Comments on: Maitake mushrooms turning unpleasantly bitter?

Question: Maitake mushrooms turning unpleasantly bitter?

Westringia F. — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 06:27:26 -0800

I made a pilaf with young hen-of-the-woods/maitake mushrooms on Monday night. It was delicious. This morning I nuked some leftovers for breakfast (it's been refrigerated for the past 36 hrs), and the mushroom pieces are now shockingly bitter. What happened?

I don't mean bitter like coffee or beer or walnuts; I mean almost inedibly bitter, like bitter melon or orange oil. I don't mind bitter things (I eat bitter melon), but the change is freaking me out a bit. WTH happened? What are these alkaloids? Where did they come from? And of course... can I still eat it*?

* Assume for sake of argument that I do not want to be tripping balls at work.

By: Salamander

Salamander — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 06:51:56 -0800

Uh, I don't know about the rest of it, but as to 'can I still eat it'? I wouldn't.

In their raw/wild state, if mushrooms taste bitter it usually means they're poisonous. Cooking probably changes the game a bit, but still...not worth it.

By: jammy

jammy — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:09:23 -0800

One of the cardinal rules of harvesting and eating wild mushrooms: When in doubt, throw it out.

By: Westringia F.

Westringia F. — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 07:40:34 -0800

The advice not to eat it probably still stands, but I should clarify: these were bought from a cultivator (an inspected one who sells at the regional farmer's markets), not collected from the wild.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 08:23:29 -0800

01) I would not eat the rest of this dish

02) Next time you are in the market, ask the cultivator about it? (If you don't get a conclusive answer here, I mean. or even if you do!)

By: nikkorizz

nikkorizz — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:41:45 -0800

I have heard that some mushrooms get incredibly bitter when they are heated to a very high temperature too fast. In this case, I would suspect that the microwave is the culprit. Maitake, in particular, is known to become bitter (but not poisonous) as it gets older. Perhaps you hyper-aged the mushrooms by nuking them?

Do you still have some soup left that hasn't been nuked? If you do, I would try some cold and see if the bitterness is still there. If it isn't bitter, then the next time you cook it, try re-boiling it instead of microwaving it.

By: Westringia F.

Westringia F. — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:59:47 -0800

Interesting, nikkorizz! Do you have a reference for that by any chance?

I have some non-nuked leftovers, so in principle I can try. I had no adverse reaction this morning other than "yuk," and since these weren't wild-picked I'm inclined to trust their safety, but before experimenting on myself I think I'd like to find more details.....

By: Slap*Happy

Slap*Happy — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 12:32:43 -0800

N'thing the nuking. Here's a Chowhound thread on the phenomena of overheated mushrooms becoming bitter.

By: telstar

telstar — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:31:05 -0800

In their raw/wild state, if mushrooms taste bitter it usually means they're poisonous.

Not true, especially not the converse. I.e. if a mushroom doesn't taste bitter, that definitely does NOT mean that it is not poisonous. If a mushroom tastes bitter, edibility tends to be unknown, because few eat bitter-tasting mushrooms.

By: Westringia F.

Westringia F. — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 13:31:03 -0800

Thank you, everyone, for much mushroom knowledge! In the end I experimented on myself and reheated the rest gently; after gentle reheating it was fine, so I suspect it was indeed the nuking.

(I say "suspect" because even though I'd intended to set some aside for the purpose of confirming/reproducing the effect, I got hungry and ate my sample. This is why I could never be an experimentalist in real life.)