A Glimpse Inside a Restaurant Coldroom

I had lunch at the popular Amboise restaurant Chez Bruno last week. I happened to manage to snap a glimpse of the interior of their coldroom, showing a chilly 5.4 degrees celsius. Mostly I think the contents were cuts of meat.

Field Mushrooms and Their 'Friends'

Just about the only edible mushroom that has popped up this autumn so far is the Field Mushroom Agaricus campestris (Fr. Rosé-des-prés). It's a close relative of the button mushrooms you can buy in the supermarket (Agaricus bisporus), and like many Agaricus species, is good to eat. You do have to be careful though, as the most abundant Agaricus in the Touraine is the toxic lookalike, the Yellow Stainer A. xanthodermus (Fr. Agaric jaunissant).

Field Mushroom in the grass verge of one of the carparks in the Foret de Preuilly.

Agaricus species in general are easy to recognise as they have salmon pink gills, which turn brown with age. This means you should be able to avoid poisoning yourself with any of the much more dangerous pale capped white gilled mushrooms even with beginner skills. The worst that will happen is a trip to hospital with severe gastric problems if you mistakenly eat pink or brown gilled Yellow Stainers. Painful and deeply unpleasant, but you will recover. On the other hand, my advice is never eat a white gilled mushroom. Some of them can kill you.

Young Field Mushroom. Note lack of staining except for a very faint blush on the stem or where the flesh has been broken.

There are nearly a hundred species of Agaricus in France, they all look very similar, and some of them are toxic, so unfortunately it isn't just a matter of merrily eating any mushroom with a pale cap and flesh, and pink gills. The Yellow Stainer is responsible for the most poisonings of any mushroom in France, because of its resemblance to Field Mushrooms and because foragers often don't check diligently enough. Usually the telltale yellowing will quickly appear on any part of the mushroom if you scratch a Yellow Stainer, but sometimes the yellow staining is only present in the base of the stem, which is a bit that inexperienced foragers often leave in the ground. Yellow Stainers don't smell nice and mushroomy like Field Mushrooms either. They smell of phenol or iodine, and it should be obvious when you cook them, even if it wasn't in the field.

Field Mushrooms in perfect condition. Note pointed stem and salmon pink gills on the inverted one, and the silky white cap of the one still in the ground.

It is worth remembering that while most other species of Agaricus are not toxic, Yellow Stainers are not the only Field Mushroom lookalike that you need to beware of. Field Mushrooms are by no means as easy to accurately identify as many foragers believe.

Field Mushroom.

As the name suggests Field Mushrooms grow in fields, gardens, pastures and grasslands in lowland France, especially those where cattle or horses graze. But so does their toxic lookalike. The caps of Field Mushrooms are whitish, between 4 and 10 centimetres across. They start off hemispherical, and stay convex for several days then become flat after a time. With age the entire mushroom goes browner. The stem is white and tapers to a point. There is a stem ring but it is fragile and may disintegrate quite quickly. Where you find one Field Mushroom you will normally find others as they grow together in small groups. The species is present worldwide. Its main growing period is August to November, but you can sometimes find them in the spring.

Field Mushroom.

There are four important criteria for determining Agaricus species: 

• Cap - what does it look or feel like eg smooth? scaly?
• Stem ring - fragile? thin? thick? skirt-like? tooth-edged? 
• Stem shape - bulbous? coming to a point? cylindrical?
• Odour - mushroom? aniseed? bitter almonds? phenol? iodine?

Field Mushroom. Note the thin broken stem ring.

If your mushroom does not meet every one of the characters required (smooth capped, fragile stem ring, stem that comes to a point, mushroom odour) then it is not a Field Mushroom but one of the other Agaricus species. For example, Yellow Stainers have smooth white caps, but their stem ring is persistent and a bit fluffy and flappy, their stem is tree trunk shaped and tends to flare out at the bottom and their odour is an off-putting phenol smell.

Scaly Wood Mushroom Agaricus langei (Fr. Psalliote sanguinolente). Note the strong blush where I've deliberately scraped the stem, the brown scales on the cap, the columnar stem and the more robust stem ring. Grows near hedgerows and on the edges of woodlands. It's not toxic, but not worth eating.

The Field Mushrooms shown in these photos, taken by me last week, were growing with another lookalike species, White Dapperling Leucocoprinus leucothites (Fr. Lepiote pudique). From the top they look just the same and it wasn't until I picked a couple and saw the white gills I realised they were different. In this case the lookalike is not toxic, but they are not tasty enough to bother eating, and in any case, belong to a group of mushrooms that I am very wary of in general.

