6 ms·

Weird, I just ate the first harvest off my blue oyster mushroom kit. I've never been a huge mushroom fan but they were delicious. Tear them up, fry them until

Weird, I just ate the first harvest off my blue oyster mushroom kit. I've never been a huge mushroom fan but they were delicious. Tear them up, fry them until they're crisp in olive oil, and top with garlic sauce(*). (*) - My poor attempt at recreating Lebanese 'toum' ended up making an insanely delicious garlic sauce that keeps for weeks in a plastic squeeze bottle in the refrigerator. 2 heads of garlic, 1 tsp salt, 1 Tbsp of lemon juice, and enough olive oil to make it squeezable and palatable. Blend in a blender and squeeze on everything you eat. The garlic has to be insanely fresh though. Garlic that is good enough to cook with may be too bitter to use and result in a sauce that sucks. You can even cut the core out of the cloves to tame the bitterness more but I find that is not necessary if you have fresh garlic. Definitely avoid green garlic or any that has started sprouting.

jcims 6y ago
I live out in the woods and had gone morel hunting a few times without success. I had heard so many stories about how good they were and i was getting frustrated b/c it seemed like the perfect setting for them. One day I was mowing my back yard and was stopped in my tracks by this beautiful morel standing proud right in the middle of my yard like it was placed there by God himself lol. They are incredibly tasty. Also highly recommend folks try those kits you’re talking about, they are really fun.
- saiya-jin 6y ago
  Morels here in Europe are priced insanely high, only a bit below black truffles. For a good reason I must say, if well prepared they taste properly awesome.
  - medstrom 6y ago
    Well gosh, button mushrooms if well prepared, they taste properly awesome.
    - Turing_Machine 6y ago
      Morels are an entirely different level of awesome, though. Try some and you'll see.
- hvidgaard 6y ago
  Mushrooms in general is a very fleeting thing. For instance, when I take soil from the garden inside and use for planting it's not uncommon for a tiny mushroom to suddenly sprout, bloom, and wilt in less than a day.
  - samstave 6y ago
    That means you have good mycelium in your soil. The Mushroom is the actual mycelium network - that is the organism. The "mushroom" that you pick and eat is the fruit/sex-organ of the mycelium solely made to reproduce. The mycelium reproduces in a number of different stages, and can lay dormant for years. Genetic material is swapped beteen two different organisms. The males are called + and the females are called - When a + meets a - , they swap genetic material, which then flows through the mycelium until it fruits as a mushroom and that is what we pick and eat.
- jiggawatts 6y ago
  Now I need to know what Morel mushrooms taste like...
  - jcims 6y ago
    This isn’t helpful unless you can tie the word back to an experience but they have a lot of umami. It’s primarily what differentiates them from standard portabellos/button/cremini mushrooms.
  - Loughla 6y ago
    If you fry them they taste like a combination of delicious and heaven. Alternately - a fine stand in for fried morel mushrooms are fried pumpkin blossoms, if you would like to see what the flavor is like. I do not have a substitute for any other use for morels, though. They add their own, amazing flavor to any soup, stew, or other recipe. But definitely try fried pumpkin blossoms - that's what fried morel (which is also the best way to cook them) tastes like. Egg wash, cracker crumb breading, fry in butter. Amazing.
  - mallomarmeasle 6y ago
    Interestingly,they are ascomycetes (like yeast)and not basidiomycetes (like most consumed mushrooms ). Their taste to me has more in common with brewer's yeast than "regular mushrooms". Meaty, savory, delicious! Time to get to the woods to hunt them.
    - jcims 6y ago
      I'm so glad this post came up because I completely forget about it every year until summer.
- cmrdporcupine 6y ago
  Yes quite frustrating I had morels pop up on my property once -- which I also noticed while mowing -- and then they never returned to the same spot. So delicious. I remember as a kid finding a large puffball mushroom in the woods near my house, and brought it home and my dad made a delicious stew with it. Every year I went back to the same area and never found one again.
- stjohnswarts 6y ago
  I don't trust my ability to discern poisonous from benign varieties so I just leave the all where they're at and let them finish out their days in peace.
- 01100011 6y ago
  Years ago, before I ever developed a taste for mushrooms, I cut down a eucalyptus in my yard. Next year I had a couple of Morels pop up through the gravel near the stump. Never saw them again, and I lived there another decade or so.
saiya-jin 6y ago
One advice on preparation - olive oil is far from best to use for frying. Its great for cold cuisine and OK for very quick heat use, but things like mushrooms that take time definitely no. Grapeseed, rapeseed, sunflower oils handle prolonged high heat much better.
- DiabloD3 6y ago
  All three of those are unsuitable due to Omega 6 content. Coconut oil and Olive oil are perfectly fine for frying mushrooms slowly in a pan at medium or low heat. You're worried about hitting the smoke point, which would impart foul taste to the food, but its unlikely to happen with any competent cook.
  - KozmoNau7 6y ago
    And a little bit of smoke with olive oil is fine, the white "smoke" is likely just water boiling out.
  - jschwartzi 6y ago
    Also it's worth noting that the smoke point is different for extra-virgin versus other olive oils. A purified olive oil has a much higher smoke point and can be used for higher-temperature pan-frying. EVOO can be used for pan frying or baking but you have to control the temperature and keep it below about 375. Below that is actually a good temperature for frying mushrooms in my opinion.
- KozmoNau7 6y ago
  That's a very common misconception and a stubborn myth: https://youtu.be/l_aFHrzSBrM https://youtu.be/l_aFHrzSBrM I fry mushrooms (and many other things) in olive oil all the time. It works great, tastes great and as long as you use extra virgin oil, doesn't create any more harmful substances than using rapeseed or sunflower seed oil, probably a lot fewer actually. You can even deep fry in it, which some celebrated chefs do.
bananasbandanas 6y ago
I'm unsure if it even applies in your case, but there is the risk of inadvertently creating botulism when storing garling in oil [1]. Since you are refigerating and adding acid, I'd expect it's probably not an issue. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1404905/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1404905/
- nkozyra 6y ago
  This is more about the preservation method than the contents. The botulism bacteria clostridium botulinumis is anaerobic, so it spreads most frequently in very low oxygen environments, like canning. A squeeze bottle is unlikely to provide that environment in the medium term. It will likely have too much oxygen exposure. Tetanus is another example of anaerobic bacteria that's unlikely to occur unless you encounter a low oxygen environment (like a rusty nail underground). A cut or puncture from something exposed to open air is very unlikely to give you tetanus.
  - medstrom 6y ago
    Well, there were reports a few years ago of people dying from homemade garlic oil. No canning needed, the oil is an anaerobic environment. You just put garlic in oil and let it sit in the fridge for a week and you have a lethal poison.
    - nkozyra 6y ago
      That's true there are other ways to create an anaerobic environment, but the article in the parent comment specifically says the garlic oil was canned.
      - 542354234235 6y ago
        >the article in the parent comment specifically says the garlic oil was canned Yes, but you said a squeeze bottle "is unlikely to provide that environment" which is incorrect, as the anaerobic environment is created by the suspension in the oil, which separates the garlic from the air. Just because it wasn't specifically mentioned in the article doesn't mean you didn't put out information was incorrect and dangerous. Garlic in oil must be refrigerated and used within about 3-7 days. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/stinking_facts_about_garlic#:~:text=Garlic%20in%20oil%20is%20very,or%20smell%20of%20the%20oil https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/stinking_facts_about_garlic#:~.... https://www.freep.com/story/life/food/recipes/2015/07/09/garlic-oil-storing-food-safety/29809647/ https://www.freep.com/story/life/food/recipes/2015/07/09/gar... https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/Can-you-get-botulism-from-garlic-in-oil#:~:text=Information&text=Research%20performed%20by%20the%20University,no%20more%20than%207%20days https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/Can-you-get-botulism-from-gar....
devb 6y ago
Funny, I just harvested my first bloom of blue oyster mushrooms last night too. I couldn't believe how good they were.

