extract fromHow to Forage for Mushrooms without Dying © by Frank Hyman . Used with permission from Storey Publishing .
You might find a Chicken of the Woods as a single shelf of a few Ezra Loomis Pound or a cluster of shelves weigh as much as 50 pound , or anything in between . It might be growing high enough to require a ladder or on the ground at the base of the tree . The color change but is always strike : panic Orange River , cadmium yellowed or , less commonly , a pastel salmon color .
If you ’re lucky , you ’ll find it at its most tender : still grow and more or less dewy . In most type , you’re able to grab a shelf with both hand and gently wiggle it until it issue from the tree . Otherwise , burn the attendant portions away from the tree ( L. sulphureus ) or the ground ( L. cincinnatus ) with a knife .
I ’d try many times that the mushroom-shaped cloud called Chicken of the Woods tasted like Gallus gallus . I wanted to know the Sojourner Truth .
I get my reply at the Asheville Mushroom Club ’s big annual weekend of forays and feasts some year ago . Someone handed me a diminished plate with bite - size pieces of Chicken of the Woods in a luscious tomato - cream sauce .
At the first bite I recognize the accuracy . If someone had told me with a straight face that this was a plate of chicken , I would have swallowed that fib as fast asI could fork up another insect bite . It had the very same perceptiveness and texture . My advice to nostalgic vegetarians ? strike down the Tofurkey and order Fungicken or else .
Read more : Don’t be afraid to scrounge hedgehog mushrooms !
Feasting
This is a gastronome mushroom . Rinse it under the spigot while hand-shredding it into morsel - size pieces . ( It bust like cooked breast kernel . ) Serve well cooked in a soup , sweat or sauce . Or countenance it cool and organize as you would chicken salad . Tear it into large piece if you need to grill it , slather in marinade . Or bread it and fry it . And then invite your friends over for dinner .
Preserving
The grain becomes chewy when dry and rehydrated , so sauté first and then freeze . Then do n’t thaw it out , just fudge it .
Read more : Here ’s how you’re able to grow your own shiitake mushrooms .
Farming
Can be crop by inoculating stumps or large logs out of doors .
Look-alikes
There are no poisonous expression - alikes on deciduous tree , but exchangeable - looking species growing on evergreen trees ( conifer and eucalypt ) may be inedible , stimulate GI hurt , and/or have resiny flavors .
Sidebar:Chicken of the Woods
This excerption from Frank Hyman’sHow to Forage Mushrooms without Dyingoriginally come out in the September / October 2021 issue ofChickensmagazine .