Yellow Stainer.

An Agaricus I never managed to identify to species level. Not a Field Mushroom anyway, but one of the other species. Obviously you should not eat a Agaricus when you are not of its identity.

This Agaricus may be a Snowy Mushroom A. osecanus, known as the Boule de neige in French. But again, don't eat it if you are not confident of the identification.

Yellow Stainers.

Yellow Stainers. Note the bright yellow appearing where the cap has been deliberately cut, and where the stem has been handled.

Yellow Stainer. Note the bright yellow where the cap has been deliberately cut.

My dear friend and mushroom guru Jean holding an Agaricus sp and regaling us with a story of spending a night on the toilet after having eaten an Agaricus that looked just like this, when he was young and reckless.

Wood Mushroom Agaricus silvicola (Fr. Agaric des bois) is a good edible species. Found in woodland, you need to check it for its strong aniseed scent.

How to Cook Fresh Wild Mushrooms

Foraging for wild mushrooms is madly popular in France. You are allowed to gather 5 kg per person per day, for personal use and if you have the landowner's permission. Most people who gather this sort of quantity these days have a dehydrator and process most of their mushrooms this way. Note that the law forbids you from giving any of your mushrooms away (in case you inadvertently poison a friend), and you are certainly not allowed to sell any that are excess to requirements directly, although you may, in some circumstances pass them on to a licenced forager. I don't gather anywhere near this quantity, but I like to have a couple of foraging outings in a season, to keep my eye in. I don't gather more than a kilo over a season. I don't own a dehydrator and cook my mushroom bounty fresh as an occasional treat. 

 

Hedgehog mushrooms (Fr. Pieds de moutons) and a few Ashen Chanterelles (Fr. Chanterelles cendrées), foraged in the Foret de Preuilly.

There are relatively few mushrooms in the forest which are both edible, and worth eating. Make sure you can accurately identify them, because it's fairly easy to make yourself sick, even if you manage to avoid killing yourself. To be able to safely identify the edibles you need to be able to confidently identify their toxic lookalikes too. Make sure your basket is not full of a mixture of crumbling mushroom species. That's a common way of accidentally poisoning yourself, when there is a small piece of something highly toxic mixed in with your edibles.

 

Hedgehog mushrooms prepared for cooking.

 

These instructions are good for ceps (porcini), chanterelles, girolles, black trumpets, hedgehog mushrooms, oysters and wood blewits.

 

The liquid produced in the first cooking, ready to be drained off.

 

1. Only choose mushrooms in perfect condition. Any mushroom may become toxic with age, so don't eat any that are past their best. Prepare and cook wild mushrooms within hours of foraging, and no longer than 24 hours after picking.
   
2. Cut off the dirty stem ends and discard.
3. Brush the tops and check for invertebrates and dirt underneath, brush delicately if necessary. Be thorough because gritty mushrooms aren't nice.
   
4. For ceps and hedgehogs gently rub off the sponge (ceps) or needles (hedgehogs).
5. Slice or chop the mushrooms as desired.
6. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and add the mushrooms.
7. Cook on medium high heat for 2 minutes, stirring and turning occasionally. The mushrooms will release a lot of liquid.
8. Carefully pour off the liquid.
9. Add some more butter to the mushrooms and continue to cook, stirring and turning, for a further 5 minutes.
10. Serve immediately.

 

Giving the mushrooms their second cooking after draining the liquid.

Don't feed wild mushrooms to children under seven years old, and don't eat them yourself more than once a week. This is to avoid over exposure to either natural toxins or toxins the mushrooms may sequester or accumulate.

 

 Wild mushrooms served with white fish and potatoes.

Girolles, Chanterelles and Trumpets

The Cantharellaceae family of fungi are all edible, but their nomenclature can cause a lot of confusion, and they have a few toxic but unrelated lookalikes, so you can't relax too much. The key is that Cantharellaceae do not have gills. They have irregular pleats on their undersides. Beginners need to really study them to be sure they can confidently recognise the Cantharellaceae pleats and not mistake them for gills. All of the toxic lookalikes have gills, so make sure you look carefully.

The current officially sanctioned vernacular naming system is that Cantharellus spp should be referred to as Girolles, and Craterellus spp should be referred to as Chanterelles (except for C. cornucopioides, which is referred to as a trumpet).

