Customer Reviews

Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America: A Field-To-Kitchen Guide

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I bought this book many years ago as the first of what is now a fairly large collection on the subject. As the title indicates, it concentrates on the EDIBLE fungi, so the reviewer who was dissappointed because he/she could ID only one of the 13 mushrooms he/she found has unfair expectations out of the scope of this work. That said, only the most popular edibles seem to be listed here, and variants on those species are not covered in much depth. It's ok for those who just want to be able to distinguish a golden chanterelle from a jack-o-lantern, or a morel from a thimble-cap so they can safely gather some edibles. The worst thing about this book, however, is it's unfortunate recipes. Every single recipe I've tried from it completely sucks. Either the cooking method is inappropriate to that particular mushroom (turning delicate specimins to mush, for instance, or inundating absorptive ones with oil), or strong flavors from other ingredients overwhelm the sometimes subtle flavors of the mushrooms themselves. I get much better results by trusting my cooking intuition and experimenting than I do by following these recipes.

For those interested in preparing and eating the more common and easily-recognized species of edible mushrooms, this book is a must-have. In-depth species descriptions, including dangerous look a likes, make positive identifications much easier. Lush recipes (with photos) in the back of the book inspire mycophagists to get out in the woods and hunt their quarry. Buy the book -- you'll love it! Suggest using this book in conjunction with Audubon or other field guide.

For a "first" book on wild mushrooms I found this one to be very good. The pictures show the top, bottom, stems, colors and different parts of each mushroom. There are "warnings" on those that are ediable, but make some people sick, and the NO-NO"s are equally shown and written about. We're just new at this, and for a "starter" book this was just the ticket.

This is a concise easy to use book for people just starting to

hunt for edible mushrooms. It concentrates extensively on the edibles, and look alike poisonous. By eliminating 1000s of other mushrooms it is great for identifying the finest edibles. It makes a great companion to a more all encompassing publication. The recipes I've tried were good also.

This books is a wonderful collection of fantistic color photographs. Each recipie is a new journey into an exciting and tasty world of foods under our feet. Highly recommended to scientist and amatuer alike!

Edible Wild Mushrooms of North America (David W. Fischer and Alan E. Bessette, University of Texas Press, Austin, 1992) is becoming a hard to find item. I bought it when it was newly published, but I needed another copy to give as a Christmas gift. The book itself is the best review of edible mushrooms you can find. Included are a lot of inedible mushrooms that you need to know about if you are going to go out and collect fungi to eat or even if you are going to buy them at a fresh market. Never eat a mushroom if you cannot positively identify it. What a disappointment that could be if you have found a wonderful looking patch in the woods or in your yard but you are in doubt. This book will give you all the information you need to be informed and make your decision. A friend of mine told me about finding some attractive white mushrooms in his lawn. I asked him if he had any idea what they were. "Oh- they're the Destroying Angel. I saw the picture in a book." Well, he didn't read far enough because it was not the time of year for Amanita virosa to be fruiting, and the trees that they grow in association with were nowhere nearby. Yes, the mushroom had some of the characteristics of an Amanita, but there were crucial differences. If he had seen those differences, he would have recognized meadow mushrooms and known that he could have made a fine meal of them. Some people avoid wild mushrooms that way. They don't want to consider the possibility of mycophagy.

I bought this book back in 2003. It is a beautiful book with wonderful photos and detailed descriptions of some of the most delicious edible mushrooms.

It also has a very good section on mushroom poisoning and concise descriptions of poisonous mushrooms to avoid.

My favorite thing about the book are the identification points that are designed to exclude any possibility of mistaking a mushroom for a poisonous look-alike. You cannot poison yourself IF you conscientiously follow point by point.

Although I own several great mushroom books now, I consider this one my "mushroom bible."

Other reviewers have criticized the recipes. I wouldn't know about that because I have always looked at recipes only to get ideas for my own creations. If you want mushroom recipes, there are plenty of those available.

But there is not another wild edible mushroom identification guide for the beginner or intermediate enthusiast that comes close to comparing with this book.

Very highly recommended.

A great addition to our "Mushroom Library" Any knowledge we can gain in this field is a benefit. There were some realistic recipes and a few that made us wish Spring would hurry up so we could go "shrooming" for some of the mushrooms we haven't tried yet. The photos and key to identification were excellent. We checked this on the dozen or so mushrooms we know well and everything was right on, so we feel confident that we can identify a few that we were not sure of in the past. Of course we'll check them out in our other books and with our foraging friend who is a lot more experienced than we are at identifying mushrooms. He has 60 plus years of knowledge from gathering mushrooms with his extended family in this area of the country and a vast library of well used mushroom books.

We raise Shiitake and Oyster mushrooms and freeze or dry them for later use, so that's mostly what we're using in the recipes until we can gather wild ones. While the taste and texture are not exactly the same, we can see which recipes we would want to try when we have a small amount of wild ones and don't want to waste them on a recipe we aren't sure would work for us.

This is one book we expect to use frequently.

This is a good book. It details the easiest best edible mushrooms for the beginning to intermediate forager. It has a lot of good recipes in the back section. The taxonomy of some of the species has changed so a second edition would be welcome.

Book just arrived and it's wonderful! I have MANY such i.d. books and get very frustrated when I can't find them in the book. This book has WONDERFUL PHOTOS and often shows them at various stages, angles and such. It's made it possible to recognize what I have been seeing for last few years. On another note the author has been wonderful PRIOR TO MY EVEN BUYING HIS BOOK. I had sent him photos to his web site (many, many photos) and he took the time to identify all that he safely could.
PLEASE IF YOU ARE AN AMATURE AND WANT TO LEARN PURCHASE THIS BOOK.
Can't wait to try the recipes. Might need to purchase the shrooms this time of year!
Thanks for a great book!!