The mushrooms contribute a chewy texture to soups and stews and are popularly cooked in ramen and hot pot meals. Once rehydrated, Wood Ear mushrooms should be cleaned and trimmed, and the soaking liquid can be discarded as it does not absorb any umami flavoring. The mushrooms can also be soaked in cold water overnight for a softer texture. Dried Wood Ear mushrooms need to be reconstituted before use and can be soaked in water, broth, or wine for approximately 15 to 30 minutes. The mushrooms are primarily added to dishes for enhanced texture and color, and the rehydrated mushrooms readily absorb accompanying flavors by trapping sauces and spices in the folds on the mushroom’s surface. Wood Ear mushrooms have a mild, woodsy, and earthy flavor well suited for cooked applications, including boiling, stir-frying, and sautéing. This soup is believed to help blood flow, reduce the possibility of blood clots, and help replenish red blood cells. After childbirth, women also consume Wood Ear mushrooms in a soup composed of jujubes, mushrooms, ginger, and poultry. The mushrooms are cooked and consumed, often in soups, to absorb the nutrients, or they are brewed into a tea. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, Wood Ear mushrooms are believed to reduce sore throats, increase circulation, lessen fevers, and detoxify the bloodstream. The mushrooms are also a source of vitamins B1 and B2, copper, magnesium, zinc, and contain lower amounts of potassium, calcium, and phosphorus. Wood Ear mushrooms are a good source of fiber to regulate the digestive tract and iron to develop the protein hemoglobin for oxygen transport through the bloodstream. It is important to note that Wood Ear mushrooms are not typically utilized for their flavor, as they are generally very mild, but the mushrooms are widely favored in Asia for their medicinal value and textural enhancement in culinary preparations. Drying the mushrooms also allows the fungi to be quickly shipped and transported. Wood Ear mushrooms are commonly found throughout Asia and are sold dried in local markets to prolong the mushroom’s shelf life. Wood Ear mushrooms are also known as Jelly Ear, Wood Ear, Black fungus, Jelly fungus, and Tree Ear fungus, and earned their “ear” moniker from their similarity in appearance to the shape of an ear growing from the side of a tree. The unusually shaped mushrooms have a distinct appearance and a snappy, subtly chewy consistency, highly favored in Asia as a textural element in culinary dishes. Wood Ear mushrooms, botanically classified as Auricularia auricula-judae, are an edible jelly fungus belonging to the Auriculariaceae family. The mushrooms readily absorb accompanying flavors and are favored for their texture more than their flavor.ĭried Wood Ear mushrooms are available year-round. Wood Ear mushrooms are known for their crunchy and chewy consistency and have a very mild flavor with earthy, musty, and woodsy nuances. The mushrooms bear a slippery, smooth, elastic, and gelatinous texture and range in color from dark brown, brown-black, to grey-black. When reconstituted, Wood Ear mushrooms can expand 3 to 4 times their dried size and develop a wavy and floppy, cup-like to ear-like shape, averaging 3 to 8 centimeters in diameter. Dried Wood Ear mushrooms are inedible when raw and need to be rehydrated and cooked. The dried mushroom is hard, brittle, and thin, showcasing a white-brown underside against the cap’s upper black-brown surface. Future studies should use suitable technology to collect, process, and preserve these mushrooms without loss of nutritional attributes for human health benefits.▶Play Your browser does not support the audio element.ĭried Wood Ear mushrooms are small in size and have a folded, shriveled, and compact appearance curled tightly into themselves. These features qualify both mushrooms as ideal food sources for human consumption. In addition, Termitomyces umkowaan possesses levels of total proteins comparable to edible legumes. In contrast to the assessment of nutritional quality in cultivated mushrooms, its assessment in wild mushrooms is difficult. This chapter focuses on the assessment of the nutritional qualities of two wild mushrooms, Auricularia auricula-judae and Termitomyces umkowaan, collected from the Western Ghats and the west coast of southern India, respectively. It has been intensified due to increased population, insufficient food production, more dependence on starch- or monocarbohydrate-based diets, transformation of agricultural lands into industrial yards and loss of phytodiversity. Protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) is one of the major challenges in developing countries.
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