BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball

Subject: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: bobad
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 07:45 PM

My wife, Claudia, was out walking with our dog in the fields out back of the house and came across a giant puffball which she picked and brought home. I sliced it into one inch slices and fried it up in olive oil and a little butter and we dined on it, one night with steak and another with broiled salmon. It fried up golden brown on the outside with the interior texture reminiscent of softish tofu with a delicate but definite mushroom flavour, quite a delicacy I must say.

I'm wondering if anyone else has tried this and what is your opinion of it?

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 07:48 PM

Beware of the FALSE Giant Puffball. You are sure of which variety you ate, right?

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 07:50 PM

I have had some about 1" thick fried in butter and garnished with coarse black pepper, salt and it was really good. Key as you know is

1) don't overcook
2) use a very hot cast iron pan

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 07:51 PM

Cooking

This mushroom is a choice edible. Trim away the cuticle (covering) if it's encrusted with dirt, and cut out any bad parts with a paring knife. Try not to wash this mushroom under water, or it will become too soggy to sauté.

Slice the puffball, sauté it, steam it, or simmer it in soups, like other mushrooms. It's also great baked or grilled. It has a rich, earthy flavor with a texture of marshmallows.

This mushroom doesn't dehydrate well. To store it long-range, cook it and freeze it.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: gnu
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 07:53 PM

Watch which the deer eat and eat those. I would not eat any of the others, no matter how well the deer cooked them.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: bobad
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 07:56 PM

Bruce

That's exactly how I prepared it,fried quickly in a very hot cast iron pan.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 07:58 PM

Bobad, good on you. People who slow-fry edible members of the mushroom family are missing one of the great cullinary treats of all time.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 08:06 PM

Years back I had a fungus that came off a tree. Pat Sky chose it and we ate it with I can't remember what. However, it was good also. I have never taken the time to learn which mushrooms are edible and which aren't. Wish I had.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 08:12 PM

This one is poisonous!

from the following site:

http://botit.botany.wisc.edu/toms_fungi/aug98.html

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Charley Noble
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 08:16 PM

Peace-

Some wish they hadn't!

My grandmother knew her mushrooms but was always willing to experiment with less familar but interesting looking ones. One entire night her guests were kept "on the run" from their epicurian repast. She was appropriately apologetic in the morning.

Giant puffballs can be great if they are fresh. Not so great if they're looking brown inside. Disgusting if they're only dust inside!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: frogprince
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 08:33 PM

It's now about 35 minutes by my watch since Bobab last posted; is he still okay?

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Beer
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 08:58 PM

Couldn't resist opening this thread when I saw it. And who do we have Bobad and Bruce. Bobad I met and Bruce I hope to next July. Right? Charley I haven't had the pleasure.
I have eaten approxmately 10 varieties so far and have always come back to the field mushroom. The little button ones like in the store. However the store ones that are culivated have little or no taste. But the wild ones are fantastic. Puff balls are my second favoriate. I've tried the "Morel" and "Chicken of the Woods" but despite what experts say(Two of the best tasting.) I always come back to the field mushroom. When I was very young, dad use to take me looking for mushrooms and now I'm glad he did.
In 1988 I purchased a book titled "The New Savory Wild Mushroom". When I go out to look for mushrooms I always take it with me. When I find one that looks pretty interesting I cook it up and call my wife for a taste. Then I sit and watch her for a while. After about an hour, I figure it is safe so I try them and rate their smell, texture, taste and so on.
Mushroom Poisons by Varro E. Tyler. To quote: "Only 1 to 2 percent of the approxmately five thousand species of mushrooms growing in North America are significantly toxic". He goes on to say that when experimenting you should eat a very small amount. For what could be fine for one person can have a very different effect on another.
Just thought I'd share this with you. Bobad enjoy them as the season is just about over.
Bruce I will be in touch very soon on another topic.
P.S. Judy and I will celebrate our 34th. wedding anniversary Sunday. Despite being a mushroom taster, she is fine.
Beer

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 09:02 PM

Happy 34th to you both, Adrien.

Where IS Bobad?

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Big Jim from Jackson
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 09:04 PM

A friend of mine's wife died of eating poison mushrooms. His second wife died of eating poison mushrooms, too. His third wife fell into the cistern and drownd---it seems she wouldn't eat her damned mushrooms!             :-)

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 09:04 PM

LOL

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Beer
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 09:26 PM

Thanks for the great laugh Big Jim.
Beer

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: bobad
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 09:26 PM

I'm back and feeling allright except something is happening to the walls in here, they seem to be melting and changing colours, I'll have to look into that in the morning.

