Known as the meat of the vegetable world, mushrooms have their ardent supporters as well as their fierce detractors. Hobbits go crazy over them, while Diderot thought they should be “sent back to the dung heap where they are born.” In Mushroom, Cynthia D. Bertelsen examines the colorful history of these divisive edible fungi. As she reveals, their story is fraught with murder and accidental death, hunger and gluttony, sickness and health, religion and war. Some cultures equate them with the rottenness of life while others delight in cooking and eating them. And then there are those “magic” mushrooms, which some people link to ancient religious beliefs. To tell this story, Bertelsen travels to the nineteenth century, when mushrooms entered the realm of haute cuisine after millennia of being picked from the wild for use in everyday cooking and medicine. She describes how this new demand drove entrepreneurs and farmers to seek methods for cultivating mushrooms, including experiments in domesticating the highly sought after but elusive truffles, and she explores the popular pastime of mushroom hunting and includes numerous historic and contemporary recipes. Packed with images of mushrooms from around the globe, this savory book will be essential reading for fans of this surprising, earthy fungus.

Eat History offers fascinating new insights into the emerging field of gastronomic studies and its intersection with cultural history, and includes the writing of nine leading historians on topics ranging from vodka to patty cakes. Though primarily focused on Australia, the transnational nature of many of the essays widens the scope to include Russia and the British Empire, as well as Italy. With its engaging and entertaining tone, the volume will prove to be of interest not only to researchers and academics in the field, but to more general readers keen to discover how the consideration of food opens up whole new areas of history and points the way to fruitful future inquiry.

“The lurid photographs and enticing, offhandedly witty descriptions make the reader want to go out collecting specimens right away."—Popular Science From morels to chanterelles, toadstools to truffles, fungi have been a source of fascination since the earliest hunter-gatherers first foraged for them. Today there are few, if any, places on Earth where fungi have not found themselves a home—their habitats span the poles and the tropics, mountaintops and backyards. Packed with facts and photos, this book introduces you to fungus in many forms—some parasitic, some poisonous, some hallucinogenic and some with healing properties that can be tapped for pharmaceutical products. Then of course, there are the delicious mushrooms that are prized by epicureans and gourmands worldwide. Each species here is reproduced at its actual size, in full color, and accompanied by a scientific explanation of its distribution, habitat, association, abundance, growth form, spore color, and edibility. With information on the characteristics, locations, distinguishing features, and occasionally bizarre habits of these fungi, you’ll find in this book the common and the conspicuous, the unfamiliar and the odd—including a fungal predator, for instance, that hunts its prey with lassos, and several that set traps, including one that entices sows by releasing the pheromones of a wild boar. “How dazzling is the world of mushrooms? The fan-shaped cinnabar oysterling looks like something you would find undersea. The violet webcap is vibrant. These are among the more than 600 fungi described and illustrated in this scholarly and beautiful book.”—TheNew York Times “Anyone with an appreciation of the beauty of nature will enjoy.”—Grand Forks Herald

“A masterpiece. The Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook is, by far, the best culinary guide to cooking and pairing mushrooms. . . . This book makes me so hungry, I want to eat it.” —Paul Stamets, mycologist and author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World "One of the best things about Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook is the enthusiasm that exudes from every page. Even a mushroom moderate will find a recipe that excites curiosity." – Food52 THIS ONE-OF-A-KIND COMMUNITY-DRIVEN COOKBOOK, EDITED BY AUTHOR EUGENIA BONE, FEATURES OVER 100 MUSHROOM-CENTRIC RECIPES FROM APPETIZERS AND MAINS TO DESSERTS AND DRINKS. The Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook is written by the people who know mushroom cooking best—mushroom lovers! These are the kinds of recipes you will actually cook for dinner: tried-and-true, family recipes representing cultures from all over the world. Recipes include: • Black Trumpet and Fig Pizza • Lobster Mushroom Chowdah • Chicken Chanterelle Paprikash • Chaga Chocolate Chip Cookies The cookbook also features fi ve thoughtful and engaging essays written by Eugenia that explore a wide range of topics, including mushroom cultivation and foraging. Following the path set by Louie Schwartzberg’s award-winning documentary, this cookbook will expand your appreciation of the fantastic world of fungi, their diff erent tastes and varieties, and their many applications, from flavoring drinks to replacing meat in recipes. The most diverse and comprehensive mushroom cookbook available, the Fantastic Fungi Community Cookbook is the perfect gift for anyone who is curious about the marvelous world of mushrooms and the magic they can make in the kitchen.