[Sca-cooks] mushrooms (was Italian Cookery)

[johnna holloway]

There are at least 75 in print books on mushroom cookery.
One author that comes to mind is Jack Czarnecki who has
incorporated wild and cultivated mushrooms into his menus
and recipes. He has at least two books available. There
are numerous mushroom/morel/mycology societies or groups
that can be found on the web, plus hundreds of scientific papers
on fungi, mushrooms, etc. That's before we get into those
on cookery. It's a large subject. And offhand I can't point
to a definitive book on the uses of the Mushroom through
history.  Sorry---Johnnae llyn Lewis Johnna Holloway

phoenissa at netscape.net wrote:
> And now for something completely different...if one is making a period mushroom dish, what sorts of mushrooms should one use?  I find that the normal white ones are rather insipid; I prefer brown (crimini) mushrooms and they're easy to find.  I'm also fortunate to have access to fresh chanterelles, morels, porcini, and other wild mushrooms for very reasonable prices.  I'm afraid I know very little about the cultivation of edible fungus, so I gotta ask, are there any particular varieties that we know were used in period?  Which ones are modern strands?  (I suspect portobello is a relatively new trend.)  Are any native only to the New World?  I'd imagine that anyone cooking mushrooms back then would've used a melange of whatever non-poisonous ones were growing in the closest woods, possibly several varieties in a single dish; but I'd like to know which of today's varieties are most appropriate. Vittoria