL, Laetiporus sulphureus: AKA The Sulfur Shelf or Chicken Mushroom.

By Bill Bakaitis

What a dismal summer! Here it is Labor Day and farmers have yet to complete their first cutting of hay. Late blight destroyed many a tomato crop and those not affected have all of the taste and consistency of wet cardboard. Corn here in Maine is but knee high.

Behind the fields the fruits of the forest have also languished. Perhaps it was the long stretches of cool wet weather that put a stop to the saprophytic mushrooms, for few litter- decaying fungi of any species appeared in the coastal forests near us.  Scant too were the usual mycorrhizal species of summer: the Amanita, Russula, and Lactarius.

But in the last few days, walking along the bench of a nearby mountain, and again at the edge of a large lake, there came a sight that warmed my heart and seemed ready to fill the cusp of autumn with promise and pleasure:  Sulfur Shelfs, bright as neon, sprouting buds with flesh as tender as brie, scent fragrant as a ripe peach.

Can any mushroom better announce the approach of the equinox than the Sulfur Shelf? It heralds the end of summer with a burst of beauty and energy that stops us dead in our tracks. “Here it is. Here I am” it seems to say. “Get ready, we are about to turn that corner into a bright and bountiful fall”.

The Sulfur Shelf, bright harbinger of fall

Edibility and Taxonomy of the Sulfur Shelf:

When I was growing up, the Sulfur Shelf was known as Polyporus sulphureus and was universally considered safe and edible.  Most field guides published in the last half of the twentieth century in fact rank it as ‘choice”. The authors were following the lead of Clyde Christiansen, University of Wisconsin mycologist, who popularized it (along with the Morel, Giant Puffball, and Shaggy Mane) as one of his “Foolproof Four”: Beginners couldn’t mistake these for any other mushroom, there were no toxic look alikes, they were widely collected and eaten, sold at farmers markets across the country and unless you had an allergy to them, you wouldn’t get sick if the mushroom was well cooked..

This was pretty much the accepted wisdom well into the 1980’s. By this time, however, a number of cases had presented themselves where “allergic reactions” occurred, and a pattern seemed to appear indicating that Sulfur Shelf mushrooms growing on certain trees and in certain areas were more likely to cause allergic reactions and gastric distress than others. Eucalyptus, Evergreens, and Locust in particular were suspect and the advice began to be published to avoid eating mushrooms collected from these trees.

By this time also the Sulfur Shelf had been transferred out of Polyporus into a new segregate genus, Laetiporus, based in part upon wood rotting characteristics (see below). During the 1990’s the use of new genetic and mating techniques led to the discovery that the single species Laetiporus (Polyporus) sulphureus could be segregated into five or six separate  species. For more, see here and here.

As it turns out, those Sulfur Shelfs living on eucalyptus and evergreen are genetically distinct from L. sulphureus, even though they are morphologically identical, and what was once thought to be a single safe species turned into a complex of species, some of which apparently could be quite troublesome.

Wikipedia lists five genetic groups:

1.One group grows on conifers:  the Conifericola clade L. conifericola and L. huroniensis, and the four following groups grow on hardwoods.

2. Cincinnatus clade: contains L. cincinnatus

3. Sulphureus clade I: contains white-pored L. sulfureus isolates.

4. Sulphureus clade II: contains yellow-pored L. sulfureus isolates.

5. Gilbertsonii clade: contains L. gilbertsonii growing on Eucalyptus and unidentified Caribbean isolates

For collectors in the Northeast this complexity can be simplified if we first eliminate those species which grow on conifers. (Hemlock, Spruce, Pine and other evergreens) Those with restricted ranges to the west coast and the Caribbean sort themselves out geographically and we are left with L. cincinnatus and the two varieties of L. sulphureus (2, 3 and 4 above).

Both species grow primarily or exclusively on Oak, an important consideration for those of us who collect for the table. The current advice then is to collect Sulfur Shelf Mushrooms only from identifiable, still standing or recently fallen Oaks.

Sulfur Shelf on Oak

L. sulphureus has a rich orange velvety top and a lemon yellow pore surface. It tends to spring from wood above the butt region.

