Mushrooms

[Allen]

I hate them. You might love 'em. Anyway, whether you do or you don't like them, are they a vegetable or not? I know they're a fungus, but would they be classed as a vegetable, coz Tesco's and the like sell them in the vegetable section.

Funny thing is, we're talking about it at work and different fruit and veg etc, but how can you tell the difference between a fruit and a veg? Fruits have seeds and are needed for other flowers to grow, right? Vegetables, well I can't class them...

Help us out please!

[Allen]

Does nobody know?

[KnightWhoSaysNi]

Fungi have their own kingdom, separate from plants, so they are biologically speaking no more a vegetable than a cow is. And I assume a vegetable is any plant that isn't a fruit.

[stytagm]

I agree that mushrooms, as fungi, are not plants but I don't think "vegetable" has a strict biological / scientific definition, so it could be interpreted as "any food that's not meat/animal based".

Just a hypothesis

[Nick]

Seeing as mushrooms tend to make up the bulk of an (unimaginative) vegetarian or vegan diet, I'd say that's why they're classed as a vegetable.

Classification is a tricky one anyways.. for instance, the banana is actually classed as a herb!

[tiggerai]

Mushrooms = Icky

end of conversation

[dkmech]

Mushrooms rock.

And the fact that they are in the vegetable isle also depends on the way they used, how they are sold/stored and the produce that would be bought with them. You wouldn't expect them in the crisps isle, would you? It's just the best place for them.

[muddyfox470]

I dont mind mushrooms if they are small enough, i could not eat a whole one tho!

Ian

PS. Mushroom = Funghi

[Allen]

Well, I did state I knew they were a fungus, but I wasn't sure if fungi came under the classification of vegetables.

[happytechie]

if you follow the logic that edible fungi are vegetables then we better move quorn into the veg department as well.

HT

[Auran]

Vegetable is a non scientific classification, which covers anything that isn't a fruit or herb. So mushrooms are a "vegetable" but scientifically classified as a fungus.

Oh and mushroom especially the ones you get from Amsterdam

[dkmech]

Surelly its "vegetable covers any plant that isn't a fruit or a herb". Since mushrooms aren't plants they aren't vegetables. Otherwise we might as well consider you a vegetable.

[Auran]

Surelly its "vegetable covers any plant that isn't a fruit or a herb". Since mushrooms aren't plants they aren't vegetables. Otherwise we might as well consider you a vegetable.

Very droll, however your getting scientific classifications mixed up with "cookery" ones. Not being a plant is an irrelevance in this case so mushrooms get lumped in with vegetables along with peppers, potatoes and tomatoes. Neither of which are actually vegetables in the truest sense.

In addition, wheat is a plant but you wouln't call that a vegetable. So you I'm afraid are twice as wrong as me

There would be one plus with being a vegetable, kids would take one look at you and go "eugh" and run off, leaving you hassle free

[dkmech]

Wheat would be a herb then - i.e. plant that is a herb is not a vegetable. So there.

[stytagm]

lumped in with vegetables along with peppers, potatoes and tomatoes.

Pepper and tomatoes are biologically fruit, but vegetables in a "cuisine" sense, but why aren't Spuds vegetables? Again I know that biologically they're not roots, but have more similarities to shoots (I've actually written essays on this topic, the magnum opus that was "A shoot's a shoot, a root's a root, and there ain't no in between")

Unless spuds are a "staple", like bread or pasta. Which brings me onto wheat, is it a staple? Or just a grain or cereal until you make it into something?

However to avoid arguments, why don't we just reclassify everything into the catch-all scientific category of "stuff"?

PS Mushrooms = Yummy - except ****ake, which are chewy.
PPS Don't even get me started on Quorn, I had to study that at uni too, adn you would rather chew of your own legs than have me blather on about it (Did you know the entire world's supply is made in just two vat's in North England for example)

[Clingy]

I'd get one of our plant biologists to give you a definative answer if I cba, but I'm sure you can google it. And as already stated, they have different meanings in biology to cooking. (Fruit/Vegetable).

Mushrooms....I love them, and the bigger the better. Those massive field mushrooms the size of a dinner plate are gourgeous. you can almost carve them.