(Identification tentative! It could have been anything!) Touted as one of the better Lactarii for the table, this one turned a funny very dark and oxidized colour upon cooking. The aroma during the sauté was reminiscent of their fresh latex, which very slightly burned on the back of my soft palate. (Very much like an attenuated version of the smell of Russula mariae, which will be the subject of another note.)
Anyways, I spat out the first mouthful.
I never give up after the first try, as perhaps another cooking style may bring out the unique flavour of these fungi, but it wasn't an auspicious beginning to our relationship.
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Finally found in sufficient quantity to warrant some tasting.
I sautéed some in a pan with olive oil and salt. The caps became slimy
in the familiar boletoid manner, but the stalks remained unpleasantly crunchy
for a very long time. The flavour was thin. Then I dropped some others into
the ubiquitous lentil stew, where they were able to cook slowly for longer.
The textures were again; soft mushy pileus and crunchy stipe. No flavour was
apparent after exposure to the ginger, garlic, chiles, tamarind and coriander.
So far, anyways, not a stand-out bolete from a culinary viewpoint.
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(Identification tentative! It could have been anything!) Also consumed by myself for the first time this season, by virtue of more than one sporocarp being collected, finally, at one time.
The texture of these specimens was very sturdy, and they retained this quality through a fairly extensive, say twenty minutes, of cooking in the lentil stew. They didn't taste like much of anything.
Upon encountering them again, I tried preparing them in a sauté with, unfortunately, similar results. Less than pleasing texture, and not much flavour.
But I won't give up! If I find any more, I'll dry them.
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This was a first collection for me, down/up here.
This carpohore is not, perhaps, the most appetizing thing in the forest. This
prompted me to peel the elastic and very viscid integument from the caps of
my October collection and relegate them to the drying rack for attention in
the winter; when the 'fridge wouldn't be stuffed with bags of choice fresh edibles.
Their soft and mushy flesh blackened as they became dessicated, and lost more
weight than most mushrooms. No specimen of this collection was buggy.
I dropped a handful into the quotidian soup (sweet potatoes, parsnips, scallions
and baby lima beans,) and they were delicious! The flavour and texture is reminiscent
of some of my favourite boletes; somewhere perhaps between Fuscoboletinus aeruginascens
and Leccinum holopus.
Update: We now collect and dry this fungus at every opportunity for its soup-worthiness.
Split the mushrooms through their stipes and peel the thick glutinous cuticle
from the caps at the same time, before you set them out to dry. This will carry
away much of the adhering foresty debris, as well.
We have a recipe for these dried fungi that you might like to try; Gomphidius
glutinosus au fenouil
Back to Mycophagy
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A report on a second attempt to enjoy the attractive Hygrophorus russula to its fullest possible extent. I remember being disgusted the first time I tried them, but cannot recall the cookery method. Ah, well. This time, to be sure of the flavours involved, and at the same time to obviate a certain amount of mineral detritus attached to the mushrooms, we seethed them in boiling salted water for a few seconds, spooned them out, and poured the resultant broth carefully into a new vessel, leaving most of the sand behind. Bringing the liquor to a new simmer, we added a bruised clove of fresh garlic and a fingertip of ginger-root, to be fished out at the appropriate moment, and reintroduced the fungi. We added sliced new carrots, and a few minutes later some diced buttercup squash. The soup was finished away from the fire with a few drops of sesame oil and scallion cut into thin rings. Hmm, they're good. Nice texture, delicate flavour, not quite as good as but reminiscent of Camarophyllus praetensis, a perennial favourite of mine.
Traipsing through a riparian vale, in one of the most northerly manifestations of the Carolinian forest here in Ontario, I came across a lovely solid specimen of Boletopsis subsquamosa. Later, with small cries of glee, I scrubbed the dirt from it and sliced its thick solid flesh into a soup of leeks and buttercup squash. It was delicious; firm and toothsome, albeit turning a lustrous shade of blue-grey as it cooked. (Grey is my favourite colour, so this was no detraction for me.) I can only hope to find it again, one autumn.
Your intrepid taste tester is back with report of another less well known edible; heretofore damned, as the saying goes, by faint praise. This woodland agaric had been found but seldom by myself here in S. Ontario, and even then, mostly singly. (It's difficult to make a skillettal appraisal of less than, say, a double handful of material.)
Dire warnings of differentiation-defying poisonous species in the genus Agaricus abound in the lay literature. However, this species is fairly straightforward in description, and sufficiently distinctive in its characters; I felt that I was ready to taste it after collecting (and examining) it several times.
This is the first of the Agaricaceae with an aroma of almond extract that I have eaten; the odour of prussic acid is strong, but co-exists with the rich underlay of champignon flavour that would be familiar to any mycophagist. Hmm.
How then, to put it best to work at table?
I decided to prepare them en cocotte, in a hot oven with parsnips, onions and pimiento, with just enough liquid to allow a full braise. Salt and plenty of garlic to set things off, a few drops of olive oil for lubricity, and some lemon juice to keep the parsnips pale. Wow, these are good. Stay attuned to further gustatory experiments!
There are usually many other good edibles around when the Panellus begin to fruit, well after first frost. I had ignored them after a dimly remembered tasting back in the my early foraging years. As I have written elsewhere, it is often worth-while to try a fungus that puts off your palate again; perhaps the mood or the cookery were at fault... and so to work. I prepared a court-bouillion with parsley stalks and a clove of garlic still in its skin, stuck with a clove, and a bit of pale wine. After simmering this for a while, and removing the solids, I added the fungi. Their green pigment coloured the broth quite effectively, although the mushrooms themselves became slimy and tasteless. I think they would have been much better in a rather dry casserole. Oh well.
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