jcims 6y ago

I live out in the woods and had gone morel hunting a few times without success. I had heard so many stories about how good they were and i was getting frustrated b/c it seemed like the perfect setting for them. One day I was mowing my back yard and was stopped in my tracks by this beautiful morel standing proud right in the middle of my yard like it was placed there by God himself lol. They are incredibly tasty. Also highly recommend folks try those kits you’re talking about, they are really fun.

saiya-jin 6y ago
Morels here in Europe are priced insanely high, only a bit below black truffles. For a good reason I must say, if well prepared they taste properly awesome.
- medstrom 6y ago
  Well gosh, button mushrooms if well prepared, they taste properly awesome.
  - Turing_Machine 6y ago
    Morels are an entirely different level of awesome, though. Try some and you'll see.
hvidgaard 6y ago
Mushrooms in general is a very fleeting thing. For instance, when I take soil from the garden inside and use for planting it's not uncommon for a tiny mushroom to suddenly sprout, bloom, and wilt in less than a day.
- samstave 6y ago
  That means you have good mycelium in your soil. The Mushroom is the actual mycelium network - that is the organism. The "mushroom" that you pick and eat is the fruit/sex-organ of the mycelium solely made to reproduce. The mycelium reproduces in a number of different stages, and can lay dormant for years. Genetic material is swapped beteen two different organisms. The males are called + and the females are called - When a + meets a - , they swap genetic material, which then flows through the mycelium until it fruits as a mushroom and that is what we pick and eat.
jiggawatts 6y ago
Now I need to know what Morel mushrooms taste like...
- jcims 6y ago
  This isn’t helpful unless you can tie the word back to an experience but they have a lot of umami. It’s primarily what differentiates them from standard portabellos/button/cremini mushrooms.
- Loughla 6y ago
  If you fry them they taste like a combination of delicious and heaven. Alternately - a fine stand in for fried morel mushrooms are fried pumpkin blossoms, if you would like to see what the flavor is like. I do not have a substitute for any other use for morels, though. They add their own, amazing flavor to any soup, stew, or other recipe. But definitely try fried pumpkin blossoms - that's what fried morel (which is also the best way to cook them) tastes like. Egg wash, cracker crumb breading, fry in butter. Amazing.
- mallomarmeasle 6y ago
  Interestingly,they are ascomycetes (like yeast)and not basidiomycetes (like most consumed mushrooms ). Their taste to me has more in common with brewer's yeast than "regular mushrooms". Meaty, savory, delicious! Time to get to the woods to hunt them.
  - jcims 6y ago
    I'm so glad this post came up because I completely forget about it every year until summer.
cmrdporcupine 6y ago
Yes quite frustrating I had morels pop up on my property once -- which I also noticed while mowing -- and then they never returned to the same spot. So delicious. I remember as a kid finding a large puffball mushroom in the woods near my house, and brought it home and my dad made a delicious stew with it. Every year I went back to the same area and never found one again.
stjohnswarts 6y ago
I don't trust my ability to discern poisonous from benign varieties so I just leave the all where they're at and let them finish out their days in peace.
01100011 6y ago
Years ago, before I ever developed a taste for mushrooms, I cut down a eucalyptus in my yard. Next year I had a couple of Morels pop up through the gravel near the stump. Never saw them again, and I lived there another decade or so.

