I’m a pretty picky eater, but I think mushrooms are fine, as long as they’re cooked. I eat them pretty regularly, but I don’t think I can identify a mushroom flavor. It’s weird how different people’s palates are.
Mushrooms mostly rate a “Meh.” rather than a “Blecch!” from me. I don’t find the texture of mushrooms particularly objectionable, but they all seems to have a vaguely unpleasant flavor. I’ll pick them off my pizza, eat around them in salad, and mostly ignore them in a sauce. They generally don’t ruin a dish, unless they’re really strongly flavored, but I avoid them if I can.
I do find the smell of truffle oil very unpleasant, to say nothing of the flavor.
It has been said that it was true for Brussels sprouts (people liking them apparently can’t notice some foul flavour they would have). Maybe it’s the same with the compound found in shrooms that a poster mentioned. Or maybe it’s like cheese : everybody notice a smelly cheese but some people crave for the taste and others hate it.
wrt to the OP : always liked mushrooms and I’ve been picking them up since before my first childhood memories (unfortunately haven’t been doing so in quite a long while). So, in my case, it might be an acquired taste or even possibly a kind of comfort food.
In fact, the best the beer is supposed to be, the worst it tastes, generally speaking. The only beers I enjoy are those cherry flavored beers they make in Belgium, since, precisely, they don’t taste like beer.
I don’t think you can make any such generalization. I know people who generally hate “beer” but love the thick, rich Belgian trappists (which often top the "best beer in the worl lists.) On the other hand, I also know people who love “beer”, but not the thick, rich Belgians trappists. I think beer is far too broad a category of drinks to make such a generalization.
Can I shake your hand? I have loathed them all my life. A Finnish friend has said to me that my mother probably just couldn’t cook them properly but I don’t think that is the explanation (and a Russian friend just can’t understand me). However, raw champignons in a salad can be quite tasty and I have eaten other kinds of mushrooms that tasted good as well, so I think the way they are prepared means a lot.
I can’t ever imagine not loving mushrooms. We cook and eat vast amounts of them every week. Mostly cremini (“baby bellas”) in pizza, spaghetti, chik’n marsala, ratatouille, and paella. Also shiitake in one of our favorites, kung pao. The occasional indulgence in portobello caps. Always fresh, with no exceptions. Never canned. I was fed horrible canned vegetables too, growing up, but ever since I’ve been cooking I’ll only use fresh ones. My introduction to mushrooms was with fresh ones, and I’ve always loved them. My GF, who is finicky about food textures, craves mushrooms more than any other food on earth. But it goes without saying they have to be fresh. I feel sorry for anyone whose opinions were formed by canned foods.
Famed ethnomycologist R. Gordon Wasson was turned on to mushrooms, his life’s work, when he married his Russian wife Valentina, who loved hunting wild ones like she had done back in Russia. Together they developed the theory of mycophilic cultures versus mycophobic cultures. Russia is emphatically mycophilic. India is not. My ex was from India and never considered mushrooms to be food. The Wassons’ theory gives me perspective to not be upset by the mycophobia in this thread. Also, I read Tolkien at a tender impressionable age, and thoroughly enjoyed “A Short Cut to Mushrooms” in the Fellowship of the Ring, pleased to learn of hobbit mycophilia.
Wow. And I thought I loved shrooms.
Never liked ‘um. Fresh, canned, cooked whatever. Texture doesn’t bother me much but the taste completely puts me off. Very strong and tastes like mold. Or what I imagine mold tastes like from its smell.
Bought a chicken enchilada casserole type thing at the deli the other week. Turns out it was made with cream of mushroom soup. Had to throw the whole thing away. Couldn’t taste anything but mold.
[QUOTE=Laggard]
Where are all these people getting slimy mushrooms?
[/QUOTE]
From sneaky cooks who are thinking, “More for me!” Not that I would be so underhanded, of course.
But it would be a shame if they went to waste…
Regards,
Shodan
What, no love/hate for licorice?
It’s the texture thing for me. I don’t like touching mushrooms with my hands, let alone my tongue.
I believe The Buddha was poisoned by a meal of wild mushrooms and died days later, didn’t he?
This made me laugh…
I love mushrooms! I love them fresh, canned, raw, cooked. I’ve never had a mushroom I didn’t like! I grow shiitakes for myself (a crib of 16 logs) and can’t get enough. However, oddly I cannot stand anything cooked with cream of mushroom soup, though I’ll eat it as a soup on it’s own…
Now, for an interesting factoid regarding cilantro:
Soapy taste of coriander linked to genetic variants | Nature
I happen to love it but my husband cannot stand it. He even knows when I’ve brought it into the house. He says it tastes like shaving cream!
I’ve never had canned mushrooms, seemingly the cause of many respondees dislike (or former dislike.)
In-fact I was raised by hippy parents in the country, I grew up learning how to forage for mushrooms and what to look out for. I love foraging and bushcraft so it really upsets me that I have never liked mushrooms.
I think there is a 70-30 split between people who don’t like the texture and those (like me) that don’t like the flavour. I have no problem with the texture, its like Tofu, or Kidneys. Actually, one of my biggest gripes when I was young was that in a steak & kidney pie, bits of mushroom often look like bits of kidney!
For me I definitely think its the mouldy/earthy “Mushroom Alcohol” taste I don’t like.
As I’ve got older, I’ve grown to like lots of things I didn’t like before, I periodically try mushrooms to see if I’ve changed my mind, but that flavour always makes me a bit queasy. Similarly, I don’t like a lot of ‘mouldy’ cheeses, so I definitely think my body rejects things like that.
I think you often know if something isn’t generally good for you. I’m prone to Athletes Foot, fungal nail infections and thrush, so I suspect that is why my body says No to anything fungal!
Most mushrooms taste like nothing. They also have a texture similar to a rubber eraser.
Mushrooms with FLAVOUR…I actually like the taste of. But I still don’t generally like the texture.
I don’t think I"ve ever had canned or jarred mushrooms. Remind me not to try them.
I love mushrooms. I love them raw in a big spinach salad, I love them sauteed, I love the marinated mushrooms my mom makes.
I like mushrooms. Raw or cooked. Fresh or canned.
Hated them as a child, not sure why.
I have a vegetarian friend who feels the same way. She hates mushrooms and has a hard time finding mushroom-free restaurant vegetarian options.
Did it work?
According to the Roman historian Suetonius, the Emperor Claudius was fed poison mushrooms by his niece/third wife Agrippina (the mother of Nero).