Don’t Eat Raw Mushrooms
Far West Fungi manager Ian Garrone warns people not to sample raw mushrooms in a grocery store. Stores don’t like it, plus mushrooms are far better cooked.
POST A COMMENT |29
Comments
Sausage Recipes of the Month
Underdog Loire Valley Wines
How to Make a Healthy Snack
Mark McClusky's DIY Cheese
The Perfect Party Cocktail
Foodies Fetishize Their Own
Mushrooms have to be cooked to be digestible and to get any of the beneficial properties weather it be nutritional or medicinal. I base my information on leading mycologists that have researched their whole lives on fungi. Paul Stamets is a leading mycologist and he says cooked. http://www.fungi.com/
Fungi are not vegetables or fruits they are an entire different class of species. Ask someone...+READ
Mushrooms have to be cooked to be digestible and to get any of the beneficial properties weather it be nutritional or medicinal. I base my information on leading mycologists that have researched their whole lives on fungi. Paul Stamets is a leading mycologist and he says cooked. http://www.fungi.com/
Fungi are not vegetables or fruits they are an entire different class of species. Ask someone who knows about fungi before making assumptions.-COLLAPSE
Okay, guilty, to follow your line of reasoning to its logical conclusion, you should be able to eat grass as well, if only you chew it enough. :)
You shouldn't eat any produce that you haven't washed yourself. Not even apples or grapes; who knows if the produce person dropped them on the floor or didn't wash their hands when they went to the bathroom or just plain hates their job. Stating that mushrooms should always be cooked is overboard. Wash them, period. Mushrooms are awesome raw, I won't deny myself that because of one paranoid store...+READ
You shouldn't eat any produce that you haven't washed yourself. Not even apples or grapes; who knows if the produce person dropped them on the floor or didn't wash their hands when they went to the bathroom or just plain hates their job. Stating that mushrooms should always be cooked is overboard. Wash them, period. Mushrooms are awesome raw, I won't deny myself that because of one paranoid store owner.-COLLAPSE
ok Cornelius, like the mushrooms, raw plant foods in general aren't always worse than cooked . . . cooking poisonous vegetables (or fungi) can remove *some* poisons (though I wouldn't risk it with any questionable mushroom), and in *some* cases cooking increases nutritional availability. However, antioxidant levels are almost always decreased by any sort of cooking, as are vitamin levels; see...+READ
ok Cornelius, like the mushrooms, raw plant foods in general aren't always worse than cooked . . . cooking poisonous vegetables (or fungi) can remove *some* poisons (though I wouldn't risk it with any questionable mushroom), and in *some* cases cooking increases nutritional availability. However, antioxidant levels are almost always decreased by any sort of cooking, as are vitamin levels; see http://www.beyondveg.com/tu-j-l/raw-cooked/raw-cooked-2f.shtml.
And as for cell walls--I don't know about you, but I chew. True, grass is too tough for me, but most vegetables aren't.
Anyway, I like raw mushrooms sometimes. As for the grocery-variety mushrooms, to my knowledge only the button have carcinogenic properties when raw, and it's in very small amounts.-COLLAPSE
@ jtellerelsberg, well said! I've known a few hard-core mushroom foragers as well.
Some people react immediately to certain toxins, and some people do not. Just because a person doesn't notice an ill effect immediately, it does not necessarily follow that they do not exist.
Despite what raw food activists claim, cooking vegetables destroys many poisons, and makes available more nutrition,...+READ
@ jtellerelsberg, well said! I've known a few hard-core mushroom foragers as well.
Some people react immediately to certain toxins, and some people do not. Just because a person doesn't notice an ill effect immediately, it does not necessarily follow that they do not exist.
Despite what raw food activists claim, cooking vegetables destroys many poisons, and makes available more nutrition, rather than less, because it breaks down the cellulose cell walls, which otherwise would be indigestible and unavailable to other than ruminants That's why cows can eat grass, and we can't..-COLLAPSE
PS: a longer post on the topic is at http://www.mykoweb.com/articles/EatingRawMushrooms.html. Take home message: it's probably sensible to err on the side of caution, but no need to panic in the streets.
