SC - was mushroom allergies & food hygene rant

[Lorix]

Ron and Laurene Wells wrote:

> >Adamantius commented:
> >> ...you might
> >> be better off with a bean dish, which is probably less likely to cause
> >> allergic reactions than mushrooms, statistically (I think!).
> >
> >Really? I remember cautions here on allergies to fava beans, particularly
> >allergies among folks of southern European descent. I don't remember any
> >comments about mushroom allergies. I thought some just didn't like them.
> >(like my wife).
> >
> >More details please.
> >
>
> It is true that there are a goodly number of people who are allergic to
> mushrooms.  Since they are a fungus, and many people are allergic to
> various forms of fungi (molds, mildews, etc.) some are also allergid to
> mushrooms.  This does not mean that EVERYONE who is allergic to mold is
> allergic to mushrooms, certainly not. But the potential is there.

>snip

There are a number of people that I know who are
violently allergic to
mushrooms.  Their allergy is extremely severe,
that food not containing
mushrooms, but prepared using unwashed utensils
(by that I mean a chopping board used to prepare
other vegetables & chopping mushrooms) can make
them violently ill.  They are that sensitive to
the mushrooms & consequent swelling in throat,
mouth etc can cut off breathing.

When I am cooking, I am very careful about the
perils of cross-contamination
particularly when I am cooking for others.  I make
sure that all utensils are
washed between the preparation of each dish so
that I can assure my feasters
that each course has only the ingredients that I
have cooked in it.

<rant mode on, soapbox now being stepped on to ;->

On a related note, food hygiene is something that
many people don't seem to
think about.  It is amazing how many people will
come into a kitchen and offer
to help & don't wash their hands before wanting to
start helping . . . it's got to a sort of joke
status when I am cooking now because there is a
chorus from all in the kitchen when someone walks
in to "wash their hands".

Food hygiene is my pet obsession (particularly
when cooking for others) and to combat the
problems with some volunteers' personal hygiene,
there is a general rule that _anyone_ whose hands
are going to be in the food must wear the plastic
disposable gloves provided.  In 99.9% my fears are
probably groundless, but I prefer to take
precautions to avoid that 0.01% ;-) 

I vividly remember one feast I attended several
years ago as a wayfarer.  As is my won't I
wandered down to the kitchen to offer my
assistance & after one
horrified look inside abstained from eating most
of the feast.  That was just prior to the first
course when I saw the state of the kitchen, I
didn't truly realise how bad it was till later
when I had the 'pleasure' of cleaning the same
kitchen, (it was the practice in that group that
if you cooked, you didn't clean).

This kitchen had a lovely large stainless steel
bench that ran right down the
middle of the kitchen for food preparation.  It
had various cupboards & benches all around the
sides of the kitchen, 2 big steel washing sinks,
an industrial dishwasher & an insinkerator.  From
my point of view it was a dream kitchen to work in
(I didn't mentioned the industrial oven ;-)

Preparation for the feast had obviously commenced
at one end of the preparation bench & continued
down the bench with each new course, judging from
the food debris.  There was vegetable peelings
(and other 'waste' food parts) in little piles all
along the bench & piled all over the floor.  In
certain sections of the kitchen people appeared to
have seated themselves to prepare the food & let
the food peelings fall onto the floor rather than
the bins available (and I mean mounds of slippery
peelings just waiting to be stepped on).  Every
conceivable space was stacked with dirty serving
platters or food preparation utensils.  It was
obvious that stuff had dripped off the discarded
platters onto the benches & that rather than
cleaning the surfaces, food had been chopped in
amongst the mess.  

At the end of the feast, I had succumbed to the
succulent strawberries served hulled with bowls of
cream.  When I saw the kitchen, I truly wished I
hadn't. 

Legs of lamb had been served as the meat, but
appeared to have been frozen when they went into
the oven, because whilst burnt on the outside,
they where uncooked past 2cm in the meat &
hard/cold against the bone.  There had obviously
been attempts made to carve some of the roasts at
one end of the metal serving bench (before they
were simply sent out uncarved & uncooked). 
Because the floor was slightly slanted, so was the
bench.  The meat had been cut directly onto the
bench & blood had pooled & run down the center of
the bench to the other end & the dripped off onto
the floor.  What was extremely distressing was
that the strawberries had obviously (the debris
was there & so was the cut marks on the bench & in
the dried blood) been hulled in amongst the blood.

I mention this only insofar as it is not enough
that we consider food allergies, but we also need
to consider food hygiene, cross-contamination
issues, length of time food is left refrigerated,
dangers of re-heating food & not heating it enough
to kill bacteria, etc.  

Food poisoning might have been period, but we
_really_ don't want to recreate it in the current
middle ages.

<rant mode now off ;->

Lorix