Chapter 18: Fungi as Food: Mycophagy

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Welcome to the Deep Dive, where we extract the most important nuggets of knowledge from our sources, helping you become truly well -informed.

Today we're journeying into a world that's, well, often shrouded in mystery, sometimes even fear.

Yet it's absolutely vital to diets and cultures around the globe.

Fungi is food.

I mean, think about it.

In many English -speaking countries, we're naturally wary of anything labeled a toadstool.

Often makes us think of old folklore, witches, danger, that kind of thing.

But then you look at Central and Eastern Europe, many parts of Asia, and it's an entirely different story.

Mycophagy, the eating of fungi, is a cherished tradition, a passion even.

So today we're diving into a captivating chapter from Bryce Kendrick's The Fifth Kingdom, Fourth Edition, specifically the section on Fungi is Food, Mycophagy.

Right.

And our mission today is basically to cut through all that folklore and give you a clear,

engaging, and scientifically sound understanding of edible fungi.

We'll explore everything from gourmet delicacies that command, well, astonishing prices, to industrial protein sources that could truly revolutionize how we eat.

We'll unpack the key points, share the crucial safety rules, reveal some surprising facts about this incredible kingdom of life, and we'll paint vivid pictures with our words so you can easily follow along without needing visuals.

Okay, let's delve into this.

Fungi have this long -storied history with humanity, often really intertwined with folklore.

Their sudden appearance, strange shapes, sometimes bizarre colors.

Yeah.

Well, it made them perfect candidates for association with fairies, witches, maybe even the devil.

And honestly, these superstitions probably saved a lot of lives over the centuries, right?

Kept people from just casually sampling something deadly.

That's a really crucial point.

While folklore had its practical benefits, it also gave rise to some dangerous misconceptions that unfortunately still persist today.

It's so important to understand there are no simple folkloric tests to distinguish edible from poisonous mushrooms.

None.

Those old wives tales like if the cat peels, it's edible, or if it doesn't blacken a silver spoon, it's okay.

They're not just misleading, they're dangerously fictional.

Seriously.

Relying on them, well, relying on them can be fatal.

Yeah, absolutely.

And that brings us to the absolutely critical safety guidelines for anyone even considering mycophagy.

I mean, while over 10 ,000 species of fleshy fungi exist, only a handful are truly lethal.

But here's the kicker.

Some of those deadly ones are surprisingly common.

Very common.

Which makes precise identification just paramount.

The golden rule, and we really can't stress this enough, is you should only eat a mushroom if you know its precise scientific name.

That's right.

The Latin binomial, the unique genus and species.

Not just a common name, not even just the genus.

No, because even genera that include prized edibles like,

say, agaricus or emanita, they can also contain incredibly dangerous members.

So that specificity is truly a matter of life and death.

Exactly.

And to achieve that precise identification, you'll often need more than just a picture.

You might need to refer to experts, maybe even examine microscopic features like basidio spores.

Those are the reproductive spores for many fungi.

Every handbook, no matter how good it seems, is ultimately incomplete.

And please, please be extremely cautious about trusting self -styled experts without really checking their credentials, as our source bluntly reminds us, it's your life, not theirs.

Right.

And beyond identification, there are practical steps.

For as few times you try a new mushroom, eat only a tiny amount.

Good advice.

Some people can develop severe allergic reactions, even to species generally considered safe.

Always sort your collections carefully.

Never mix different species together.

Definitely don't mix them.

And absolutely avoid old or shriveled specimens.

You know the saying,

when in doubt, throw it out.

Yeah, exactly.

For those who are serious about becoming a mycophagist, we strongly recommend getting comprehensive, well -illustrated manuals.

Think names like

Phillips, Aurora,

and joining a local natural history or mushroom society.

That's also an excellent starting point.

You connect with experienced people.

Okay.

But what if you prefer year -round access to fungi without the whole hunting adventure?

That's where cultivation comes in, right?

Our convenient grocery store delights.

But why can some desirable species be cultivated and others, well, others can't?

That's fascinating.

It comes down to their ecology.

Many of those highly sought after fungi, like chanterelles or matsutake, they're mycortisol.

Mycortisol.

Meaning they form this essential symbiotic relationship with a specific tree host.

They share nutrients.

And that relationship is incredibly difficult, almost impossible sometimes, to replicate in an industrial setting.

So cultivation efforts, they largely focus on suprobic mushrooms.

Suprobic.

Those are the ones that grow on dead organic matter, fallen logs, agricultural waste, that kind of stuff.

