"Whether you get your mushrooms from the supermarket or the forest floor, a worthy addition to your library."
-- Star Tribune
Get ready to fall in love with wild mushrooms! Absolutely everything you need to know to make mushrooming a lifestyle choice, from finding, storing, preserving, and preparing common and unusual species.
Packed with content and lore from more than 20 skilled foragers around the country, Wild Mushrooms will help mushroom hunters successfully utilize their harvest, and includes practical information on transporting, cleaning, and preserving their finds. One of the best things about cooking wild mushrooms is that every time you open your dried caches, their unique aroma recalls your foraging experience creating an immediate and visceral connection back to the forest. There is no finer way to appreciate food.
You will not only learn the best ways to locate, clean, collect, and preserve your mushrooms from the experts, the book will also discuss safety and edibility, preservation techniques, mushroom sections and flavor profiles, and more. Recipes will be categorized by mushroom species, with 115 recipes in total.
Recipes include:
- Smoked Marinated Wild Mushrooms
- Black Trumpet, Blood Orange, and Beet Salad
- Maitake Beef Stew
- Candy Cap and Walnut Scones
- Baked Brie with Chanterelle Jam
- Porcini with Braised Pork Medallions
- Yellowfoot Mushroom Tart
- And more!
From pickling to rich duxelles, soups, salads, and even mushroom teas, tinctures, jams, and ice cream, these recipes and invaluable insider tips will delight everyone from the most discerning mycophiles to brand new fungus fanatics.
"This book of marvels is generous of heart and imbued with the deep sensitivity of true foragers. The Blizzards have the rare gift of intimately knowing these wild mushrooms like old friends: their unique personalities, their eccentric culinary traits, and the special secrets to keeping them a part of your life and kitchen all year long. The superb recipes and preservation methods make this book the best wild mushroom forager's guide to date."
--Connie Green, Wine Forest Wild Foods, author of The Wild Table
"Trent and Kristen have done a great job compiling recipes from talented foragers, telling their stories, as well as distilling down mushroom hunting knowledge only years of experience can provide. Wild Mushrooms will happily form a symbiosis with your field guides, as well as your kitchen."
--Alan Bergo, forager & chef
"The Blizzards drew upon not only their own experiences but also the wisdom of 20 other expert foragers to put together a go-to guide for storing (drying, pickling, even making jams) and cooking all sorts of mushrooms. The recipes are divided up by the type of mushroom, highlighting everything from the easiest mushroom to find (Chicken of the Woods Coconut curry) to the more elusive (Creamed Morels on Toast) . . . Whether you get your mushrooms from the supermarket or the forest floor, a worthy addition to your library."
-- Star Tribune
"Join the thrill of the hunt with foragers Kristen and Trent Blizzard in an intimate glimpse into a community of mushroomers who relish fungal feasts. Much more than a field guide or a cookbook, Wild Mushrooms offers comprehensive instructions on cleaning and preserving your haul, along with 115 savory, sweet, and medicinal recipes honed to perfection by more than two dozen chefs and home cooks who share the Blizzards' love of wild mushrooms. They weave nearly a decade of experiences foraging in the mountain states, Pacific Northwest, and Midwest through the book, and spent over a year collecting, testing recipes, and photographing the mouthwatering creations in this handsome collection. Destined to be a leading authority in its class, this volume adds immeasurable value to the handful of wild mushroom cookbooks on the market. It manages to preserve the best of these with the conviviality of a community cookbook, but adding a professional and comprehensive focus with enough wit and wonder to provide an invaluable resource for beginners as well as seasoned mushroom hunters. The globally inspired recipes range from practical to unusual, with basic techniques like grilling, pickling, and drying elevated by more fanciful creations, including Chanterelle Apricot Sorbet, Porcini and Gruyère Gougeres, Savory Matsutake Daikon Cake, and Candy Cap Mushroom Popsicles. Interspersed with pro tips and stunning, minimalist images of each species are biographies and anecdotes from passionate mushroomers the Blizzards have come to know in their years attending festivals and joining forays across the country. I highly recommend it and look forward to sampling each and every recipe."
--Jennifer Burns Bright, PhD, food educator, travel writer, forager, and lover of all mushrooms wild and wonderful
Kristen and Trent Blizzard are self-proclaimed "mushroom geeks" and are the creators behind the blog modern-forager.com. They've been trekking the Rocky Mountains and beyond mostly with mushrooms in mind for nearly a decade. At first a hobby, the hunt for fungi quickly became nothing short of an obsession for these two. They have built a lifestyle around foraging--everywhere they go provides a new opportunity to learn about local mycology, and they are both certified wild mushroom identification experts in Colorado, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They reside in Glenwood Springs, Colorado.
Skyhorse Publishing
Pub Date: October 20, 2020
0.9" H x 10.1" L x 8.2" W
304 pages
hardcover