Most mushrooms are fine to eat raw, there are only a couple that need cooking to be edible.
Armillaria, Morchella, Amanita section Validae, Gyromitra, maybe Helvella.
The rest don't need cooking.
Lots of mushroom experts claim that all wild mushrooms should be cooked, without evidence.
Seems like they are all repeating the same error.
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Posted by: Alan Rockefeller
The issue--and that I tell people in my classes--is the structural chitin mushrooms have (instead of the cellulose in plants) is kind of difficult to digest and cooking can make it easier on the stomach.
That is the part that I do not think is true, but keeps getting repeated.
Cellulose is also indigestible, but no one suggests that all vegetables need to be cooked.
Patrick Hamilton mycochef@sbcglobal.net [MushroomTalk]
The issue--and that I tell people in my classes--is the structural chitin mushrooms have
(instead of the cellulose in plants) is kind of difficult to digest and cooking can make it
easier on the stomach.
Any research (looked on the Internet. . .) I've done on this hasn't really answered it
for me but it just sounds "logical" to most and harmless to all.
And some other compounds surely do become less hard on the body if subjected to heat.
I wouldn't just list "only a couple" fungi (like Alan does here) as needing cooking to be edible.
Alan is a go-to person for me on certain questions but he's a bit more adventurous than even this old hippie guy on some things. . . .
(Liability issues for me and my club and clients in some situations.)
What I do on my forays is have folks ask me if I've eaten this or that and then ask if I'd eaten it again. And I tell them how it was prepared.
Sam Schaperow sam.schaperow@gmail.com [MushroomTalk]
I think chitin isn't the best for our digestive systems, but where's the evidence that cooking it makes it more digestible? Is there even any indreict evidence on texture, like it softening from cooking? Mushrooms that are tough (like many polypores) can be pressured cooked all day and come out as woody as ever. Isn't that chitin, or something else causing themt o be that way? Or, boiling mushrooms a while: They end up firmer if anything, unlike some plant & animal parts.
On Thu, Jan 12, 2017 at 12:19 PM, Patrick Hamilton mycochef@sbcglobal.net [MushroomTalk]
But what I believe due to personal experience having eaten much of it in my life also is true is that chitin is more harsh on the stomach than undigested cellulose which becomes "good" fiber.
Crab shells and undigested mushroom parts are more like Roto Rooter.
there are many, many mushrooms that can lose their poison if well heat treated. One of the most common ones is the shaggy parasol -- Chlorophyllum brunneum and allies. I agree that serving raw stuff is not necessarily a good idea, even for the most ordinary mushrooms.
At least a version (blended via food processor chanterelles) of the sorbet recipe:
https://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/14005/larry-stickneys-chanterelle-sorbet/None
Either the chitin or something else is broken down by blending, rendering it
edible, or the quantities of raw chanterelles were tolerable even if not blended.
Note this "sorbet" has a lot of chanterelle in it, considering the quantity of ingredients.
For a non-blended version, the blended theory becomes inapplicable.
If the peppery chemical is the same as in Russulaceae, then blended or not, the quantity is likely the reason it wasn't a stomach irritant.
By S am Schaperow sam
I don't know what people made the edits, or what, but I'm glad to see what I believe to be accurate info. about the sickener in a prominent place:
"The mushroom's common names refer to the gastrointestinal distress they cause when consumed raw. The flesh is extremely peppery, but this offensive taste, along with its toxicity, can be removed by parboiling or pickling. Although it used to be widely eaten in Russia and eastern European countries, it is generally not recommended for consumption"
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russula_emetica).
The one flaw is that the opinion that the taste is offensive doesn't belong there.
Perhaps when parboiling/drying changes the peppery flavor to a strange bitter,
maybe most would find that offensive in taste.
Of course, if it is highly peppery,
that could be offensive to most if not eaten in tiny quality like a spice.
But, the same can be said of [eating alone] many strong flavored [plant] spices!
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Sam Schaperow, MSMFT, LMFT