Moulds will grow on mushrooms - there are even species of fungi, mould and bacteria that specialise on the fruiting bodies of other fungi.
Yes, as a matter of fact, I have.
Mushrooms left in an open container in the fridge (especially a cardboard carton) tend to shrivel and dry, but try leaving them in a plastic bag or other container closed to prevent moisture loss and they will decompose, under the action of moulds, yeasts, bacteria and possibly their own enzymes, into something decidedly UN-mushroomy. Sometimes that end result is horrible, but the process (like any other fermentation) can be controlled so as to make sauces and other products.
That’s a bit like saying grapes can’t be fermented because they just dry up into those little shrivelled brown things that are used in fruit cakes.
Funny you should bring that up right now as yesterday was the start of the surströmming season. It’s a quite popular game in Sweden to serve it to unsuspecting foreigners, but apparently Japanese can handle it quite well as there is a similar dish in Japan made from beans.
I think it’s just that people are looking at the percentages expressed against fresh product, which is mostly water (not that this matters much to fermentation processes, which generally like things to be wet)
Ahh, that would make sense. But as you note, the reasoning is wrong. There’s more than enough carbohydrate in mushrooms for them to ferment. You just don’t want to add much additional water.
Yeah, I’m wondering about that now I’ve thought about it more. According to online sources, cucumbers have about 3.6 g of carbs per 100 g. White mushrooms have 3.3 per 100 g. (I’m using this official USDA source).
Cucumbers ferment fine. Just cover them in a brine, and let them go. You don’t even have to add any sugar. I mean, you’ll have some garlic and dill in there, so I guess there’s more fermentables, but they’re still classified as lacto-fermented cucumbers, aka a kosher pickle. I don’t see why mushrooms wouldn’t work the same way.
For what it’s worth, when I go to the pickle booths at the farmers markets and asked for “pickled mushrooms,” they say they don’t have pickled mushrooms but they do have “marinated mushrooms.”
When you add mushrooms to sugar water, the sugar grows the mycelium, and it starts to taste like mushrooms, or whatever mushroom you put in, and the strength of the mushroom really comes out. I’ll tell you about a few of them. Lion’s Mane, put in a clamp jar, become a great ferment which fumes, and whose fumes build up and escape outside the jar to crystallize outside the seal. The substance should be called Smart Sugar. Ignored it for many months, but I tasted it and it made me feel like I was getting smarter. Chaga, is Lion’s Mane’s cousin. Fermented, it pshysiologically put a word on my tongue, ‘Siberia’, and more… ‘lost’ and ‘self-hateful’. In the end it went to my head and said, and made me feel, ‘Ingenious’. Woodear, left to ferment for three months, tasted like an ear, physiologically said, ‘Mulrooney’(my last name), and connected my ear to my throat, making me operatic for a few minutes. Blue foot chanterelle fermented starts out tasting like a foot, and a bit lonely, and a month of it makes you immune to loneliness; very abstractly and mental. Cordyeceps, the parasite mushroom, starts tasting like skin, hands and feet. Fully fermented(it carbonates a lot), it tastes like politics, and just like politics, i have no use for it. Maitake is the mushroom of love, I gave a ferment to my neighbors(don’t know if they drank it); doesn’t make you fall in love, just makes you feel it, like something in your chest. Reishi is the shroom of hate. it’s a very hard mushroom, and you must become very hard to become hate. I guess Reishi mixed with Cordyceps woulld make you turn into a bad-ass.
I am assuming you are referring to the process of chaptalization. While it is true this is allowed in some wine producing areas it is specifically prohibited in others. California and Italy are two that come to mind where this is not allowed. Also, German wines with the Prädikatswein designation aren’t allowed to add sugar either.
I completely missed that. The winemakers I know, both large-scale and personal, do not add any sugar to the must. Sugar is often added to non-grape wines. I do not know of any respected grape wines where there is sugar added to the must. Not a single one.
Well, chaptalization is allowed in many cool climate wine areas. Both Burgundy and Bordeaux allow it. It is also allowed in Oregon. I don’t know about Washington but I would think it is done there as well.
In Champagne it is considered essential to the process of producing wine.
It is a tool used by respected and quality wine producers in each of those areas. They just control it very closely.
Producers of bulk wine from those areas are more likely to abuse it. Chile is an area that quickly comes to mind in that category.