preparations. An agaric, its gills are often left on in preparations. It can be found cooked on pizzas and casseroles,stuffed mushrooms, raw on salads, and in various forms in a variety of dishes.
Button mushrooms are fairly rich in vitamins and minerals. The mushroom contains an especially high amount of vitamin B and potassium. Raw mushrooms are naturally cholesterol, fat, and sodium free. The mushrooms also have very low energy levels—five medium-sized button mushrooms added together only have twenty calories (80 kilojoules).
Button mushrooms have a unique flavor that can be matched by few other mushrooms. No specific flavor can be defined; most people describe the mushroom as "plain", but other people say that the button mushroom tastes slightly sweet or "meaty".
Like potatoes and apples, table mushrooms "rust" quickly when exposed to air. When sliced and exposed to air for ten minutes or more, the mushrooms quickly soften, turn a brownish color, and lose their original flavor. For this reason, whole raw button mushrooms always have the best flavor.
The Agaricus bisporus mushroom originated in France. Today's commercial variety of the button mushroom was originally a light brown color. In 1926, a Pennsylvanian mushroom farmer found a clump of button mushrooms with white caps in his mushroom bed. As was done with the navel orange and red delicious apple, cultures were grown from the mutant individuals, and most of the cream-colored store mushrooms we see today are products of this haphazard natural mutation.
In most supermarkets, button mushrooms are marketed as "table mushrooms" and are often packed in small quantities. Mushrooms may be sold sliced or whole.
Portobello mushroom
The Portobello mushroom (sometimes portobella) is a large brown strain of the same fungus, left to mature and take on a broader, more open shape before picking. Portobello mushrooms are distinguished by their large size, thick cap and stem, and a distinctive musky smell. Because of their size and the thickness of their fleshy caps, these mushrooms can be cooked in a range of different ways, including grilling and frying.
Crimini mushroom
Although sometimes described a sub-variety of the portobello mushroom, the crimini or cremini mushroom is actually an immature portobello. In fact, savvy marketers have begun to refer to crimini mushrooms as baby portobellos. Left to grow another 48 to 72 hours, a crimini mushroom will more than quadruple in size, taking on the large-capped portobello shape. They are more delicate in texture but still have the meaty portobello flavor.
Meadow mushroom
A closely-related wild mushroom, the Meadow mushroom, as it is known in North America, or Field mushroom, in England and Australia, (A. campestris), can be found throughout much of the United States and Europe. However, care must be taken, as it resembles the immature stage of a number of the deadly poisonous Amanita species.
Panaeolus subbalteatus
Growers of white mushrooms often must watch out for the red-capped Panaeolus subbalteatus, a hallucinogenic mushroom that grows in the same environment. Panaeolus subbalteatus is found on manure and rotting hay in the wild, and it is frequently found in the compost used by white mushroom cultivators. With its differently shaped reddish-brown cap, it does not look similar to the white mushroom, which greatly eases finding and removing it from the crop.
Mushroom hunting
Mushroom hunting can be a satisfying hobby. However, only expert mushroom hunters should look for button mushrooms in the wild. The button mushroom can easily be confused with young specimens of the destroying angel (Amanita virosa). The resemblance is significant enough to have caused fatal mushroom poisonings. Some of the differences are:
- Upon slicing a picked mushroom in half, the Destroying angel is completely white, while button mushrooms have brown gills and greyish flesh.
- The Destroying angel grows on mossy woods and lives symbioticaly with spruce. Various button mushrooms grow on open ground.
- The Destroying angel has white/cream colored gills and spores, gills that are attached to the cap, but not the stalk. Button mushrooms have brown gills.
- The base of the Destroying angel stalk closest to the ground has a little cup which is a leftover piece of the veil that covers the mushroom during the button stage of growth. The Button mushroom does not.
- Some Destroying angels have a ring or skirt on the stalk which is another remnant of the veil. The Button mushroom, on the other hand, does not.
External links
Complete Nutrition Info.
Button mushroom cookbook and information |
