Topic: Bringing back hanging

[Madrasandy]

I don't think chef's spoon is an actual measure is it? Correct me if I'm wrong. It's a useful measure when descriing BIR because curry chefs tend to use just one large cooking spoon for everything - diced onion, garlic/ginger mix, spices, etc.

Jb's base is a great example of the variation in chef spoon sizes.

I use these for measuring instead of chef spoons, think people should put down quantities in Tbs and tsp when posting recipes

[Sverige]

I've noticed the capacity of my chef's spoon varies depending how thick the liquid I'm measuring with is. A thin liquid like water will fit about 2 tablespoons onto the wide flat chef's spoon but a thick creamy liquid seems to cling on more and sit higher at the edge of the spoon and 2.5 tablespoons can be contained. I think Andy is correct in saying it's better to stick with teaspoons and tablespoons which are standard and not such a flat shape, affected by the thickness of the liquid.

[Invisible Mike]

Do you pick ceps Phil?

I do indeed.  With the exception of fairy-ring champignons, Coprinus comatus and parasol mushrooms. they are the only mushrooms that I can identify with sufficient certainty to eat them without consulting a field guide.  I have a rather nice string hanging in the conservatory at the moment, collected from the grounds of a local crematorium after helping to inter the ashes of a late friend.

** Phil.

Well I never! A dark horse you are Phillip. I teach groups of foodies (mainly Michelin star chasing chefs)  how to identify fungi and other wild growing edibles during the autumn months. I recently did a magazine feature too. I thought I was the only forager on here. :-)

[Peripatetic Phil]

Well I never! A dark horse you are Phillip. I teach groups of foodies (mainly Michelin star chasing chefs)  how to identify fungi and other wild growing edibles during the autumn months. I recently did a magazine feature too. I thought I was the only forager on here. :-)

I have spent far too much time in Poland [1], Mike !  But if ever you are running a field-course in Kent, do please let me know; I would be delighted to be taught how to reliably identify more than a handful of edible species, and particularly how to accurately identify agarics in the field.

** Phil.
--------
[1] True story from 1991 conference in Sobieszewo

Background :  conference organisers notice large number of overseas delegates searching for mushrooms.

Morning session, Chairman's welcome :  "Ladies and gentleman, it has come to our attention that some of our overseas delegates are picking our local mushrooms;  whilst we are delighted to see our visitors taking advantage of our local natural resources, please, if you are not certain what they are, ask a Pole, or a Russian, or a Lithuanian, to identify them before you eat them ...".

Slavic speaker at back of hall :  "Mr Chairman, I would like propose amendment.  If not certain, ask OLD Pole, or OLD Russian, or OLD Lithuanian ...".

Massive round of applause from all present.

[fried]

Your not the only one MM, here're a couple beauties.

[macferret]

Wow - whoppers. Here in France we can wander into a local pharmacy to check what we've picked: all pharmacists are qualified mycologists or whatever it's called. As I am not a fan of renal failure I always take mushrooms that I have picked to be checked, and they find it hilarious: to them it would be like taking a dog and cat to the vet and asking them to confirm which is which.  But every year you read the stories....

[Invisible Mike]

Phil: I'm in Worcestershire, Kent unfortunately is a bit out of the way for me else I'd be more than happy to take you out. You can always contact me with photos of your finds if ever you are unsure of ID. There is a guy based in Hastings called Geoff Dann who runs courses. I don't know whether that is reasonable travelling distance although his courses are ran in other counties too. He has a website and admittedly knows more than I will ever know about mushrooms.

Yes the Polish/Eastern European community are very knowledgeable. They get the blame for all the illegal commercial picking in the New Forest every year although can't say I've ever bumped into other pickers much whilst in the woods. Foreign or otherwise!

Fried: Those morels are huge. You are a lucky so and so! Never found any, and not through lack of trying. Did you find those in the UK if so what kind of habitat? They fetch about ?90 a kilo!

Macferret: Yes I've heard that about French pharmacists. Isn't it odd how cultures differ so much. On the continent everybody picks mushrooms. In the UK there is a huge fear. The aim of my sessions is partly to teach people that as long as you use your loaf there is nothing to be afraid of.

Mike

[fried]

The morilles come from the north east of France. A few years ago my brother-in-law was handed down the knowledge of a spot in a private forest, known to only a couple of other people.

Even with this knowledge hunting morilles is painstaking, a 5am start to be first on the patch, which is a bank of beech stoles (not sure if this is the correct word) about 20m wide by 50m long. The morille is incredibly difficult to spot and we may spend 3 or 4 hours going over/ regoing over and around the same trees. Luckily aven finding a few is worthwhile.

This lot were from 2 years ago, as this year's weather was too strange. They made a fantastic blanquette de veau that would bankrupt you if you bought the mushrooms.

Apparently they like freshly cleared/ burnt areas of woodland. I know someone that have found them growing on woodchips next to a B and Q.

Very difficult to find, even if you do know where to look.

[Naga]

Not too sure about my mushrooms, fried, but that looks like a decent slug of pastis sitting beside them on the table!

[Peripatetic Phil]

I've bought dried morelles in the past, and they were not outrageously expensive (quite cheap, really); unfortunately neither Khanh nor I can remember where we bought them -- Khanh thinks Lidl, which is unlikely but (I suppose) a possibility ...

Found them   It was clearly in Germany, because they are labelled Spitzmorcheln getrocknet ohne Stiele.  Edler Speisepilz f