Good to see you here Beer and to hear you are also a funghiphile. I too as a young'un would accompany my dad and grandfather hunting the wild mushrooms. Being from eastern europe they were really attuned to the varities and habitats of mushrooms as this was part of their cultural experience. My mother and grandmother would preserve them by pickling. Have you ever tasted pickled wild mushrooms? One variety (I don't know it's English name) would turn the marinating liquid viscous and mucousy sounds unappetizing but quite delicious.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Beer
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 09:42 PM

Never have tasted pickled mushrooms I can just imagen how they look. It seems the ugler they are the taster they get.
Beer

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Metchosin
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 10:38 PM

Another fungophile here. In fact my kids, when they were small, instead of saying "Money's mushrooms make meals marvelous" more often said, "Mommy mushrooms make meals scary".

One thing that is a good idea, even when you are certain of the identification of the mushroom you are about to eat, when trying it for the first time, only eat a very small amount and then wait awhile to determine anything which might indicate an adverse reaction. Some people do not react well to even the ones that are considered quite edible.

mmmmmm. ......should be some boletes about very soon.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Sep 05 - 10:55 PM

For a very long time I spurned all fungi. They were, after all, saprophytes and I really had no desire to eat something that grew and fed on the dead.

Then, one day I realized that everything feeds on the dead -- that we're all saprophytic.

I've enjoyed mushrooms ever since.

Morels...wild...soak 'em in salt water to kill any bugs and fry 'em up in GOOD butter....

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: GUEST,Fullerton
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:31 AM

Giant Puffball and chips cooked on a solid fuel stove on an old admiralty boat.

Ah yummy memories.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:48 AM

I regularly use shaggy inkcaps and ceps [ when I find them ]and shaggy parasol mushrooms , all delicious.

I aint dead yet, eric

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Allan C.
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 10:00 AM

There is no other mushroom that grows in a ball that is bigger than a softball, if not much, much larger. Where folks go wrong is when they try smaller ones that might end up being among other varieties. The giant, once you've actually seen one, is really very distinctively different from the rest. Personally, I found them to be rather lacking in flavor.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 10:02 AM

Shaggy Inkcaps are nice but don't drink alcohol with the meal. I went out last Sunday and picked about 2 lbs of Chanterelles, some of which I ate fried in butter, and the rest of which I dried for future soup use.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Beer
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 11:56 AM

Once saw a picture in a book of a Puff Ball besides a Volkswagon. It was much larger than the Volks.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Janie
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 12:14 PM

Beer--I am wondering if what you call field mushroom is what I call meadow mushroom--Agaricus campestris? It is one of my favorites. However, I always do a spore print first since it so closely resembles several deadly poison amanitas that are common where I live and share the same fruiting season.

Re: puffballs--our rule of thumb--slice it cleanly down the middle. If there are no rudimentary gills, and if it is solid snowy white, it is safe. In our area we have to be particularly careful to distinquish between "gem-studded puffballs" and "earthstars." My husband and son love puffballs, but to me, their taste is cloyingly rich. I can eat a few--then I'm done with them.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Beer
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 01:42 PM

Janie,
You are correct. What I call field mushroom, is in fact the meadow mushroom. About four years ago I couldn't beleive my eyes when I looked across the road to a field that had just been harvest of it's corn. The field (and I'm speaking of acres.) was white. I picked buckets and buckets of them. I have tried different methods of storing them but none to my satisfaction. If anyone has had success in storing them please share your recipe.
Beer

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Janie
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 02:51 PM

Beer--I suppose that one could can them, like the canned cultivated agaricus you buy at the grocery. I would guess one should use a pressure canner to safely do that. We have sliced and dried them to use in soups and stews, which works pretty good for that purpose,and have tried freezing (yuck!). I bet pickled a. campetris mushrooms are good--sorta like marinated mushrooms?

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Beer
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 03:57 PM

I think Bobad could help here. He has pickled them before.
I tried running a needle and thread through them and hanging them in the loft to dry. Like a clothesline. Didn't work to well. May find something on the "Net".
Beer

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Janie
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 04:08 PM

Yeh, it was Bobad's post I was thinking of when I wondered about pickling. I think you need to slice them thin to dry them. We use a food dehydrator. You can make your own pretty easily with a box, a baking sheet and a light bulb. We eventually bought a dehydrator however, because we dry a number of herbs and foods. They are not expensive...but I don't think I would get one if I didn't often use one.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 04:56 PM

Slice and fry in butter, cool and freeze. Keep for months.

gnu -- deer and humans have very different metabolisms, be careful.

metchosin - Jordan River is covered with chanties right now. You're welcome to the boletes, but if you should stumble on a sparassis crispa you don't want ... ;o)

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Charley Noble
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:29 PM

Mother has some enormous puff balls in her front garden but after frying up one with butter she's leaving the rest for the slugs. Yes, they're good but not that good that you'd want to eat a pound or so of them.