All the pro-raw mushroom comments are talking about immediate illness (or the lack thereof). But keep in mind that that's not the only (potential) risk from raw mushrooms. From what I've heard from hard-core mushroom foragers and growers, most if not all edible mushroom species contain toxins that are neutralized by cooking. Some of these toxins are not "food poisoning" types--the sorts that make...+READ
All the pro-raw mushroom comments are talking about immediate illness (or the lack thereof). But keep in mind that that's not the only (potential) risk from raw mushrooms. From what I've heard from hard-core mushroom foragers and growers, most if not all edible mushroom species contain toxins that are neutralized by cooking. Some of these toxins are not "food poisoning" types--the sorts that make you sick right away--but toxic as in carcinogenic or some other long-term harm way. This includes the button mushroom, though admittedly in very low concentrations. (See http://www.food-info.net/uk/qa/qa-saf86.htm.) So just because you haven't noticed gastrointestinal distress from eating raw mushrooms doesn't mean they aren't causing you harm. The risk might be small, depending on the species, but I throw this out there just to remind people that "toxic" covers a broader range of risks than cramps or instantaneous death.-COLLAPSE
Well, I've been eating white button and cremini mushrooms raw all my life and I've never been sick from them. But I imagine like meat, there are some kinds of mushrooms that must be cooked.
You can eat almost any kind of mushroom as long as they are cooked very well.
Whenever I am in the grocery store when I get near the mushrooms it feels like there is a fungus amongus
Morels have a chemical that can make you very sick if they are eaten raw. Cooking denatures the toxin. I think Chow is trying to CYA by advising the safest course. Yes, you may be able to eat raw button mushrooms till the cows come home but some yahoo will eat something else, get the runs and sue. Most mushrooms should be cooked.
Deadly mushrooms send 3 to UCSF hospital
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/01/06/BAJG1544MQ.DTL
She should have known better.
Raw button mushrooms, thinly shaved over spinach, sieved egg, crumbled bacon and pickled red onion in a champagne vin. Too yummy for words. And I've never gotten ill from it, either. Adam
Some mushrooms like chanterelles really don't taste good raw...
but I have to say I eat raw crimini or white mushrooms sliced thin in a fennel and Parmesan salad and they taste great. Of course, they have been rinsed off. I would never nibble on the market's produce even if this is a "free" country! Too unsanitary. What you might catch is the flu.
@ LisaPA: I SO agree with you. I hoped never to see another 'chow tip' as stupid as the one about never eating the cheese rinds. Or, maybe the one on how to fry an egg...that one was pretty bad too. Yes, some mushrooms CAN make people ill when eaten raw, but he didn't state it like that. He said NO mushrooms should be eaten raw. I put raw mushrooms into salads all the time. My daughter grew up...+READ
@ LisaPA: I SO agree with you. I hoped never to see another 'chow tip' as stupid as the one about never eating the cheese rinds. Or, maybe the one on how to fry an egg...that one was pretty bad too. Yes, some mushrooms CAN make people ill when eaten raw, but he didn't state it like that. He said NO mushrooms should be eaten raw. I put raw mushrooms into salads all the time. My daughter grew up eating my salads, and she, too, is still alive and kicking. In fact, when I made salads we would fight over the mushrooms...LOL! So, yes this 'tip' was exactly like the cheese rind 'tip', in that they both categorically state that cheese rinds and raw mushrooms must NEVER be eaten. These things make me wonder about the rest of their tips, especially when combined with the 'perfect' fried egg demo.-COLLAPSE
You never want to eat some shaved raw porcini with delicious olive oil salt and pepper?
I heard about this mushroom guy who said someone got sick at Whole Foods from stealing mushrooms, and the guy was 8 feet tall, extremely hairy, and disappeared before anyone could get a clear photograph.
I agree with the video ... Mushrooms are far tastier when cooked. I Same goes for capsicum. Raw is Ok ... It just doesn't bring out the best in them, that's all.
Sorry folks, you're talking about different mushrooms from the guy in the video. Many wild mushrooms have toxins that are denatured when cooking, but consumers assume since they grew up eating button mushrooms raw and they like their beef rare, they should eat all their food rare or uncooked. The ones sold as "wild mushrooms" are all of the tamer variety that are not deadly, but they can still...+READ
Sorry folks, you're talking about different mushrooms from the guy in the video. Many wild mushrooms have toxins that are denatured when cooking, but consumers assume since they grew up eating button mushrooms raw and they like their beef rare, they should eat all their food rare or uncooked. The ones sold as "wild mushrooms" are all of the tamer variety that are not deadly, but they can still have side effects if not properly cooked.