L. sulphureus. Young specimens such as this make for the best eating.

L. cincinnatus has a pinkish upper and white lower surface. It is thought to grow primarily in rosettes at the base of the tree, often from the ground. It is also considered the more tender and edible of the two.

A rosette of L. cincinnatus

Polyporus sulphureus var semialbinus (Peck) is sometimes thought to be a transitional or ‘hybrid’ form of L. sulphureus.

Polyporus sulphureus var. semialbinus, as described by Charles Peck

So, if you are collecting the Sulfur Shelf for the table, you might follow these guidelines. Collect only young specimens, from Oak trees which have not been treated with chemicals (used perhaps in a futile attempt to prevent rot – see later) and cook the mushroom well. On mature specimens only the tender-most outer edge should be eaten. Old, faded, woody, bug infested specimens should never be eaten.  Test a small portion, without alcohol, until you can establish that this mushroom agrees with your own biology. These are standard rules for the testing the personal edibility of any new mushroom. See The Long-lived Mushroom Eater’s Golden Rules for more.  If you hang around mushroom groups for any length of time you will also hear anecdotal stories of how the allergic reactions to this mushroom are either sex-linked, affecting women more than men, or potentiated by alcohol, or both. I could find no documentation of this assertion, but caution is advised.

Sulfur Shelf, “The Chicken Mushroom”

Many people refer L. sulphureus (and cincinnatus) as ‘The Chicken Mushroom’ because of its chicken-like texture. Many cooks maintain that it can be used in any recipe that calls for chicken. (This ‘chicken” should not be confused with another edible Polypore, Grifola frondosus, also known as “The Hen of the Woods“.

Years ago I was on a joint family camping trip with a vegan couple and our children.  We set up camp at North Lake near Hunter Mountain in the Catskills and in the late afternoon took a short hike to view Katterskill Falls. At the falls the kids wanted to climb down and crawl along the trace of a trail which went down under the escarpment and into the shallow cavern behind the falls. On the descent, off the side of the path and in the spray of the falls lay a dead Oak from which we made a good collection of Sulfur Shelf, and from a nearby poplar, a similar collection of Oyster Mushrooms.

Back at camp the mushrooms were cooked up with pasta and greens into a suitable vegetarian repast for all to enjoy. As we settled back to enjoy the meal, Kathy, the vegan, tasted the sulphureus, began to smile, and then blush. She was transfixed, unable to continue, yet also unable to resist. In the struggle she became nearly beet red with a strange smile frozen onto her face.  “It is just like Chicken”, she said. “I can’t believe it. I know it is the mushroom we just picked, but it is just like chicken. I can’t believe it!”  She did finish the meal, although with what she described as “guilty pleasure”.  Were all of our conflicts so easily resolved!

Brown Rot, White Rot, (and Soft Rot too)

Through the process of photosynthesis, green plants utilize the energy of sunlight to capture and break apart the Carbon Dioxide molecule. Forest trees fix the Carbon into organic compounds such as cellulose and lignin and release the Oxygen molecule back into the atmosphere.  Fungi which lack chlorophyll are unable to gain energy directly from sunlight. Instead, like us, they must feed upon the organic compounds created by plants. They do so by releasing specific enzymes which digest the organic food material. The digestion takes place outside of the mushroom and has important consequences for both the trees and ecosystem. Fungi are well known as the primary recyclers in nature.

All Polypore fungi are lignicolous, that is, they make their living by digesting wood. Over the years, this large diverse group has been studied, refined and subdivided into a myriad of specialized groups. As mentioned above, the genus Laetiporus was constructed to segregate out of Polyporus a subset of fungi which have, among other things, a certain feeding style which leads to the accumulation of a brown, cube-like residue called Brown Rot. Other lignicolous mushrooms produce a White Rot and lower fungi produce a Soft Rot.

