Mushroom is name of types in Basidiomycota and Agaricomycetes family which includes both edible and inedible toadstool. This article will mention the edible one only.
Edible mushrooms are grown well in wet climate and shaded areas or on other plants especially the rotten wood. They are mostly nutritional with high level of protein and nutrients that could be considered as ground meat.
Edible mushroom and some details related
Mushroom edible include many types of macro-fungi species which are mostly in umbrella shaped with different sizes or other shaped possibly. They could be grown below or above the ground and harvested by hand.
Edible fungi are mostly nutritional, tasty and aromatic which are used popularly as food. Some types are also used as medicine.
These mushrooms could be picked wildly or cultivated. Those types which are commonly and easily to grown could be cultivated and marketed widely. But some of those which are difficult to be grown are mostly harvested wild and have high value.
Besides some types of it which have been requested to harvest wildly, mostly edible types which are marketed have been grown in the farms.
Mushrooms as food
Mushroom is considered the same source such as meat or grain because of its rich nutrition. Mushroom is a source of nutrients and minerals such as protein, vitamin B1, B2, B3, B6, D, calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and number of other substances.
100g of mushroom contains mostly water (from 90%), protein about 3% and low level of fat (about 0.3%). When cooked, the water content in mushroom could be reduced slightly (about 1%) but level of other nutrients especially dietary minerals increased appreciably.
Mostly types of fungus need to be cooked before eating. For the raw fungus could be toxic and difficult to be digested. After being cooked, they are become more nutritional and digestible.
They could be used in culinary as fresh or dried. The dried ones mostly need to be steeped in the boiling water first, after then (from 30 minutes or more, depend on the type) they would be ready to join in the recipes.
Mushrooms and poison
These meats from the ground are nutritional but we still need to be careful when using them as food especially to the wild harvested mushrooms.
The wild mushrooms after harvested need to be identified before consuming. The exactly identification will help us to know about the types and are they safe to use or not. However, even the edible or nontoxic fungus could be dangerous. For besides the allergy risk could cause to some people occasionally, fungus could also accumulate the pollutants (commonly heavy metals) from where they have grown and would harm to the consumers.
To be ensured as well as to shorten the risk when use mushrooms especially to the allergies, we should buy this food from the store for the types which are marketed have been identified. Although there are people who have experience and knowledge in wild harvesting, they have still been advised to ignore the wild mushrooms from the forest.
In consuming, we should only use it in a small amount first. After be confirmed by the body reaction, we may keep the food in our menu for the next time.
