Agaricus bisporus is a gilled fungus which naturally occurs in Europe and North America, though now occurs much more widely. It is known by many names, including table mushroom, cultivated mushroom, white mushroom, common mushroom, button mushroom (when sold, collected or eaten in young unopened form), Portobello Mushroom or Crimini mushroom. It is known as the champignon de Paris in France, and is one of the most widely cultivated mushrooms in the world.

Some grocery stores in the Western world sell this mushroom in canned and fresh 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.

Note that while this specific mushroom is sometimes called simply champignon in the English-speaking world, this word means "fungus" in general in French, including all mushrooms, toadstools and even fungal infections.

The cultivated mushroom is a member of the large genus Agaricus, which has numerous members which are edible, tasty and collected worldwide. The next best-known is the commonly collected wild mushroom A. campestris, known in North America as the meadow mushroom or field mushroom in England and Australia. This can be found throughout much of the United States and Europe

Culinary Use

Common 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 common mushrooms added together only have 20 calories.

Common 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 common 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.

The cultivated Agaricus bisporus common mushroom originated in France. Today's commercial variety of the common mushroom was originally a light brown color. In 1926, a Pennsylvanian mushroom farmer found a clump of common 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 chance natural mutation.

In most supermarkets, common 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' 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. Portobello mushrooms are popular mushrooms for stuffing

Crimini mushroom
Although sometimes described a sub-variety of the portobello mushroom, the

Crimini or Cremini mushroom is actually an immature portobello. 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.

Mushroom hunting
Mushroom hunting can be a satisfying hobby. However, only expert mushroom hunters should look for common mushrooms in the wild. The common 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 common mushrooms have pink or brown gills and greyish flesh.
• The destroying angel grows on mossy woods and lives symbioticaly with spruce. Various common 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. Common 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 common mushroom does not.
• Some destroying angels have a ring or skirt on the stalk which is another remnant of the veil. The common mushroom, on the other hand, does not.

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