And when we talk about cultivation, the efficiency is just, well, it's astonishing.

The protein yield from mushrooms can be as high as 80 ,000 kilograms per hectare.

80 ,000?

Yeah.

Compare that to beef, which yields about 80 kilos per hectare.

Or even fish farming, maybe 660 kilos.

Wow.

Plus, fungi have this remarkable ability to bioconvert cellulosic debris, things like straw,

sawdust, even animal manure, turning agricultural and forestry waste into valuable food.

It's a really sustainable process.

It really is.

Let's take a quick look at some key cultivated mushrooms, just to illustrate this efficiency.

Okay.

First up, agaricus brunessens are common button mushroom, also known as agaricus bisporus.

This is basically the mushroom of the Western world.

It was divesticated back in 17th century France, and now it's a massive industry.

We're talking a staggering one mils and tons produced annually worldwide.

There's even this fascinating anecdote in the book about former nuclear missile silos in Hungary.

Missile silos.

Yeah.

Now, being repurposed to grow these mushrooms for export, mainly to Germany, talk about swords into plowshares or maybe missiles into mushrooms.

That's incredible.

But an important health note here for the common button mushroom, you should never eat them raw.

Oh, right.

Good point.

They contain a naturally occurring carcinogenic compound.

It's called 4 -hydroxymethylbenzinidiazonium.

Sounds scary.

It does.

But don't panic.

This unstable compound is completely destroyed by cooking.

So definitely enjoy your sauteed mushrooms.

Just don't add them raw to your salad.

Good advice.

Okay.

Then there's pleurotus austratus, the oyster mushroom.

Forms those beautiful overlapping clusters you see on dead or dying trees.

Over 20 ,000 tons are produced annually, so it's pretty popular globally.

One challenge for growers, though, is that it's basidiospores.

Those reproductive spores we mentioned can actually be allergenic for workers in the facilities.

Okay.

And of course, we have to mention the incredibly popular lentinula edodes, better known as shiitake, cultivated for an astounding 2 ,000 years.

Traditionally grown by inoculating oak and chestnut logs.

Amazing history.

Yeah.

Modern techniques now use these autoclaved sawdust starch protein bags with really precise light, dark, and temperature cycles.

Dried shiitake can retail for up to $40 per kilogram, reflecting its high value.

And there's about 150 ,000 tons produced annually.

And there are others too, like vulvariella vulvasia, the patty straw mushroom.

That's a staple in the Far East, easily identifiable by its distinct vulva, especially in its canned form.

And flamelina velutipes or inokites, the winter mushroom.

The cultivated form looks so different, right?

Those long, narrow stems.

Totally different from the wild ones.

Yeah.

And even auricularia polytrichia, the tree ear or cloud ear, a mewer, valued in Chinese cuisine for its slippery texture.

And some suggest health benefits too.

These examples just underscore how we can use specific controls to get huge harvests, basically turning waste into food.

Okay.

So that's cultivation.

Now let's shift gears from that convenience to some of the most prized fungi that are, well, primarily wild harvested.

This is where the thrill of the hunt meets hot cuisine.

Oh, yes.

And we certainly must start with what the French call the diamond of the kitchen.

Tuber melanosporum, the black queen or perego or truffle.

Its high esteem in French culture is kind of captured by that old saying, your wife, your truffles and your garden, guard them well from your neighbor.

Love it.

And the aroma of these truffles, it's legendary.

The black truffle has this subtle earthy richness, but the white or piedmont truffle, tuber magnatum from Northern Italy, that one is incredibly odoriferous.

For some, maybe even overpowering.

Intense.

Yeah.

I remember finding the white truffles sent almost too much, kind of like an overripe sock maybe.

But the black truffle, that added a real mystique to meals.

And imagine paying $60 for a single fist -sized black truffle at a market in France.

That's the kind of power their legion holds.

And what makes these underground culinary gems so special is, well, they're elusive.

They're underground.

Their ripeness has to be sniffed out by trained animals.

Figs or dogs.

Yeah.

Traditionally, female pigs or specially trained dogs.

Interestingly though, advancements in truffle culture are making progress.

French scientists have been inoculating the roots of oak and hazelnut seedlings, those are their mycorrhizal tree partners, and getting harvests in as little as three years.

And with prices hitting nearly $1 ,000 per kilogram, you can bet efforts to establish truffle orchards are expanding even into North America.

Okay.

And what about that long -standing aphrodisiac myth?

Is there anything to it?

Well, it's interesting.

One of their main aromatic components is androstenol.

