I picked up on it a couple of years ago, John, but I’m not sure of its vintage. Obviously post haircut!
My sister visited his lair last year, and was very taken with the set-up.
Loooooooong thread here, and all replies very interesting. Mushrooms in every guise have been part of my eating/cooking life forever; even Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup was both an ingredient and a much-liked soup in my family, and while we did not hunt them we’d sometimes get a basket from reliable foragers. My current source is both local farmer’s markets here in L.A. County and the big Asian supermarkets in the San Gabriel Valley. I love to make a simple stir-fry of mixed varieties, and some dishes made with both mushrooms and meat, such as Chicken Tetrazzini, are perfectly satisfactory with just the mushrooms.
The only adverse reaction I’ve noted from anything from my kitchen was a visiting friend’s stomach upset and minor skin rash from a dish of king oyster mushrooms. Since he had picked them out and cooked them himself I was off the hook there … and the rest of us eat them frequently with no ill effects
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Found the recipe, if anybody is interested.
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I impulsively started cooking with the first reply from Harters. Butter, salt, garlic parsley, and cream.
These are yellowfoot and I think Maitake from Farm Fresh to You in the Capay Valley, Nor Cal.
Links about yellowfoot, for sharing and safe keeping.
What’s In Season: Yellowfoot Chanterelles
YELLOWFOOT CHANTERELLES, MY SECRET INGREDIENT
Yellow Foot Chanterelle Mushrooms
“An important note: Beware the false chanterelle, which looks a lot like the ones we covet. Make sure the caps are ridged underneath and not gilled. The gilled yellow mushrooms are poisonous. On second thought, maybe take an experienced forager with you.”
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Mushrooms are delicious but also risky sometimes. Someone ate a meal at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Spain and unfortunately she didn’t make it the next day. Other people who ate the same meal also came down with the same symptoms.
Be careful, people.
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Sounds like the chef was trying to kill a Blutbad (apologizes to family of the deceased for my bad scene of humor.)
Cream of Mushroom is one of those soups that is indispensable to certain of our family recipes, and from that standpoint should always be not only canned but Campbell’s. The fundamental weakness there is that Campbell has been fiddling with their recipes, so that the few old family recipes that used their tomato soup no longer work, because the new Campbell’s Tomato is sweeter and less acidic than it used to be, and will no longer, as I found to great dismay, add anything useful to the dreadful-but-beloved “Goulash” my mother made. If they monkey with the mushroom soup, there goes my tuna-noodle casserole!
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I think they fooled around with cream of mushroom and cream of chicken, too. We have made a hamburger stroganoff with those two soups for many years. Last attempt wasn’t right. Something was off and it wasn’t the meat, the onions, the mushrooms or the sour cream. Had to have been the soups.
One recent chilly day I made a version with beef stock, roux, and the rest of the usual ingredients and it was very good.
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But they taste so good with all that butter in them. Especially when you cook them a bit to release a fair amount of water, concentrating their flavor
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Personal advice: don’t fry it with oil from the start. Add the oil a few minutes later
You mean like Hungry Onion? 
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I concur. I’d also add that, when you’re dealing with wild picked, it helps to know the binomial name, so you know for sure what you’re getting. “Button” is a term that means baby mushroom to most of us who hunt/gather them. If it isn’t mature, it’s a button. Agaricus bisporus would be the white kind you get in the store. An easy guide to help you.
https://www.mssf.org/cookbook/names.html
You’d be surprised how many might be growing by you. I find maitake (grifola frondosa) all the time; as well as oysters (pleurotus ostrianis). Most are easy to grow, save for morels (morchellas). Chanterelles (Cantharellus) are used more for their lovely smell than taste, but they look cool as hell. The black ones are sought after.
Thing is, you can’t mess 'em up. They are so flippin tough, you can cook the hell out of them and they stay together. Worry not about these culinary tools. Just be sure you know what you’re getting/picking. Couple of deadlies out there, and some you’ll wish you were dead, should you consume them (I learned the hard way and lost 15 lbs in one night.)
Huh? I have never heard anyone say that before. I wonder if ones from your area are that much different than what I have had/worked with.
I find Chanterelles to be very flavorful and are considered a choice edible.
They have a nutty, slightly peppery flavor with a light Apricot/Peach Scent/Taste.
These Attributes can vary with what variety they are and where they grow.
I was gonna say - chanterelles (at least those I get in PA or Berlin, the latter of which are often from Poland or the Czech Republic) are amazingly flavorful. I’d put them in the top five of flavorful mushrooms, but I have never been able to describe their luscious liquor, of which they release so much when sautéed, and which make up the base for a wonderful pasta dish.
My top five aromatic shrooms:
truffles
porcini
maitake
chanterelles
shiitake
…
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I’m largely with Harters: KISS. I love sauteed mushrooms of many varieties.
However, I was recently shown a technique that produces crispier, more completely browned sauteed mushrooms. It sounds sacriligious, but you microwave them with a little water for 2-3 minutes, drain, and THEN saute. The idea is to first drive out moisture (mushrooms being 70-80% water) for faster and deeper browning in your hot fat, It also helps prevent the interiors from soaking up the fat and staying soggy. Hence crispier mushrooms–more Maillard, more flavor, better texture.
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I detect textural differences in different mushroom varieties, but find almost no flavor difference. So I buy whatever’s on sale, keeping in mind Jacques Pepin’s insistance that old, quick-sale button mushrooms have more and better flavor than pristine ones. I’m in the wipe, don’t rinse them camp, my hill to die on. Very hot frying pan, butter/oil, single layer of sliced shrooms, flip them once they are seared on the first side. They’re not ready until no steam is generating. There’s a yummy fond so deglazing is a must, with whatever is on hand. Wine, balsamic vinegar, cream, stock, anything in the soy sauce family, or a combination of liquids. If I have a lot, I freeze in small containers.
For something like chicken à la king, where you want a cream colored sauce, pristine buttons, quartered or sliced, go into the sauce without prior cooking. Decades ago, a friend who was on a lowfat diet and counting calories, would simmer mushrooms in beef broth until the liquid reduced a bit. This was her “free” food treat.
I love these and always keep a stash to use in beef barley mushroom soup. I even strain the reconstituting liquid through a coffee filter (to get rid of the sediment) and add it to the soup.
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I confine my foraging to the produce aisle. There was actually a mushroom farm close to where I grew up. My dad used to go get boxes for my mother.
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Wait, you don’t detect any flavor differences between porcini, chanterelles, maitake, shiitake, king oysters, morels?
I’ll give you that button mushrooms pretty much all taste the same (slightly fruity with a hint of pepper), but the ones I mentioned above have very distinct individual flavors.
Also, since AB’s legendary shroom bath experiment I have no qualms soaking, then spinning them dry in my salad spinner.
I do agree that adding wine and/or soy sauce really amps up the umami.