White Rot Fungi are able to digest both the simple cellulose and the much more complex lignin compounds. Cellulose can be broken down by a single enzyme, but lignin’s long multi-branched polymer poses special challenges and resists degradation. Instead of using a multitude of enzymes to break apart this complex structure the White Rot Fungi degrade it by a chain reaction oxidative process. “The details of this are complex, but essentially the white-rot fungi produce only a few enzymes (lignin peroxidase, manganese peroxidase, H2O2-generating enzymes, and laccase) and these generate strong oxidants, which virtually “combust” the lignin framework”. More about this here. This is still comparatively ’slow oxidation’ and does not release energy anywhere near as quickly as does a campfire, but the tree becomes consumed from the inside, quickly looses weight and mass by this combustion and collapses into a soft white pulpy mass.

Brown Rot Fungi, like Laetiporus sulphureus, are able to degrade only cellulose (and hemicellulose) and leave behind a brown residue, the inner walls of the trees cells, comprised of lignin. Often a brick-like cubic structure is seen in the residue which is therefore called Cube Rot.  As this process occurs, the tree becomes weaker and less able to bend in the breezes. It does not loose weight as quickly as it looses strength however, and usually snaps apart near the lower part of the trunk.

Oaks degraded by Brown Rot fungi such as L. sulphureus show this characteristic cube like structure as they progress from sound wood to the rich dark humus of the temperate forest floor.

The lignin remains of Brown Rot become the stuff of new soil on the forest floor. As it happens, Laetiporus sulphureus usually destroys the tree even before the mushroom is able to fruit. At the same time, however, it is initiating the process of rebuilding the soil so that forest life continues anew.

Whereas White and Brown Rot are decay processes initiated by macro-fungi, Soft Rot is produced by lower filamentous fungi. No mushrooms are involved. These fungi require constant moisture to ensure that their naked cells survive. Ground contact is usually involved, from which these lower fungi obtain nitrogen necessary for their digestive process. As the organic matter decays, it often develops cavities within the cell, and becomes soft and soggy before collapsing under environmental weight. One can often see this Soft Rot in house sills and at the base of fence posts.

If you think about these digestive strategies for a while, you might begin to wonder how the cell walls of the mushroom remain intact during this process of enzymatic degradation. The answer is that the cell walls of mushrooms are not made of cellulose, but of chitin, the same material of Lobster shells, and therefore are not degraded by the enzymes which degrade cellulose and lignin. This is also why fungi are often hard to digest and one reason why they must be well cooked before consumption.  Many ‘toxic reaction’ to mushrooms are apparently caused by undercooking. In addition to the hard-to-digest chitin, other specific toxins are also found in some fungi, many, but not all of which are destroyed by cooking.

Strategies for finding Sulfur Shelf Mushrooms

Strategies of hunting for Sulfur Shelf fungi are identical to those described for hunting Grifola Frondosus, The Hen of the Woods. If you haven’t already done so, you might want to consult the guide on the Hen of the Woods post mentioned earlier.

A good strategy is to search out old Oak trees in relatively undisturbed forests such as Estates, old Cemeteries, Parks, Steep hillsides in Forest Preserves and Line Trees bordering such areas.  A slow drive down country lanes will often reveal the presence of old Oaks worth investigating.

Once a fruiting has been found, you can return in subsequent years for the perennial fruiting of the mushroom. If you know the location of a few trees, you can often find more by moving from one infected tree to the next, examining the forest for newly infected trees.  Pay particular attention to old Oaks that have a crumbly, chalky, white mass at the base of the tree. These are the decayed remains of last years Sulfur Shelf Mushrooms.

In this image you can see how the Sulfur Shelf shown above has aged

And here are the white chalky remains of a sulphureus from the previous season. Nothing to collect, but a place to remember and to visit in the future.

It pays to use a pack basket or large creel, perhaps with an additional cloth shopping bag tucked inside for the serendipitous find. A good tree can produce fifty or more pounds of choice mushrooms.

I know Leslie will want to include her own recipe, but in the meantime here is an illustrated guide to preparing creamed Sulfur Shelf over pasta.  Of course, if you are in a hurry sautéing slivers in butter makes for a fine sandwich and is a preferred way of testing almost any new mushroom.

L. sulphureus sautéed in butter, a time honored way to test a new mushroom

Combined with grilled pork chop, this Sulfur Shelf made a great sandwich

Good Hunting and Bon appétit!