Now chanterelles, they're different. Fried up with butter with some sour cream added late in the frying, they're heavenly and I probably could scarf up or down several pounds of them. However, you need a good set of running shoes, not to mention a good set of lungs, to be able to catch them in the woods!

I can't seem to think of one folk song that has mushrooms in it...

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:39 PM

The Irish Jubilee

Also

"But we can be thankful and tranquil and proud
For man's been endowed with a mushroom-shaped cloud . . .".

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:40 PM

Bobad has NOT posted since over 24 hours ago.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Peace
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:42 PM

Zoe Wood & Larry Evans - Fungal Boogie
songs about mushrooms
http://banqa.uaqa.com/hober/catalog/14307987.html

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: bobad
Date: 30 Sep 05 - 09:50 PM

Checking in to say I'm OK and doing the fungal boogie.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: dianavan
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 01:20 AM

I, too, am hooked on wild mushrooms. My favorite is chicken of the woods. Unbelievable! They actually have chicken flavour. Also eat oyster mushrooms alot. Of course meadow mushrooms are always a welcome addition. Chanterelles? I have a secret patch and will not tell anyone where it is.

Whether or not they are edible, I enjoy the Autumn walks searching, and finding the little beauties. If I'm not sure, I place the cap on a piece of white paper and put a glass over top. The colour of the spores are often the identifying factor. A good field guide is priceless.

The most beautiful mushroom, aminita muscaria, is very poisonous but its always a thrill to find them. www.uh.edu/ ~szilagyi/A.muscaria

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 01:38 AM

gnu----Deer have been known to eat Panther-caps. They seem to relish the "high" which seems to be concentrated in the skin. Watch it!!

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Metchosin
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 03:32 AM

BPL, some years I don't have to go that far, we quite often have both the white and yellow chanterelles just outside the door, although I've seen nothing so far this year. Don't turn your nose up at a bolete, particularly if you haven't tried a Zeller's Boletus... beautiful texture with a slightly eggy flavour.

I prefer my chanterelles with venison.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 04:03 AM

I never fancy them in case a dog has weed on them.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Sorcha
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 06:18 PM

Hmmmm. May have to re think my stance on fugus...and figure out a way to ttaste some other kinds....

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Oct 05 - 07:50 PM

Be careful though. There are some pretty poisonous ones that look very similar to the edible kinds. There is mushroom for error...

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 02 Oct 05 - 02:32 AM

Funnilyy enough I was watching Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall cook a 6lb 8oz puffball on his TV programme, Escape to River Cottage.

This is the recipe, taken from his River Cottage site in the seasoanl recipes for September section (I assume it might disappear as we're now in Ocotber, so I thought post the whole recipe would be best):

Stuffed Puffball
This is one of the most spectacular and satisfying wild food recipes I have ever cooked. The fungal flavours in the finished dish are intense, to say the least; it�s not for the fainthearted. But true fungophiles will appreciate it. The stuffing was based simply on the �catch of the day� when I went out foraging with my Bridport friends, Nick and Paddy. It�s a flexible affair, and you could use whatever combination of wild meat and wild mushrooms comes your way. Buttered steamed young comfrey leaves make a good accompaniment.

Ingredients:

Serves 2�10 (depending on foraging success)

1 large puffball (20�40cm in diameter)(8-16ins)
oil for frying
about a dozen wild garlic roots (or shallots), finely chopped
breast meat from 1 pigeon (or more, as available), chopped
about 500g chicken of the woods mushrooms (discard any woody bits, then chop roughly)
a slosh of wine
a few horse or field mushrooms, chopped
parsley, sage, thyme, finely chopped
a few potatoes, parboiled and roughly chopped
a knob of soft butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the top off the puffball and remove carefully; this will be your lid. Hollow out the interior of the puffball, leaving the sides and base at least 5cm thick (any thinner and they may collapse during baking). Roughly chop the flesh that you have removed from the puffball.
Heat some oil in a large pan, add the wild garlic and sweat for a couple of minutes, then add the pigeon meat. Cook for a couple of minutes, until browned, then add the chicken of the woods. Add a sprinkling of salt at this stage to help draw the water from this fungus. If the mixture begins to look dry and is catching on the bottom of the pan, add a little water and a slosh of wine. Simmer gently until the liquid is nearly absorbed, then transfer to a large mixing bowl. Return the empty pan to the heat and add a little more oil. Throw in the chopped puffball flesh, along with any other mushrooms you have gathered, and stir-fry for a few minutes, until much reduced in volume. Add to the rest of the mixture, along with the herbs and chopped potatoes. Mix everything together well and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Fill the puffball with the mixture and replace the lid. Smear the top and sides of the puffball with the soft butter and wrap completely in foil. Bake in a fairly hot oven (190�C/Gas Mark 5) for 2 hours.
To serve, unwrap the puffball, remove the lid and spoon out the filling. Serve with pieces of the lid, sliced; further slices of puffball can be taken horizontally, as the level of the filling descends.

