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Foraging and Cooking Mushrooms, Wild and Obscure Food

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“Mousseron” Mushrooms ?

Mousseron- MushroomsHigh end wholesalers make plenty of amazing food happen. In the span of a about a day, ingredients from one corner of the country or world can be in the hands of someone else, although the availability comes at a pretty high price. Wild mushrooms are easily sourced through a number of different purveyors, and I love to look through the lists from time to time.

A while ago I was talking to one of the largest, respected purveyors I know, and agreed to have some samples dropped off to check the quality. They sent a grab bag, but also let me pick a few from their worldwide selection. When I saw “mousserons” (typically used as another word for fairy ring mushrooms a.k.a. Marasmius oreades), I thought it would be to have a few for a dinner I was planning, so I added them to the sample list.

I should mention I’ve also seen the word “mousseron” used to describe Clitopilus prunulus, and Calocybe gambosum, but neither of those species is what I have pictured here.

When the mushrooms arrived, I looked through the bags of samples and was, stumped. There were no fairy rings. I called the purveyor, and she described the “mousserons”. The mushrooms she was describing were very different from the fairy rings I pick though, so I got curious.

I cooked the mushrooms, which were fine, but not as good as the tiny fairy rings I pick in Minnesota. They had a texture more similar to fried chicken mushrooms, honey mushrooms, or shiitake. I forgot about them for awhile, and assumed I must be ignorant about the species somehow, or maybe that European species of fairy rings must be different.

Fairy Ring Mousseron Mushrooms

Fairy rings as I know them, picked in Minnesota.

When I went to France I knew something was up. At the markets, I saw “mousserons” more than once, and every time, they were the same tiny, petite fairy rings I pick back home. When I ate at Jacques Chibois in Grasse, I had a great dish of a whole langoustine stewed in it’s broth with “mousserons de Pres”, again with the same fairy rings I cook in Minnesota.

Fairy Ring Mousseron Mushrooms In Provence

Fairy Rings/Mouserons at the market in Aix-en Provence, France-identical to what I pick in Minnesota.

So the questions I have are: what are they/what’s their true name? Are they some sort of wild harvested fairy ring cousin? Is the purveyor spreading false information about the species? Can I be any bigger of a nerd?

I did a little poking around online to see what I could find, and the vast majority of photos of Marasmius oreades are the fairy rings I know. There were very few pictures here and there I found of the imposter, which I assume could be from a chef buying them from a purveyor and labeling them as “mousserons”, since they’re describing them as what they were sold. Either way they’re not marasmiod looking at all, more like shiitakes with edible stems. In the end they tasted just fine, but not as good as fairy rings!

If any of you have an idea or a guess of what they could be, chime in. Here’s some specs about the “mousserons” they sent me:

Cap: 1/2 inch to roughly 1.5 inch in diameter, slightly convex with an inrolled margin when young, becoming more flat or bell shaped with age, sometimes with a noticeable elevated ring in the center similar to cultivated shiitake

Gills: not connected to the stem, white, finely packed together

Spore print: white

Stem: thick, dense, slightly fibrous, pleasantly edible when cooked

In the end, they were an exercise in questioning authority, casual mushroom research, and comparing species from two different continents. Regardless, after cooking them I made a few different dishes. Here’s my favorite.

Turkey Scallopine With Favas and Mousseron Mushrooms

Turkey Scallopine With Fava Beans and Wild Mushrooms

You can substitute plenty of different wild mushrooms here, it’s a very flexible recipe.

The chef from Rome I used to work for would always add demi-glace to pan sauces for his scallopine, which he also called “piccatina” occasionally. A little demi glace is great here, if you happen to have some on hand. 

Serves 4 as a light entree, have a salad alongside to make a small meal 

Ingredients

  • 1.5 lb turkey tenderloins
  • 1 1/3 cups shucked, blanched and peeled fava beans (English peas are a decent substitute for favas)
  • 6-8 ounces wild mushrooms, preferably small, firm mushrooms like golden chanterelles, our mystery “mousserons”, hedgehogs, etc.
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine
  • 1 cup meat stock, preferably homemade
  • 1/4 cup shallot, diced 1/4 inch
  • Cooking oil, like grapeseed or canola, as needed for browning
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste
  • All purpose flour, as needed for dredging
  • 1 tablespoon chopped equal parts parsley, chives, tarragon, and chervil (this is the classic French blend for fines herbes, but you can substitute a blend you like. Mild, soft herbs are best here, stay away from the rosemary, lavender, or sage)

Method

Slice the turkey tenderlions into 2 ounce medallions, then put between two layers of plastic wrap and gently pound with a meat mallet until flattened to 1/4 inch thick, then reserve.