Regular readers of this blog (and newcomers who put “mushrooms” in the search field) know we are enthusiastic wild mushroom collectors and consumers, and  that one of us –  Bill – is an expert who writes and lectures on mycology and is a consultant for the New York and New England Poison Control centers.

Calls are coming in almost daily, mostly concerning pre-verbal children exploring things before their parents can stop them, most of them, thank goodness, turning out fine. But as the recent Leccinum Warning shows, sometimes not so fine and that led Bill to ask me whether we’d ever posted the elementary rules of safe mushroom eating. Now we have.

Rules for the Eating of Mushrooms

By Bill Bakaitis

There are old mushroom eaters, and there are bold mushroom eaters, but there are no old and bold ones!

Here are 5 rules that the prudent Mycophage might employ:

2. TEST YOUR OWN REACTION TO EACH MUSHROOM BY EATING ONLY A SMALL PORTION OF A SINGLE SPECIES AT A TIME. REPEAT A FEW DAYS LATER TO TEST FOR DEVELOPED ALLERGIC REACTIONS.

3. MAKE SURE THE MUSHROOM IS THOROUGHLY COOKED BEFORE YOU EAT IT.

4. WHEN TESTING YOUR TOLERANCE FOR A NEW SPECIES, DO NOT CONSUME ANY ALCOHOL WITH THE MEAL OR FOR A FEW DAYS AFTER.

5. KEEP A FEW UNCOOKED MYSHROOMS IN THE FRIDGE FOR IDENTIFICATION SHOULD A TOXIC REACTION DEVELOP.

Why do these rules work?

Consider for a moment that there are thousands of species of fungi that fruit in any given area.  Some may appear nowhere else in the world. Some are edible, some toxic, and some are so variable that they are at times edible and at other times toxic. Often there is no good way to differentiate between species without hours or days of long tedious chemical and microscopic work.  Furthermore, the toxicity of mushrooms is unknown until they are actually eaten by fellow mushroom collectors. There are no good animal models.

Consider also that the edibility of mushrooms is often contingent upon the particular biology of the mushroom eater. Some mushrooms are edible to some but poison to others. And being like meat in composition, mushrooms are subject to rapid bacterial decay.  While the heat of cooking will destroy some of the toxins, other toxins will survive, especially if the cook attempts a delicate presentation, such as a light sauté or stir-fry!

Consider further that some mushrooms, edible in themselves, contain substances that interact with other foods making them poison! Perhaps the most well known interaction of this type is the way certain mushrooms interact with alcohol.  Alcohol consumed for up to a week or two after the meal cannot be fully metabolized and toxic metabolites accumulate in the body in amounts sufficient to cause extreme discomfort or death.

Mushrooms also differ with regard to the speed with which their toxins operate. Some go to work immediately, while others have reactions delayed by hours, days, weeks or months.  In addition carcinogenic compounds which presumably would not show their true effect for years are known to be present in mushrooms, even in the common store-bought variety.

POISON CONTROL EMERGENCY:  800-222-1222

The potentially toxic Leccinum atrostipitatum (left) alongside the Edible Boletus edulis (right).

One of the nifty things about mycology (the study of mushrooms) is that the field is still largely unexplored, new finds and findings turn up all the time. This is a less-nifty thing about mycophagy (the eating of mushrooms, particularly wild mushrooms). It too is still largely unexplored, and new information about bad reactions turns up — not all the time, but frequently enough. Here’s the latest from our resident mushroom expert.

LECCINUM ALERT

by Bill Bakaitis

On July 14th, I received a call from New England Poison Control Center at Maine Medical center. An elderly  man was in a New Hampshire Hospital with a severe, life threatening, illness contracted after eating Mushrooms. No specimens were available for imaging, but there were only two mushrooms involved, both Boletes. One was described as a ‘King Mushroom’, possibly in the Boletus edulis complex. The other was probably a Leccinum. Both identities were initially determined by two of the mushroom eaters, all of whom were self described as “good, knowledgeable mushroom collectors”

Two of the three people who collected and ate the mushroom developed GI symptoms three to five hours after the meal. One of them, an adult woman, sought treatment at the emergency room for her distress that evening.  The elderly man, developed GI symptoms somewhat later, did not go to the hospital and felt a general malaise the next day. The third person, an adult man,  had no symptoms at all.

