Saturday, July 19, 2014

Chanterelle mushrooms and Yunnan medicine


   The chanterelle is a nice forest mushroom with pleasant taste and nourishing qualities. However, according to Dian Nan Ben Cao ("Yunnan Materia Medica") 《滇南本草》, written by Lan Mao 兰茂 in 1436, the chanterelle has damp properties and that's why it is important to be cooked with ginger to counteract the dampness.
I found this citation from Dian Nan Ben Cao worth noting:
"The common people mostly boil [chanterelle] with garlic, thinking that if there is a poison, the garlic will turn black; they don't know that if there is a poison in the mushroom, the garlic not necessarily will blacken. But when ginger encounters the poison, it will surely turn black". 

"世人多以大蒜同煮,以为有毒蒜黑,不知蒜见毒未必即黑,姜见毒则必黑。” 《滇南本草》







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