benhall.1 wrote:
Nanohedron wrote:
For me a sauteed morel tastes like fried walleye, which isn't a bad thing in itself, but it can be off-putting if what you're used to is button mushrooms. No doubt it's why it sometimes gets called "dry land fish".
I don't think I've ever had either a morel or walleye. In fact, I had to look up walleye. It's not a word, or a fish, I'm familiar with. I also don't remember ever coming across morels in the wild, although apparently they are around in the UK if you know where to look.
I bought a couple morels once just for my wife to taste. Raw, she said "meh, they just taste like mushrooms" but sauteed in some buttet with a pinch of salt, and her eyes rolled up and she goes "oh yeah, now I know what all the fuss is about." They didn't taste like fish to me either.
Growing my own shiitake, I was surprised at how strong the smell was. From that cake I linked above, I cut one mushroom, put it in a baggie, and took it to work to let people taste what a fresh just-picked-30-minutes-ago shiitake tasted like. When I opened the baggie, you could smell that one mushroom on the entire floor of the office.
One of my favorite mushrooms to cook is lobster mushroom (Hypomyces lactifluorum), which I guess isn't even really a mushroom. It was really fun to cook with.