The greatest prize is the Girolle Cantharellus cibarius (Fr. Girolle). But these are not very common in the Touraine, so you might have to resort to buying them at a market. 

Winter Chanterelle Craterellus tubaeformis (Fr. Chanterelle en tube) and Girolles at a market.

Winter Chaterelles at a market. This species is abundant in the Touraine forests so you can forage your own if you have a good eye.

Yellowfoot Chanterelle Craterellus lutescens (Fr. Chanterelle jaune), foraged in the Forest of Loches. A localised but abundant species where it occurs.

Yellowfoot Chanterelle found in a woodland near Séligny.

Yellowfoot Chanterelle, showing the distinctive yellow colouring under the cap. Winter Chanterelles are grey under the cap.

Blackening Chanterelle Craterellus melanoxeros (Fr. Chanterelle noircissante), an uncommon species in the Touraine. These were found in the Forest of Preuilly.

Ashen Chanterelles Craterellus cinereus (Fr. Chanterelle cendrée), foraged in the Forest of Preuilly, and being cooked by me at home.

Ashen Chanterelles are an uncommon species, which I found in a small quantity in the Forest of Preuilly last year.

Ashen Chanterelles are very difficult to spot in the leaf litter.

Black Trumpets Craterellus cornucopioides (Fr. Trompettes de la mort) at a market.

Black Trumpets in the Forest of Preuilly.

All of these edible mushrooms can be found in the forests of the Touraine if you get your eye in. The rules in France are that you can forage up to 5 kilograms per person per day for personal consumption if you have the landowners permission. The outdoor market in Loches has several stalls in October and November that will sell wild mushrooms such as this, gathered by licenced commercial foragers.

Studies show that mushroom foraging for personal consumption is no threat to biodiversity, unless a site is badly trampled (compacting the soil). Using a rake is forbidden, because of the habitat disturbance, and in any case counterproductive, as you have to spend so much time cleaning and sorting the mushrooms from the leaf litter.

Beer for Simon!

I present to you a bottle of Krombacher Alkoholfrei 0.0% Pils, labeled "isotonisch." I bought a six-pack whilst we were in Germany last month, and was intrigued that it labelled itself "isotonic" as I've only ever seen that on exercise drinks. I'd had an alcohol free pils in a restaurant the evening before and it tasted just like beer, so of course curiosity meant I had to buy it.

Isotonic means the drink has a similar concentration of dissolved particles (electrolytes and carbohydrates) as human blood plasma, so it more or less matches the body's fluid concentration. What this means is that because the fluid's osmotic pressure matches your blood, it passes through your stomach into your bloodstream quickly.

This appears to be a fairly common category in Germany, but I've never seen it anywhere else. Alcohol-free beers marketed this way typically contain added or naturally-occurring sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium. All of these are minerals you lose through sweat during exercise. Apparently, alcohol-free "isotonic" pils is marketed almost like a sports drink alternative, often sold in gyms or after races, rather than purely as a beer substitute. This started in the 1990's, which means they've had plenty of time to get it tasting like beer, unlike some of the more recent efforts to come to market.

Krombacher wasn't the only alcohol free isotonic beer I drank as most restaurants and bierkellers also stock it. This is another bottle I remembered to photograph, although my original photo wasn't properly in focus and I AI corrected it.

The history of non-alcoholic beer in Germany goes back much further than 1990, but the modern version started in 1972 in East Germany. The brewer Ulrich Wappler developed Aubi, a motorist's beer, to give drivers a safe option in a country which had a 0.0% blood alcohol level since 1956.

Motorist's beer. Now there's a concept 

Perfect with Your Melon

I was in Karim's (the CocciMarket in Preuilly-sur-Claise) the other day, and noticed the Vendee Ham has an instruction on it.

Who am I to disobey an instruction?

Ok, it's not really an instruction, but ham and Charentais melon is a local classic, and if they suggest their ham is "parfait avec vôtre melon" that's good enough for me.

Jambon de Vendée is a traditional raw ham that is cured by hand in dry salt before being rubbed with a blend of wine, brandy and aromatic herbs and spices, including cinnamon, pepper, thyme and bay leaf.

The ham is then wrapped in cloth and pressed between two wooden boards, which gives it its distinctive rectangular shape. Unlike many other cured hams, this variety undergoes only a relatively short drying period, as the pressing process helps to accelerate the curing.

In October 2014, Jambon de Vendée was awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status, a designation that recognises the product's regional origins and quality as well as its traditional production methods. It is now considered the third most popular French ham, after those of Bayonne and Aoste.