Set the oven to the warm setting. In a large, wide saute pant, season each of the turkey scallopine lightly with salt and pepper, then dredge in the flour, tap off the excess, and quickly brown in the oil. Remove the scallopine when browned, place on a plate, cover with foil and keep warm in the oven. Repeat searing off the other scallopine.

When all the scallopine have been browned, quickly make the mushroom-wine sauce. Discard the oil from the pan, then add 2 tablespoons of the butter. Cook the mushrooms until lightly browned in the butter, season to taste, then add the shallots and cook until lightly browned. Deglaze the pan with the wine, then reduce by half. Add the stock and reduce by half. Whisk in the butter and cook until thickened enough to lightly coat the back of a spoon.

Meanwhile, warm the fava beans on medium-low heat in a little butter and salt and cook until tender throughout. Reserve.

To serve, toss the scallopine into the mushroom wine sauce for just a moment to refresh them, add the chopped herbs, then divide the scallopine evenly between four pre-heated dinner plates and top with reserved fava beans and mushrooms, finish with the sauce and serve immediately.

Turkey Scallopine With Favas and Mousseron Mushrooms

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Related

Previous Post: « Buckwheat Sole With Red Chanterelles and Carrot Ribbons
Next Post: Wood Parched Wild Rice, Black Walnuts, Wild Herbs and Green Garlic »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Bill May

    July 8, 2016 at 11:49 am

    Those just look like shiitakes to me, which are a fine mushroom, but not mousserons!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      August 5, 2016 at 4:54 pm

      Yep that was my first thought. They are definitely not fairy rings, that’s for sure.

      Reply
  2. Rick

    July 8, 2016 at 12:45 pm

    Your mistery Mushrooms would be easier to identify if you included some descriptive terms such as color, size of cap and stem and how the gills attach or don’t attach to the stem and spore color (from a sporeprint).

    Reply
  3. Pete Hautman

    July 8, 2016 at 5:44 pm

    Impossible to ID from pics, but definitely not Marasmius (one of my favorites). My best guess would be immature shiitakes, mis-labeled to sell. Was the flavor shiitake-like? I know it’s hard to say with immature caps, which would be pretty bland…

    Reply
  4. jim dees

    July 9, 2016 at 1:20 pm

    Without a doubt immature shiitake mushrooms.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      August 5, 2016 at 4:53 pm

      That was my first thought, but I wanted to have faith in the purveyor since they’re charging a hefty price for these guys.

      Reply

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🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Last entry. I’ve saved t 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Last entry. I’ve saved the smallest, fern gulliest plant for last. 

False Mermaid Weed (Floerkea proserpinacoides) is a good little plant Sam Thayer showed me. It’s tiny, as in all the photos are from me on my belly, in a wet ditch. It’s so small it’s hard to get the camera to even focus on it (see pic with my finger for scale). 

Mermaid weed likes wet areas, like ditches and spots that hold a bit of water (perfect mosquito habitat😁). 

Like chickweed, Floerkia greens are like nature’s Microgreens. They’re in the Limnanthaceae, (a new-ish group of brassicas) and like the Toothwort form earlier this week, you’ll taste a strong mustard-family flavor in a mouthful of their tender stems. 

They’re literally wild mustard sprouts, and, unlike other wild sprouts (garlic mustard 🤬) they stay sprouts, and, they actually taste good. 

It has a wide range over much of the eastern and western U.S., and is listed as secure globally, but is endangered in some states and shouldn’t be disturbed in those places. 

I’m lucky enough to have some large colonies near me so I do clip a few handfuls each year-my annual reward for removing some of the garlic mustard nearby, that, along with atvs, dirt bikes, and contamination from local water pollution, is one of the biggest threats to this tiny green. 

#floerkiaproserpinacoides 
#wildsprouts #mustardsprouts #ferngully #tiny #foraging #mermaid #🧜‍♀️
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Virginia Bluebells (Merten 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are one of the most beautiful harbingers of spring I know, as well as one of the most delicious. 

They’re in the Borage family, along with the namesake plant, Comfrey (which I only eat a few flowers of occasionally) and Honeywort. 

