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CHAPTER VII 



MUSHROOMS AS FOOD 

 GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR PREPARING AND COOKING THEM 



A generation ago edible mushrooms were believed to possess 

 high nutritive value on account of the nitrogen contained in 

 them. Authorities in dietetics considered them to be of service 

 as substitutes for meat. Later investigations have seemed to 

 show that, in the cases of several of the commonly eaten 

 species, a part of the nitrogenous element is present in a form 

 that is not available for alimentary use in the human body. 

 Starch and other substances useful as food are present in the 

 fleshy fungi in such small quantities as to add but little to their 

 nutritive value. Their vitamin content is apparently high 

 however, and this fact, together with what fuel value they do 

 possess and that of the materials in company with which they 

 are usually cooked, give ample reason for their employment as 

 food. Moreover, mushrooms have great value as condiments 

 or food accessories and "their value as such is beyond the 

 computation of the chemist or physiologist. They are among 

 the most appetizing of table delicacies and they add greatly 

 to the palatability of many foods when cooked with them." 

 It is not always possible by laboratory analysis to duplicate 

 conditions that exist in natural digestion and assimilation of 

 foods. Statements as to the food value of mushrooms, com- 

 monly met with in books on dietetics are based upon incom- 

 plete investigations. There is need of careful research in this 

 direction. Lastly, their savory taste and the age-long custom 

 of using mushrooms as food, insure a continued demand for 

 them as articles of human diet. 



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