Food Innovations Mushroom Feature Fresh Mousseron Mushroom

Fresh Mousseron Mushroom - are delicious, small wild mushrooms more universally used in France and Italy. This versatile mushroom has a fine, full-bodied almost aniseed flavor with a soft and chewy, fleshy texture. The Mousseron mushroom goes well with meat and fish dishes, omelet’s, stuffing’s, or mixed mushroom dishes. The aroma and distinctive taste of the delicious Mousseron is reminiscent of Porcini mushrooms, almost nutty, toasty, with a slightly bitter almond edge.

Mousseron (Marasmius oreades), also known as Fairy ring mushrooms or Scotch Bonnett Mousseron mushrooms, are delicious, small wild mushrooms more universally used in France and Italy than in England - although it is well known and frequently used both in a fresh and a dry state in England. It's commonly found growing in "fairy rings" marked by dying grass in the center, on grassy lawns or in parks and cemeteries . Numerous conjectures were once put forth as to the origin of these rings when their fairy connection was no longer believed in. They were attributed to the out breathing of a lively subterranean vapour, to the burrowing of moles, even to the effects of lightning. The rings formed by Marasmius oreades increase in diameter with time as the fungus seeks new food. A number of studies measuring distance and growth rate have estimated that some rings of the M. oreades are probably centuries old and hundreds of feet across. The French call it faux mousseron, or "mushroom scythe", no doubt due to its nuisance potential for lawn destruction; eventually the grass inside the ring recovers, but along the borders the damage continues. One of the first mushrooms to appear in spring, the Mousseron mushroom tastes just as good as it looks.

This delicious mushroom can actually be found in the U.S. year-round except during the coldest months in the appropriate areas of the Northwest. The fairy ring mushroom fruits abundantly during the warm months in the eastern United States, and all year in the west; they are most easily attained in California in late spring and summer after rain or periodic watering. European season is Spring and Autumn.