On Food and Cooking

Lobster Wild    mushroom

decomposers

Hypomyces
lactifluorum
Fresh truffles are very perishable and emit
their aroma in storage. They’re best kept
refrigerated in a closed container with some
material — often rice — to absorb moisture
and keep their surface from getting wet and
spoiled by microbes.

Huitlacoche, or Corn Smut

Huitlacoche is a parasitic fungus, Ustilago
maydis, that attacks corn plants, and that has
been eaten in Mexico and Central America
since Aztec times. It infects various plant
parts, including the kernels in the growing ear,
and develops into irregular spongy masses or
“galls” that are a combination of greatly
enlarged plant cells, nutrient-absorbing fungal
threads, and blue-black spores. Fully mature
galls are dry, black spore bags. The optimum
stage for harvest is two to three weeks after