Three days after the meal the  older man was admitted to the hospital in poor condition.

Among other symptoms was a very low platelet count which led to the leakage of blood throughout the body. His skin was covered with bruises. He was bleeding from the brain and various internal organs. In addition he had very low sodium levels. Surprisingly, there was no liver damage.

Due to the severe and odd symptoms, a multi-person conference call was initiated, and Marilyn Shaw, who has considerable experience with Leccinum poisonings, was invited to participate, along with a MMC’s Toxicologist, the attending Physician, and MMC’s poison control specialist. . Members of the family were interviewed over the phone and their initial identifications of the mushrooms were accepted/confirmed as appropriate. The conclusion reached was that it was probably the Leccinum which had inititated the cascade of events leading to the man’s critical condition.

Leccinum have traditionally been described as one of the Boletes safe to eat, but this case illustrates a growing concern for this group. Toxic reactions are known/thought to have been caused by Leccinum (Tylopilus) eximius, L. atrostipitatum, L. aurantiacum, L. scabrum/insigne.

Leccinum insigne

Recently, the Rocky Mountain Poison Control Center has noticed a great many cases of GI distres caused by members of the Leccinum scabrum/insigne group. (see Lincoff. Audubon Guide to Wild Mushrooms,  p. 579)

Many field guides describe these as edible, but in light of the growing number of cases involved, many of us who work with poison control across the nation are now advising mushroom collectors to avoid the Leccinum group when collecting for the table. They are a notoriously difficult group of mushrooms to identify.

I will be preparing an illustrated lecture on this topic for the Mid-Hudson Mycological Association but thought this warning should be circulated now at the height of the collecting season.

Leccinum aurantiacum

Within the past decade or so the orange-capped Leccinum aurantiacum has been reported to often cause Gastro-Intestinal distress. Its flesh will slowly bruise wine-red, then gray to purple-black. (see  Lincoff, p. 577)  This one was found at a NEMF Foray,  identified by trained mycologists and displayed for attendees to learn from.

Tylopilus eximius

Tylopilus (Leccinum) eximius can also cause severe Gastro-Intestinal distress.

Update: Bill’s follow up article for consulting mycologists and the scientifically inclined has now been posted on Dianna Smith’s Mycology website.

They’re out, just about right on time.

In spite of the deluginal rains, not too many mushrooms have come up yet, and a recent visit to a favorite spot was not very productive, so we weren’t expecting to come upon them.

Dumb. If you want to collect a lot of mushrooms, always expect them.

Chanterelles in the only container available

As usual, they were hiding – but visible to anyone who was on the alert for a glint of orange

Chanterelles in typical spot

Bill has already written a super guide to chanterelle hunting, so my contribution comes from the kitchen

After you’ve caught

your chanterelles

Well, no, come to think of it, not after, before. When you’ve first discovered the treasure consider the habitat, chanterelles have an unfortunate tendency to grow in very sandy soil.

Feel ‘em up before you pick. If they feel like you must have gathered them when you got tired of picking up seashells you might as well leave them be; deeply embedded sand is very hard to wash off.

About the only thing you could do with them would be to make chanterelle vodka; all the sand would eventually fall to the bottom of the jar and you could just very carefully decant the good stuff, leaving both mushrooms and sand behind.

If they’re just a little gritty they can be washed, but in the meantime they will have shared their sand with everything else in the basket (or shirt, as the case may be), so it pays to keep them segregated. Mushrooms growing in grass or leaf mold are a lot easier to clean.

2 tips before I leave the keyboard to go deal with this batch:

1. If you clean up the non-sandy ones as soon as you get them home, you can often just brush them off. Once they start drying out, any leaves or pine needles sticking to them will be sticking so firmly the chanterelles must be washed.

2. Never leave home without a pocket knife .

The base of a pinched off chanterelle is more likely to pick up dirt while it’s in the basket