I've converted cms to inches for those who aren't metric friendly - I'm not sure whether or not a 'slosh' of wine need translating, though!

LFF

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 02 Oct 05 - 02:36 AM

Hmmm, I heard it as

A friend of mine's wife died of eating poison mushrooms.
His second wife died of eating poison mushrooms, too.
His third wife died of concussion with a saucepan - she wouldn't eat the mushrooms!

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 Oct 05 - 04:07 AM

What's with the weird symbols freddie, makes no sense.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 02 Oct 05 - 04:30 AM

Eric

I must have been eating some of those 'special' mushrooms!

Actually, something's gone wrong in the cut & pasting of some punctuation. Let's try again:

Stuffed Puffball
This is one of the most spectacular and satisfying wild food recipes I have ever cooked. The fungal flavours in the finished dish are intense, to say the least; it's not for the fainthearted. But true fungophiles will appreciate it. The stuffing was based simply on the 'catch of the day' when I went out foraging with my Bridport friends, Nick and Paddy. It's a flexible affair, and you could use whatever combination of wild meat and wild mushrooms comes your way. Buttered steamed young comfrey leaves make a good accompaniment.

Ingredients:

Serves 2-10 (depending on foraging success)

1 large puffball (20-40cm in diameter)(8-16ins)
oil for frying
about a dozen wild garlic roots (or shallots), finely chopped
breast meat from 1 pigeon (or more, as available), chopped
about 500g chicken of the woods mushrooms (discard any woody bits, then chop roughly)
a slosh of wine
a few horse or field mushrooms, chopped
parsley, sage, thyme, finely chopped
a few potatoes, parboiled and roughly chopped
a knob of soft butter
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Cut the top off the puffball and remove carefully; this will be your lid. Hollow out the interior of the puffball, leaving the sides and base at least 5cm thick (any thinner and they may collapse during baking). Roughly chop the flesh that you have removed from the puffball.
Heat some oil in a large pan, add the wild garlic and sweat for a couple of minutes, then add the pigeon meat. Cook for a couple of minutes, until browned, then add the chicken of the woods. Add a sprinkling of salt at this stage to help draw the water from this fungus. If the mixture begins to look dry and is catching on the bottom of the pan, add a little water and a slosh of wine. Simmer gently until the liquid is nearly absorbed, then transfer to a large mixing bowl. Return the empty pan to the heat and add a little more oil. Throw in the chopped puffball flesh, along with any other mushrooms you have gathered, and stir-fry for a few minutes, until much reduced in volume. Add to the rest of the mixture, along with the herbs and chopped potatoes. Mix everything together well and season to taste with salt and pepper.
Fill the puffball with the mixture and replace the lid. Smear the top and sides of the puffball with the soft butter and wrap completely in foil. Bake in a fairly hot oven (190degC/Gas Mark 5) for 2 hours.
To serve, unwrap the puffball, remove the lid and spoon out the filling. Serve with pieces of the lid, sliced; further slices of puffball can be taken horizontally, as the level of the filling descends.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 02 Oct 05 - 04:34 AM

Oh, and I think 190 degrees Celsius translated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

LFF

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 02 Oct 05 - 05:42 AM

Got it.

eric

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Oct 05 - 08:21 AM

Do be careful about taking advice on what is edible on here as nobody seems to be telling you if they are using English or American common names. The same name may apply to different fungii on either side if the Atlantic.

Always verify the edibility of strange fungi with two different reference books. Some have been known to be wrong.

As autumn comes on I will be checking the front lawn for shaggy ink cap (in England) - quite tasty if picked young and cooked VERY quickly. The texture is soggy and unpleasant if overcooked.

Subject: RE: BS: I Ate A Giant Puffball
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Oct 05 - 08:45 AM

I once picked one of these thinking it was an immature one of these. I'll promise you that that difference becomes immediately evident in a closed car! As my old Morphology of Plants prof said, "Smells like a dead horse, doesn't it?"

Oddly enough, stinkhorn is edible. Feel free....