Porcini Mushrooms: in album food
| Jul 5th, 2011, by Alex Zorach |
These porcini mushrooms were for sale at Iovine's Produce Corner in the Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia for $49.99 a pound. The name of these mushrooms comes from the word "porcino", Italian for piglet. The stout stems of these mushrooms makes them resemble little piglets.
Porcini mushrooms are from the Boletus edulis species. They are generally wild harvested, explaining the high price, although their commercial sale is fairly mainstream--they are even exported to regions where they do not grow. Porcini are edible and not easily mistaken for any poisonous mushrooms, but there are other species of the Boletus genus which are poisonous, and there are also other less closely related mushrooms that look similar but have an unappealing taste and texture.
This particular batch of porcini mushrooms did not look particularly fresh or attractive to me, and I had little interested in buying them. For such a high price, they would have to look very fresh for me to even consider purchasing them.