saiya-jin 6y ago

One advice on preparation - olive oil is far from best to use for frying. Its great for cold cuisine and OK for very quick heat use, but things like mushrooms that take time definitely no. Grapeseed, rapeseed, sunflower oils handle prolonged high heat much better.

DiabloD3 6y ago
All three of those are unsuitable due to Omega 6 content. Coconut oil and Olive oil are perfectly fine for frying mushrooms slowly in a pan at medium or low heat. You're worried about hitting the smoke point, which would impart foul taste to the food, but its unlikely to happen with any competent cook.
- KozmoNau7 6y ago
  And a little bit of smoke with olive oil is fine, the white "smoke" is likely just water boiling out.
- jschwartzi 6y ago
  Also it's worth noting that the smoke point is different for extra-virgin versus other olive oils. A purified olive oil has a much higher smoke point and can be used for higher-temperature pan-frying. EVOO can be used for pan frying or baking but you have to control the temperature and keep it below about 375. Below that is actually a good temperature for frying mushrooms in my opinion.
KozmoNau7 6y ago
That's a very common misconception and a stubborn myth: https://youtu.be/l_aFHrzSBrM https://youtu.be/l_aFHrzSBrM I fry mushrooms (and many other things) in olive oil all the time. It works great, tastes great and as long as you use extra virgin oil, doesn't create any more harmful substances than using rapeseed or sunflower seed oil, probably a lot fewer actually. You can even deep fry in it, which some celebrated chefs do.

bananasbandanas 6y ago

I'm unsure if it even applies in your case, but there is the risk of inadvertently creating botulism when storing garling in oil [1]. Since you are refigerating and adding acid, I'd expect it's probably not an issue. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1404905/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1404905/

nkozyra 6y ago
This is more about the preservation method than the contents. The botulism bacteria clostridium botulinumis is anaerobic, so it spreads most frequently in very low oxygen environments, like canning. A squeeze bottle is unlikely to provide that environment in the medium term. It will likely have too much oxygen exposure. Tetanus is another example of anaerobic bacteria that's unlikely to occur unless you encounter a low oxygen environment (like a rusty nail underground). A cut or puncture from something exposed to open air is very unlikely to give you tetanus.
- medstrom 6y ago
  Well, there were reports a few years ago of people dying from homemade garlic oil. No canning needed, the oil is an anaerobic environment. You just put garlic in oil and let it sit in the fridge for a week and you have a lethal poison.
  - nkozyra 6y ago
    That's true there are other ways to create an anaerobic environment, but the article in the parent comment specifically says the garlic oil was canned.
    - 542354234235 6y ago
      >the article in the parent comment specifically says the garlic oil was canned Yes, but you said a squeeze bottle "is unlikely to provide that environment" which is incorrect, as the anaerobic environment is created by the suspension in the oil, which separates the garlic from the air. Just because it wasn't specifically mentioned in the article doesn't mean you didn't put out information was incorrect and dangerous. Garlic in oil must be refrigerated and used within about 3-7 days. https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/stinking_facts_about_garlic#:~:text=Garlic%20in%20oil%20is%20very,or%20smell%20of%20the%20oil https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/stinking_facts_about_garlic#:~.... https://www.freep.com/story/life/food/recipes/2015/07/09/garlic-oil-storing-food-safety/29809647/ https://www.freep.com/story/life/food/recipes/2015/07/09/gar... https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/Can-you-get-botulism-from-garlic-in-oil#:~:text=Information&text=Research%20performed%20by%20the%20University,no%20more%20than%207%20days https://ask.usda.gov/s/article/Can-you-get-botulism-from-gar....

devb 6y ago

Funny, I just harvested my first bloom of blue oyster mushrooms last night too. I couldn't believe how good they were.