It's a steroid also found in redding boars, and it acts as a pheromone.

That definitely explains why female pigs are such natural truffle hunters.

Oh, okay.

Now, its sexual role in humans isn't clearly established, but some studies have shown it can influence how people perceive attractiveness.

So it's a curious connection for sure.

All right.

Moving from underground treasures, let's talk about morchella species, better known as morels.

Yeah,

these spring fruiting fungi with their really distinctive ridged and pitted heads.

For many people, they are the supreme edible fungi, unbeatable maybe, with a good stake.

But they're elusive.

Hunters are notoriously secretive about their patches, although places like Michigan are famous for their big May morel hunts.

There's a critical warning here, though.

Poisonous false morels, species of gerometra, they fruit at the exact same time and in the same places.

Oh, that's dangerous.

It is.

So again, precise identification is absolutely non -negotiable.

But there's some good news.

Since 1982, morel mycelium has actually been successfully fruited in pure culture.

A U .S.

patent was even granted in 1986.

Really?

That's huge.

Yeah.

It offers hope for year -round commercial availability, which would be a dream come true for many mycophiles.

Okay, another icon.

The majestic Boletus edulis, known as sep in France, steinfels in Germany, porcini in Italy.

Ah, porcini.

Love them.

They're wonderful, large, plump mushrooms, and they have fleshy tubes under the cap instead of gills, which makes them distinct.

They're a staple for European dried mushroom soups.

And, oh, the aroma, even just from a dried packet, is incredibly appetizing.

But, important advice.

Always avoid bleat species that have reddish or orange pore mouths underneath, or any whose flesh turns blue when you bruise it.

Those can be trouble.

Good tip.

Now, for the serious connoisseur, there's tricholoma matsutake, the matsutake, or pine mushroom.

It's highly priced in Japan, fetching astronomical prices, sometimes up to $200 per kilogram, fresh.

Wow, $200 a kilo.

Yeah.

It doesn't really grow natively in Japan much anymore, so the Japanese actually import a related species,

tricholoma magnivolaire, from the North American West Coast.

And apparently, the high prices have even led to disputes and, get this, violence among mushroom hunters out in the American West.

No way.

Over mushrooms.

Crazy, right?

Shows how valuable they are.

It certainly does.

And we can't forget cantharellus sabareus, the chanterelle, or girole, or fiferlinge, depending where you are.

Widely collected, pretty easy to recognize with its yellow funnel shape, often sauteed fresh or dried for later use.

Huge quantities, sometimes up to 2 million kilograms a year, are picked in the Northwestern U .S.

and shipped over to Germany, where they're incredibly popular.

You know, historically fungi have even played roles in, like, high drama.

Remember the Roman Emperor's favorite?

Amanita caesarea, Caesar's mushroom.

Yes, the Emperor's mushroom.

And then, tragically, Emperor Claudius's wife, Agrippina, she famously used its deadly relative, Amanita phalloids, the death cap, to assassinate him.

A truly dramatic, dark moment in history, directly linked to fungi.

Wow.

That really puts a spin on things.

And, you know, this adventurous spirit of mycophagy, it's clearly evident globally, especially in places like China, where the source mentions books illustrating a huge array of species, many that Westerners might shy away from.

Okay.

This naturally brings us to some important health considerations.

Because even with proper identification,

there's more to understand, isn't there?

Yes, definitely.

One key thing is that wild mushrooms, they tend to accumulate heavy metals like cadmium and other potentially toxic elements from their environment, from the soil, from the air.

This was tragically highlighted after the Chernobyl disaster.

Wild mushrooms in Poland and Russia were found to contain levels of radioactive cesium many, many times higher than other foods.

Very.

Yeah, leading to frequent radio warnings.

It just underscores this ongoing environmental risk you take with wild harvested food.

And it's not just environmental toxins from outside.

Even some generally edible mushrooms, including our common button mushroom, shiitake and porcini, have been found to contain naturally occurring mutagens.

Mutagens.

So potentially cancer -causing agents.

Potentially, yes.

Now cooking can reduce the mutagenic activity in some cases, but it doesn't necessarily eliminate it entirely.

So this raises a really important question.

What are the full implications for human health?

And the truth is, the research is still ongoing.

We don't yet know if these mutagens are significantly carcinogenic at the levels people typically consume mushrooms.

However, it's vital to remember that mushrooms, while delicious and nutritious in many ways, should generally be regarded as an occasional treat, maybe, not a dietary staple.

Right.

Moderation seems key.

Exactly.

Moderation is key.

