What I learned today (Take Two)

Jenise, one of your signature recipes here is Tuscan Chicken with Porcini. So... you make it but never eat it?

[Jenise]

Jeff, long-cooked porcinis are/were never a problem for me. However, the realization of their toxicity has made me discontinue making that dish--too much risk. Doctor's orders.

Mike, thanks for the link. Glad to know I have company. Have enjoyed reading stuff there. Here's an interesting factoid: China is a major exporter of porcini, most of it ending up in Europe. We used DNA-sequencing to identify three species of mushroom contained within a commercial packet of dried Chinese porcini purchased in London. Surprisingly, all three have never been formally described by science and required new scientific names. This demonstrates the ubiquity of unknown fungal diversity even in widely traded commercial food products from one of the most charismatic and least overlooked groups of mushrooms.

Interesting to differentiate between intestinal and inhalative reactions. My reactions were, of course, intestinal. HOWEVER, once upon a time I decided to grind dried porcinis to make a chile-mushroom rub for a whole filet mignon. When I opened the grinder to transfer its contents to a bowl? Instant asthma attack.

I'm reminded of being in Tuscany circa 2005 which was after my first anaphylactic reaction but before the 2nd and 3rd. We bought fresh vegetable tortellini from a Village market. Went home and cooked them for dinner--it only took three or four bites, and I was gone. Full body evacuation and violent head to toe itching on every inch of my body. Not at all understanding what happened, two days later we marinated the leftover tortellinis for a cold appetizer. This time I only ate two before I had a repeat of the first episode. And I have no idea what was in them. Given my location, in hindsight porcini would be a prime suspect but it could have been some other kind of funghi that I'm also allergic to but had not encountered before.

Speaking of all this I saw a commercial today for a CNN special this week: DEATH CAP, the Mushroom Murders.

Speaking of all this I saw a commercial today for a CNN special this week: DEATH CAP, the Mushroom Murders.

I remember not being surprised when I first heard about the Mushroom Murders. After all, Australia is the Continent That Is Out To Kill You.

-Paul W.

Wow, Jenise, that's really interesting regarding the Chinese mushrooms. Who would guess that investigating packaged mushrooms would be a way to find ones that were previously unknown to science?

That's a really harsh reaction you have. I guess you don't run into issues often enough to carry an Epi-pen, but if you lived in Italy it might be a consideration!

The mushroom murder thing brought back a memory involving the late Chef Joseph Carey. He was working on a crime novel in which several people were murdered by being given deadly mushrooms. He knew I had been involved in diagnosing poisonings by these and contacted me regarding appearance of symptoms, timing, etc. Don't know how far he got with that book before his health problems became severe.