There are real toxin-related reasons to cook wild mushrooms. I also suspect there's something in the stems of shiitakes, because most recipes say to remove them, and if I don't, then I end up with serious GI discomfort, which brings me to my next point: not everyone responds to every mushroom the same way. There are lots of unusual natural chemicals involved, and our digestive systems aren't all identical.-COLLAPSE
Grandma used to tell us eating porkchops that were not cooked until shoe leather consistency, and raw fish were both going to make us sick or kill us all.
I think he is just worried someone will steal his mushrooms, "taste testing"
I find the taste of mushrooms raw appealing. I love them cooked too.
Im gonna keep eating them, raw but clean. Who the heck would pluck one (grape or mushroom) from a store bin?
I love raw mushroom at a typical salad bar in restaurants as well as at home, button mushrooms usually. I can't agree that eating them can "often" cause harm. I live and breathe today having eaten them many times. The more dressing, bacon and cheese smothered on them the better! :D
/disclaimer: don't eat raw mushrooms for psychadelic effects :)
That really is asinine. I have a mushroom cookbook, I like them so much, and there's a whole chapter on salads made with raw mushrooms! The horror! I've eaten more raw mushrooms than I can count and I've never gotten sick from one. No, they're not like grapes, but they are tasty raw as well as cooked!
This is right up there with "don't eat the rind of cheese".
dirt?ha ha good thing you havent seen the process for mushroom cultivation,you only wish for dirt.
Marinade kind of "cooks" mushrooms thankfully, because to me a raw mushroom tastes like what it was grown in--dirt.
The mind boggles why anyone would want to do it in the first place. A mushroom is a mushroom is a mushroom... if you get a button mushroom in one store it's going to taste exactly the same as a button mushroom from another one - they don't have degrees of 'ripeness' and anything that will damage their flavour (like bruising) is easily visible if you just use your eyes and look at it. I eat plenty...+READ
The mind boggles why anyone would want to do it in the first place. A mushroom is a mushroom is a mushroom... if you get a button mushroom in one store it's going to taste exactly the same as a button mushroom from another one - they don't have degrees of 'ripeness' and anything that will damage their flavour (like bruising) is easily visible if you just use your eyes and look at it. I eat plenty of raw mushrooms at home, but it would never remotely cross my mind to take one in the store!-COLLAPSE
I think he means that eating raw, UNWASHED mushrooms in the store is bad, considering what most grow in.
I have to agree with the other two posters. I like Chow Tips usually, but this one is just bad, folks. What's wrong with eating raw mushrooms? We do it all the time, especially with button mushrooms, and it's never been a problem. Garrone also never draws a link with stores not liking it, unlike what's suggested in the introductory summary.
Come on, CHOW. I'm let down by this video segment for two reasons. First, food is like wine - if you like it, then it's all good. I'm a fan of mushrooms from matsutake to shiitake and the only way I like my enoki and button mushrooms is raw.
As for "this one time, this one guy got sick" by eating a raw mushroom isn't exactly an epidemiological mandate. If it's dangerous, then offer up something...+READ
Come on, CHOW. I'm let down by this video segment for two reasons. First, food is like wine - if you like it, then it's all good. I'm a fan of mushrooms from matsutake to shiitake and the only way I like my enoki and button mushrooms is raw.
As for "this one time, this one guy got sick" by eating a raw mushroom isn't exactly an epidemiological mandate. If it's dangerous, then offer up something more substantive than one anecdote.-COLLAPSE
I never "sample" in stores unless given something by the store. Otherwise it is stealing.
As for raw mushrooms, er, excuse me, but a marinated salad, with sliced plain old white mushrooms and a great vinaigrette were regular staples of my childhood, and still come out when I have that craving. Never did me a lick of harm. Mushrooms got washed and sliced, and a lovely dijon dressing poured on to...+READ
I never "sample" in stores unless given something by the store. Otherwise it is stealing.
As for raw mushrooms, er, excuse me, but a marinated salad, with sliced plain old white mushrooms and a great vinaigrette were regular staples of my childhood, and still come out when I have that craving. Never did me a lick of harm. Mushrooms got washed and sliced, and a lovely dijon dressing poured on to sit for 30 min to an hour. Delicious.-COLLAPSE