Okay, so beyond the traditional fruit bodies, we usually think of the caps and stems.

Fungi offer other surprising food sources too.

Absolutely.

Think about filamentous fungi.

These are the ones that don't produce large fruit bodies, more like molds.

They can be grown in huge submerged cultures, basically big vats, to create high protein mycelia.

That's the vegetative part of the fungus.

A prime example is Hussarium graminarum.

It's grown in enormous fermenters to produce a food product called corn.

Ah, corn.

I've seen that.

Yeah.

It has an impressive 45 % protein content.

Now, initially, there was an issue with high nucleic acid content, which could cause gout.

But they cleverly solved that by heating the mycelium just right, allowing the fungus's own enzymes to break down those problematic compounds.

Pretty smart.

Very clever.

And we can't forget yeasts, right, like Saccharomyces species.

They've been used as food supplements for years, valued for their B vitamins, and significant protein content, often 40 -50 % of their dry weight.

And they can grow on really cheap stuff, like food processing waste, and have a super short generation time.

Seems like an ideal source of single cell protein.

It seems like it, but using yeast as a primary protein source does present some challenges.

Again, those high nucleic acid levels can lead to hyperuricamia, too much uric acid, which means kidney stones, gout, if you eat large amounts.

Also, yeast proteins are generally nutritionally inferior to, say, meat, because they're low in essential amino acids like methionine and tryptophan.

But solutions are being developed, things like extracting the protein at specific pH levels to reduce those nucleic acids.

So, while probably not a standalone food anytime soon, yeast protein could definitely supplement other foods effectively, kind of like how soy protein is used now.

Yeast burgers, anyone, maybe not quite yet on their own, but perhaps as a hidden nutritional boost down the line.

Now, I'm sure none of you imagine that humans are the only animals to appreciate fungi, but here's where another dangerous myth pops up.

That idea that if you see an animal eating a mushroom, it must be safe for humans.

Oh, definitely not true.

That is entirely false.

Many animals, vertebrates and invertebrates, are completely unaffected by toxins that are deadly poisonous to us.

For example, deer eagerly seek out Elaphomyces, that's also known as the deer truffle.

Red -backed voles, little rodents, live almost exclusively on truffles and false truffles.

There's even this curious, slightly morbid case of flying squirrels being fatally lured to the ground by the strong odor of ripe truffles, making them easy prey for predators.

Wow, lured to their doom by a truffle.

Exactly, and it's not just mammals.

Migrating birds in Kuwait apparently find and eat desert truffles, and certain fly larvae, like those of the genus Hellemiza, they eat nothing but truffles.

It's a fact sometimes used as a clue by human truffle hunters.

Clever.

Yeah, and countless other insects, like fungus gnats, rely on fungi for their larval diets.

But perhaps the most interesting examples of animal mycophagy involve insects that can't actually digest tough stuff like cellulose or lignin themselves.

Instead, they exploit these abundant resources through a symbiotic relationship with specific fungi.

Like farming.

Pretty much.

Think of ambrosia beetles, which carry fungal spores with them from tree to tree, inoculating galleries.

Or the famous athene ants, the leaf cutters, and also mound building permites.

They cultivate these elaborate subterranean fungal gardens.

They feed the fungus, and then they eat the fungus.

Amazing.

It truly shows just how central fungi are to food webs all across the planet, not just for us.

Okay, so what does this all mean for you, our listener?

We've journeyed through this really surprising and diverse world of fungi as food.

From the everyday button mushroom in your grocery store, all the way to those incredibly rare gourmet truffles sniffed out by trained animals.

And even the high -protein mycelian yeast that could potentially feed future generations,

fungi are truly culinary chameleons.

Unique flavors, textures, nutritional benefits.

And just to briefly reinforce those key takeaways.

Number one, the vital importance of accurate identification for safety.

It's absolutely paramount.

Can't stress it enough.

We've seen the ingenuity of human cultivation, how we turn waste into delicious sustenance.

We've touched on the vast array of flavors and textures fungi offer our palates.

And beyond our own plates, we've explored the profound ecological role fungi play in the diets of countless other organisms, highlighting just how interconnected life on Earth really is.

Well, thank you so much for joining us on this deep dive into the world of mycophagy, based on Kendrick's The Fifth Kingdom.

We really hope you found this journey both informative and maybe even a little inspiring.

Yes, on behalf of the deep dive team, thank you for listening.

You know, what culinary or scientific breakthroughs will the next generation of mycophiles uncover?

It's exciting to think about.

We hope this deep dive sparks your own curiosity to maybe explore a little more.