Text 5557, 85 rader
Skriven 2011-01-05 22:47:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av MICHAEL LOO
Ärende: pork 900
================
Last year you said...

 ML> How long is that bridge going to be?
 
The bridge will be 1,045 meters in length. The Mackenzie River is
bigger than the Mississippi.

Coming up, an article on a rather odd food choice:

MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

     Title: Amanita Muscaria (Fly Agaric) As Food
Categories: Mushrooms, Wild, Info
  Servings: 1 info file

           Amanita muscaria
           fly agaric

It is the pyschoactive mushroom rumored to have inspired some of
Carroll's magical mayhem in Alice in Wonderland. But we are not here
to do psychedelics. We are here to learn about fungi and eat.

Amanita muscaria, also known as the fly agaric for its ancient use
as a pesticide, is generally considered by English language field
guides to be a dangerous toxic mushroom. It's been documented as a
hallucinogen and used as a drug by social groups as varied as
middle-class American hippies and Siberian reindeer herders, and
occasionally it's implicated in deaths.

But Amanita muscaria is also used as food. It turns out the mushroom
can be easily detoxified and consumed. The use of Amanita muscaria
as food is simply a case of scientific research triumphing over
prejudice. The classic form of Amanita muscaria, red cap with white
warts, is among the easiest of organisms to identify, and while
there is risk in preparation, there is no risk in identification. As
to the risk, red kidney beans are also quite toxic raw and even more
toxic when undercooked, and humans eat numerous other plants and
vegetables that require careful processing to be edible (e.g.
tapioca and pokeweed).

Besides being strikingly beautiful, Amanita muscaria can be a large
mushroom and in certain locales quite common. These qualities make
it an attractive choice. More importantly for the table, it's also
quite flavorful, with a firm texture and a sweet nutty taste that is
unlike other mushrooms. Despite being sliced up and boiled in a
large vat of water for 15 minutes (the main toxins are water
soluble), the drained mushroom sautes up nicely, crisp and slightly
browned.

If you're interested in eating Amanita muscaria as food you must
first do your homework. When not processed properly, these mushrooms
can be dangerous, unpredictable, and result in a trip to the
hospital, not just a bad trip. First, read William Rubel and David
Arora's paper from Economic Botany, "A Study of Cultural Bias in
Field Guide Determinations of Mushroom Edibility Using the Iconic
Mushroom, Amanita muscaria, as an Example." Then read Lawrence
Millman and Tonya Haff's account of an accidental poisoning, "Notes
on the Ingestion of Amanita Muscaria," to see what can go wrong, and
why.

Some believe that it's irresponsible to even talk about the
potential edibility of Amanita muscaria, especially considering our
own species' propensity for faulty reasoning and bad decision
making. After all, the Amanita genus is home to some of the most
toxic mushrooms on the planet, including the Death Cap (Amanita
phalloides) and Destroying Angel (Amanita ocreata et al).

It is incredible that a mushroom eaten around the world can be so
vilified in our own culture where a box of Fruity Pebbles is kept on
the supermarket shelf at eye-level for five-year-olds.

From: Fat Of The Land

MMMMM-------------------------------------------------

Cheers

YK Jim


... If life hands you melons, you may be dyslexic.

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