Zucchini Slice

Every summer the dreaded zucchini glut arrives. Friends (Huub and Ingrid I'm looking at you) and neighbours insist on offloading gigantic marrow sized things on your doorstep. Or you have yourself made the mistake of allowing more than one zucchini plant to grow, on the grounds that the last time you did that it was the coldest summer on record and your zucchini did not thrive. Well, I think you are safe from that one in these days of increasingly record breaking hot summers...

Half a marrow sized zucchini, seeds removed and tediously grated by hand as we don't own a food processor.

Ingredients

2 large zucchini, grated
1 large onion, chopped
150 g chunky lardons
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
Half a cup of oil
4 eggs
1 cup of grated cheese
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Turn the oven on to preheat to 180 C.
Grease a deep square baking dish or a lasagne dish.
Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and pour into the prepared dish.
Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
Leave for 5-10 minutes before cutting and serving.

Can serve 6 as a main, or 12-18 as part of a series of small plates (tapas, aperodinatoire, etc). Serve warm or room temperature, with salad.

A serving for two that I cooked in the air fryer because the weather is so hot at the moment and I didn't want to turn the oven on.

It is curious to think that Europeans have really only been eating zucchini since the 19th century. The ancestor of this rampant and productive squash had arrived from the Americas earlier, but it was so different to anything anyone was used to eating that it took a while to catch on. Zucchini and marrow are the same species, Cucurbita pepo, and the difference is size/maturity. The word zucchini first appeared in Italian cook books in the 1840s, after Milanese gardeners developed a small tender cylindrical dark green squash that became C. p. var cylindrica. The word marrow first appeared in British cook books in the 1820s. Zucchini is first mentioned in print in Britain in the early 20th century, a couple of decades before the word courgette is used in either France or Britain.

Zucchini Slice was a mainstay of Australian summer gatherings when I was growing up. Everybody made it, because everyone had too many zucchini. It has that extreme simplicity and low cost that makes it popular when you are cooking for a gathering or a family. The cheese and bacon ensure it tastes of something, without complication or too much cost.

A Biological Multitool in the Strawberry Patch

A recent study has described the Migrant Hover Fly Eupeodes corollae (Fr. Syrphe des corolles) as a flying 'multitool', which offers pollination, can act as a vector for beneficial microbes, and is a biological control for grey mould disease in strawberries. Wow! Plus their larvae eat aphids!

 

 Female Migrant Hover Fly.

Scientists in Sweden used the hover flies to carry the yeast Metschnikowia fruiticola between strawberry flowers in greenhouses so it would attack the grey mould Botrytis cinerea. At the same time the hover flies pollinated the strawberry flowers. The flowers pollinated by the hover flies produce better quality fruit that is bigger and a more symmetrical consumer pleasing shape. Their results showed that the hover fly activity on the flowers significantly reduced grey mould on the strawberry fruit once harvested and in cold storage. This occured even without the yeast biological control, but was even more pronounced when the yeast was present.

This species is native to Europe, North Africa and Asia, and quite abundant. With the presence of active adults and larvae you can practice interated pest control in your own garden, and enjoy these little natural gems. 

 

 Mating Migrant Hover Flies in our garden.

The Migrant Hover Fly is, as the English name suggests, a migratory species and one of the two most abundant species of hover fly in Europe. Some years there will be massive numbers crossing the Channel from France to Britain. The adults are about 11 mm long, with yellow comma shaped marks on their abdomens.

Further reading: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10340-025-01971-6

Wild Strawberry Season is Upon Us

There are several wild strawberry species, but only one is worth eating, so it is worth learning how to identify them. They are considered one of the greatest treats you can wild forage, and archaelogical evidence suggests we have been eating them for thousands of years.

 

Barren Strawberry.

Around here there are three species that are frequently confused. They are Barren Strawberry Potentilla sterilis (Fr. Potentille faux fraisier), Mock Strawberry Potentilla indica (Fr. Fraisier d'Inde) and Wild Strawberry Fragaria vesca (Fr. Fraisier des bois).

 

Barren Strawberry.

One has leaves that look just like a wild strawberry plant, and white flowers that greatly resemble the true wild strawberry. Many people will delightedly leave these growing in their garden when they turn up, but then be disappointed because they never have any fruit. That's because they are Barren Strawberries and if you know what to look for there are ways of telling them apart by looking carefully at the tip of the leaves.

 

Mock Strawberry.

