Use

Culinary

Horn of plenty (Craterellus cornucopioides)

When the use column simply says "Culinary" (or all-purpose culinary), it means the mushroom is a true gastronomic treasure. It needs no complicated handling like a week of soaking in barrels (as with salted milk caps) or mandatory repeated boiling.

These are mushrooms you can use straight away in everyday and fine cooking: for sauces, soups, juliennes, pizza, risotto, or simply fried in butter.

15 species in the database.

The elite of fine cuisine

David Arora and European chefs single out a few species with an exceptionally high culinary standing:

1. Truffles (Tuber): The very top of the culinary hierarchy. White and black truffles aren't eaten as a dish on their own. Thanks to their powerful aroma, they're used as an extremely expensive spice, shaved in microscopic layers over finished pasta or meat.

2. Porcini (Boletus edulis): The best mushroom for cream soups and Italian risotto. Its firm flesh doesn't fall apart, and it has a sweetish, nutty mushroom flavor.

3. Chanterelle (Cantharellus cibarius): The favorite mushroom of French cuisine. It has a faint fruity (apricot) aroma. It pairs perfectly with cream and cheese.

4. Agaricus mushrooms (Agaricus): The most widely eaten culinary mushroom in the world. Only the cultivated button mushroom from the store should be eaten raw (say, in a salad or carpaccio). Wild Agaricus only after confident identification and cooking: the genus includes the poisonous yellow stainer, and white wild Agaricus have deadly amanita lookalikes.

Rules for preparing mushrooms for the kitchen

M. Ya. Zerova reminds us that even the best "culinary" mushrooms (wild ones) call for basic hygiene:

- Wild mushrooms are always better cleaned with a brush than washed under running water. Pored mushrooms soak up water like a sponge, after which you can't brown them — they'll just stew in their own liquid.

- It's best to fry mushrooms in a dry pan first (to cook off their own moisture), and only then add fat (ideally butter, which brings out the mushroom flavor best).

Questions and answers

Why are some mushrooms fried and others boiled?

It depends on the texture of the flesh and the aroma. Porcini have a wonderful aroma of their own that intensifies when fried or dried. Some brittlegills or honey fungus, on the other hand, have a weak flavor, so they "work" better in marinades or soups, where they pick up flavor from the broth and spices.

Can you eat porcini raw?

Yes, in Italian fine cuisine young, firm porcini are sliced very thinly, drizzled with olive oil and lemon juice, and served raw as carpaccio. However, with mushrooms picked in the forest there's always a risk of parasite eggs or soil bacteria on them, so cooking remains the "gold standard" of safety.

Sources

1.Зерова М.Я. та ін. Визначник грибів України. 1979
2.Roger Phillips. Mushrooms (Roger Phillips)
3.David Arora. Mushrooms Demystified
4.Index Fungorum