The flavor of the greens, like borage, has a rich flavor some people might describe as mushroomy or fishy, but after a just a few moments of cooking (30-60 seconds) they get mild and delicious, with a subtle bitterness. It’s a good bitter though-nothing like dandelions or garlic mustard that aren’t fit to be in the same basket, let alone on the same plate. 

The shoots are sweet and delicious, much more mild than the greens. As they can grow to be over a foot long, they’re almost more of a vegetable than a leafy green, depending on when you harvest them. 

Bluebells love moist, rich soil, but you don’t have to go to the woods to get them. Many people know Virginia Bluebells as a garden plant, and they can make a great edible addition to your landscape.

#virginiabluebells #foraging #ephemerals #springwildflowers #wildfoodlove #mertensiavirginica
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Narrow-leaved Wild Leek / 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Narrow-leaved Wild Leek / White Ramp (Allium burdickii) 

If you’re in a ramp patch you might occasionally see some with white stems (pic 1,2). These are a cousin to the more common variety with much larger leaves and red stems (pic 3,4,5)

Allium burdickii is not as common as the red-stemmed variety, and in every ramp patch I’ve been in, the white ramp is heavily outnumbered. 

Where I harvest, I like to leave them alone, and mark the areas where they grow with sticks or middens on the ground so I can go back in the fall and help them spread their seeds. I also try and remove garlic mustard when I see it-a much more imminent threat in my mind to ramps than foragers out to gather some leaves. 

2020 was a banner year for ramp seeds, and you can still help the plants right now (pic 7) as some seed heads are still full and would love for you to give them a shake as you walk by. 

#alliumburdickii #ramps #ephemerals #foraging #spring
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 #4: Erythronium leaves E 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

#4: Erythronium leaves 

Erythronium (Trout Lily) are another ephemeral that I see widespread in my ramp patches, there’s at least 32 species world-wide, with at least one endangered species in MN (Dwarf Trout Lily). 

They’re a beautiful, delicious plant I eat every year, but I can’t recommend serving them to the general public. Plenty of people say these are edible, but also emetic if eaten in “quantity”. 

I can tell you, at least with E. albidum and E. americanum I’ve eaten, that some people are much more sensitive than others, so if you want to make a salad to serve people, make sure they’re comfortable eating it, and use a few leaves as a garnish. 

Funny enough, I didn’t learn about these from a foraging book. Like knotweed, I learned about them from one of my favorite chefs: Michel Bras, one of the most influential chefs of the turn of the 21 century. 

Any chef that works with wild plants owes a debt to Bras. His book, although a little dated now, still teaches me new things all the time. While flipping through the book I also caught a recipe using tansy flowers 😳 that I’d probably pass on. 

The whitefish crusted with sunflower seeds is a dish of mine from 2012, and an example of how I eat the leaves: a few at a time, as a garnish. 

#troutlily #erythronium #michelbras #ephemerals #foraging
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Plant #3: Cutleaf Toothwor 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Plant #3: Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) is another beautiful spring wildflower that loves to grow in the same habitat you’ll see ramps and spring beauty. 

Its small at first, but grows to a worthy size for eating as it flowers. It’s related to cabbage and mustard greens (Brassicaceae) and eating just a few leaves will give you a potent, spicy pop of mustard-family flavor reminiscent of horseradish. 

Eaten in combination with other things, like in a salad, the flavor becomes submissive and you’ll barely know it’s there. 

Some people eat the spicy roots shaped like canine teeth, but for the work I hardly think they’re worth it. 

A great wild spring green for the salad bowl-eat them leaves, tender stem, flowers and all🤤. 

#cutleaftoothwort #cadamineconcatenata #ephemeral #springedibles #foraging #wildfoodlove
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Plant #2 is Virginia water 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Plant #2 is Virginia waterleaf, and, I’m cheating a bit as it’s semi-ephemeral. The plant comes up in spring and goes to flower, but gives a second harvest of fresh growth in the fall, where other ephemerals I know do not. 

This is a great starter wild green-easy to recognize with the splashes of white on the leaves that may or may not be present. After you learn it though, don’t be surprised if, like me, you eventually pass it up for more delicious greens nearby. 

The plant gets tough quick, and the flavor is..meh, so I usually have small amounts of very young greens in blends of blanched and sautéed mixes. 

My favorite part is the wee flower buds, that, if you get at the right time, can be harvested in decent quantity and are good steamed as they’ll soak up oil sautéed. 

#hydrophyllumvirginianum #waterleaf #foraging #fueledbynature #weedeater
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