Then there is another one, which does have alluring looking red fruit, but when you eat one they taste of nothing. Luckily they aren't toxic, so you won't do yourself any harm if you eat them, but they are disappointing. These are the Mock Strawberries. They are not native, but introduced from Asia and have naturalised.

 

Mock Strawberry.

All these species grow in the same season, and in the same habitats. It is not uncommon to encounter a mixture of species growing intermingled.

 

Wild Strawberries.

 

So here are my top tips for telling them apart:

Wild Strawberries

1. White flowers with rounded petals which overlap.
2. Drooping or hanging conical fruit.
3. Strong sweet floral strawberry flavour.*

Mock Strawberries

1. Yellow flowers with a ruff of green bracts that sits just below the pointed calyxes and extend beyond the flowers.
2. Globular fruit on erect stems.
3. Insipid taste.

Barren Strawberries

1. White flowers with knotched petals that do not overlap.
2. No fruit.
3. Leaves have a central tooth at the tip which is shorter than the ones either side.
   

 

Wild Strawberry.

*I know most people who know Wild Strawberries rave about them and are thrilled to find them, but personally I find them a bit too soapy tasting. 

You should be aware that low growing wild fruit *might* be contaminated with tapeworm eggs (Echinococcus sp) due to the presence of wild and feral canids (foxes, stray dogs, wolves) in the environment. French people of a certain age may give you dire warnings of what will happen if you forage for fruit below knee height. In some families the parasite you are avoiding is liver fluke (Fr. douve de foie), which is transferred in wet environments from sheep. I would have thought all this applies equally to mushrooms, but I've never heard it mentioned in that context... And in the old days, the hideous disease you would be keen to avoid was rabies...

A Different Post About Food

Monday is the day we usually post about food. Today is the same, but different.

One of the side effects of hormone treatment for prostate cancer is difficulty controlling blood sugar levels. Recent studies suggest that using a common diabetes medication is beneficial in countering this effect. It isn't, however, part of an approved therapy for prostate cancer - yet.

My recent blood tests show that even after really careful diet control I have a problem. We have been on a no sugar, no high GI carbohydrates, high protein, lots of fibre diet for 8 weeks, and although weight loss has been noticeable, my blood sugar has been high while my energy level has been low.

Thus I am now officially diabetic, which is being treated with Metformin, the drug mention in the study linked to above. I have to admit the results so far have been subtle, but I think I'm noticing a difference.

Breakfast in preparation

I'm kind of enjoying my diet, although it is rather egg, cheese and meat heavy. Breakfast is a problem, unless I want to start having serious cholesterol issues. Thus if you're reading this soon after it's published I'm probably eating porridge oats with oat bran and Greek yoghurt, sweetened with a small amount of no added sugar apple pulp. It's better (just) than it sounds, and I refer to it as breakfast stodge. Susan has been cooking some really interesting diabetes appropriate meals, but we're still looking for a snack food that is tasty without being problematic.

Still - the cancer is being held at bay, and once the hormone treatment stops my pancreas should regain normal function, and we'll have killed two birds with one stone. (But hopefully not another kidney stone, because that's no fun.)

Getting That Cherry Ripe Vibe in France

Cherry season means cherry desserts. I had some blush yellow cherries from our local organic orchard Fruits Ô Kalm and the fruit flies in the kitchen were in plague proportions. So I stewed the cherries. Then I had the idea of serving them with whipped coconut cream. And just before serving I had the brainwave of grating a little dark chocolate on the combo. A total winner. Super easy, super delicious.

 

Ingredients

400 g sweet cherries

6 tbsp sugar

300 g coconut cream

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 squares of dark chocolate

 

Method

1. Break out your cherry stoning tool from the back of whichever inconvenient cupboard you've shoved it in. Set it up, then rinse your cherries and pluck their stalks off.
2. Run the cherries through the stoning tool, then put them in a saucepan with a dash of water and 4 tablespoons of sugar.
3. Gently simmer the cherries for 5 minutes, keeping an eye on them because they'll have a tendency to boil over.
4. Put the cherries aside to cool.
5. Put the coconut cream, vanilla and remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar in a high sided bowl.
6. Rummage out your electric hand beater and whip the coconut cream. This will take a while, longer than dairy cream.
7. Serve the cherries in bowls, topped with a dollop of coconut cream. Shave some chocolate onto the coconut cream using a fine grater.
   

Australians will understand the reference to Cherry Ripe. Everyone else is probably mystified.