Mushrooms

When Henry William Ravenel published his findings on the fungi and lichens of South Carolina in the 1850s, it was the first written treatise on American mushrooms. But early manuscripts and published works found in the papers of Lowcountry families had long referred to cooking mushrooms—stewed, pickled, put up in catsups, and dried. The earthy flavors of fungi, esteemed in both France and England whence came so many Carolina settlers, married well with the poultry and rice dishes of the area and complemented the game of the plantations. Sarah Rutledge included a “German receipt” for a mushroom soup in her 1847 Carolina Housewife, as well as a white fricassee of the fungi. In the Lowcountry mushrooms often mean chanterelles.