Edible BEAR'S HEAD TOOTH (a.k.a. Hericium Americanum) MUSHROOM!

I find mushrooms fascinating.  Even with the strange variety of life of this planet, fungi and mushroom seem to be even stranger to me, like they are from a different planet.   Walking through the forests, especially during early autumn the ground is covered with many varieties of mushrooms.  The first time I happened upon this strange mushroom (or rather, at least the first time I remember seeing it) was last year near Goderich on the Maitland Trail.  This one is certainly different than all other types of mushrooms I have seen, a sort of cascade of icicles or tooth-like formations, coming out of a log.  Apparently they are relatively common in North American hardwood forests.  Looking through my Mushrooms of Ontario and Eastern Canada field guide, I identified it as Bear’s Head Tooth mushroom, or Hericium americanum.  Researching online, I found that they are quite edible and delicious.  The good thing about these is that no other mushroom out there really looks like them, so identification is quite easy.  There are a few varieties but they are all edible.  Usually found in late summer/early fall growing from dead hardwood tree trunks lying on the ground, they sometimes can grow from living damaged hardwood trees as well.

On my hike this past weekend, about 500m where I started on the trail, I came across a patch of these growing from some downed logs.  I returned after I finished my hiking loop to collect them and eat ‘em to see how they tasted.  Word on the internet is they taste similar to lobster, and some places they even cultivate them commercially in sawdust, although I don’t think that’s anywhere near where I live, since I’ve certainly never seen or heard of it.  I gathered about 5 clumps of them from the one log they were growing from in the dark with my headlamp.    Some of the clumps were quite large, and others were a bit smaller but fresher looking.

The next day I wanted to cook ‘em up..  so I took one of the smaller clumps and attempted to clean them from the pine needles and miscellaneous forest dirt that was between the ‘teeth’.  I suppose one of the downsides of these, dirt is kind of hard to get out of them.  I cut off some of the outer bits, and the inner portions were relatively clean. 
 

The insides are a nice white color, and don’t discolor much after slicing.  It is quite strange looking – to me it’s not unappealing, but certainly doesn't look like something tasty.  The look of it reminds me of tripe...  which I will eat on occasion.

I then fried it up in butter with half a clove of garlic, salt and pepper.  It darkens a little and turns slightly red.  Tasting it, it certainly tastes mild and mushroomy.  I’m not so sure about the lobster taste, but it certainly is edible.  It is slightly tough on some of the bits, possibly because I slightly overcooked it.  It would be pretty good in a wild mushroom soup- I think I'll make this out of the remaining mushrooms I scored.

A few more links: 
Bear's Head Tooth Mushroom
Mushroomexpert.com  

American Mushrooms