Preserving Mushrooms

STOCK CULTURES METHODS FOR PRESERVING MUSHROOM STRAINS... 

Thomas P. 1988. Radiation preservation of foods of plant origin. Part VI. Mushrooms, tomatoes, minor fruits and vegetables, dried fruits, and nuts. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr 26(4) 313—358. 

At least twenty-five of our early sources, many of them among our most important, speak of teonanacatl, God s flesh the sacred mushrooms of Middle America. Bernardino de Sahagun refers to them repeatedly and at some length. He gives in Nahuatl the text of his native informants. Of the Nahuatl poems preserved for us, one mentions them, and probably others refer to them metaphorically. 

The negative view of the mushrooms prevailed. Spanish mycophobia succeeded in stamping out the mushroom cult as a major force in Mexican culture. Only a handful of remote mountain tribes preserved the customs and rituals of what must once have been a splendid and powerful system of worship and magic. So complete was the neglect and ignorance in the Western world of this botanical aspect of Mexican religion, that in 1915 a reputable American botanist, William E. Safford, read a paper before a learned society claim-... 

Uses fungicide/bactericide used as soil sterilant in mushroom houses and other areas also used as a silage preservative. 

Notes made about the mushrooms habitat often give valuable clues to identification of psilocybian mushrooms, as does a "spore print. This can be made by placing one specimen s cap on a sheet of white paper and, if possible, another on black paper. These mushroom caps should then be covered by a glass and left alone for several hours, until it becomes clear whether or not they are dark purple-brown. The remainder of the collection should be refrigerated (but not frozen) as soon as possible, because mushrooms deteriorate fairly rapidly in heat. They can be preserved in the vegetable bin of a refrigerator weU over a week. 

Multidimensional techniques are regularly used in analytical assessments of measurement data relating to the levels of chemical elements in the quality control of animal and plant food products. Chemometric interpretations have been obtained for the following animal products meat and meat products [316-318], fish [319-321], seafood [25, 322-328], milk and dairy products [329-332] and honey [333-339]. Similar interpretations have been obtained for the following plant products rice [143], cereals [340], vegetables [140, 341-346], fruit and fruit preserves [347], tea [155, 348-350], coffee [13, 155, 351, 352], mushrooms [26], fruit juices [141], confectionery [21, 353], nuts [354], wine [355-358], beer [66, 359] and other alcoholic beverages [159, 360, 361]. 

Mycologists specialize in the study of Psilocybes, despite the fact that Psilocybe semilanceata is the most common and conspicuous species among the Psilocybes. Also, mushroom lovers whose interests are not purely scientific (see Chapter 7.4) do not usually preserve their knowledge for posterity in the form of distribution maps. However, there is one map from 1986, which shows the distribution pattern of Psilocybe semilanceata across Germany (see Figure 20, p. 28). 

Canned mushrooms preservative not more than 37.5 mg/oz of drained weight of mushrooms... 

Plants grown in soil touched by CCA-treated wood have the same minuscule exposure levels. For decades, CCA-treated wood has been used commercially near crops in the form of tomato stakes, vineyard supports, banana props, and mushroom trays. No problems have ever been recorded that indicate that the preservative migrates into plants and causes any health effects. 

The most common route of exposure is by oral ingestion of nitrosamines in food. It has been estimated that the general population consumes approximately 0.1 (ig of nitrosamines per day in their diet. Nitrosamines can be found in foods preserved with nitrates as well as in untreated foods such as mushrooms, alcoholic beverages, smoked fish, bacon. 

Maelkki Nikkilae, Aalto and Heinonen [31, 32] stress the importance of the raw material quality of onions. Stieger [33] has investigated the suitablity of various strawberry varieties. Processes for flavour preservation have been thoroughly examined with cultivated mushrooms, leading to an illumination of the most important freeze drying parameters [34[. 

Due to the difficulties of postharvest storage, most of the mushrooms are preserved by heat drying. The drying process has to be conducted slowly in order to produce the characteristic sulfurous note of this mushroom. 

Ololiuqui, like the mushrooms and other magical plants, was more than just a means of communication with the supernatural. It was itself a divinity and the object of worship, reverently preserved within the secret household shrines of village shamans, curers, and even ordinary people in the early Colonial era. Carefully hidden in consecrated baskets and other dedicatory receptacles, the seeds were personally addressed with prayers, petitions, and incantations, and honored with sacrificial offerings, incense, and flowers. Ololiuqui was apparently considered to... 

Food literature concerning vegetables, mushrooms, fruits, nuts, and their products has already been evaluated in connection with the discussion concerning the composition of such foods. Books in which other phases of this field, such as the manufacture of juices, jams, jellies, and preserves, are described are Fruit and Vegetable Juices by Tressler, Joslyn, and Marsh the text by Cruess Apples and Apple Products by Smock and Neubert Fruit Juices and Related Products by Charley and Harrison Bananas by Von Loesecke and Citrus Products by Braverman. A number of texts dealing with canning and food preservation also discuss the manufacture of jams and jellies. 

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