Picking wild mushrooms?

[cy88]

(not the magic variety)

Anyone been brave enough to try? There's a huge crop of them at the bottom of my garden that look like Sainsbury's best, but I'm just a little unsure.

Anyone recommend a good website for background reading? :burger:

[LuS1fer]

Try it, you seem like a fun guy.

[cy88]

Believe me, I've mould it over for a while now

[ATG]

It's always a bit of a leap of faith to put your trust in a book or picture off the web when it comes to eating toadstools. I got my intro a few months ago in France in the company of a professional botanist and a 100 year old rustic type. Well worth it. Fantastic flavour, interesting textures, etc, etc. Mind you, I had the shits for a couple of days.

[cinque]

I am the shroom king off hunting next week (if the frost holds off) Porcini is the prize, but you need to know a)what youre looking for & b) where to look.


if you need help take a pic and ill try to advise

[Jinx]

Tear some of the cap off and rub it against your skin (ohh err missus) it it goes yellow don't eat the mushroom (as it's fairly poisonous). Otherwise nowt beats a huge slice of puffball fried in butter between a crusty bun.

>> Edited by Jinx on Friday 7th October 16:15

[timmy30]

If they're white, the caps have opened out and the gills are pink, plus there is no mucous covering the cap, they should be fine.

[cy88]

cinque said:

I am the shroom king off hunting next week (if the frost holds off) Porcini is the prize, but you need to know a)what youre looking for & b) where to look. if you need help take a pic and ill try to advise

Cheers cinque - I might try to post a pic.

[cyberface]

Porcini grow in the same places as amanitas muscaria (the red buggers with white dots)! Porcini are damn hard to spot as they're well camouflaged, but amanitas are not. Top tip. There are a few porcini relatives that also taste pretty good, they also have the spongy underside rather than gills and are easy to spot.

There are only a few deadly poisonous mushrooms in the UK that you'd mistake for an edible one - take your mushroom identification book with you and *check* each one. Gill colour, flesh bruise colour, presence of bulb at bottom etc. are all indicators, if in doubt don't eat it.

We've got enough woodland around here, best get out this weekend and have a root around!!!

[cy88]

OK, picked some and here they are. They're growing in rings about 12 foot around. They have a definite mushroomy smell, they don't go yellow when you rub them and you can peel the skins.
The dark one at the bottom of the first pic was very "ripe". The biggest ones are about 4 inches across. Having looked at some pictures I reckon they are probably field mushrooms and edible. If this is the case they would be great cooked in cream and calvados and served on toast for breakfast.

However, for obvious reasons, I remain sceptical about considering eating one





(even if they aren't, I'll probably have to pick the lot so that they're out of curious hands way)

[rich 36]

An old fashioned countyrman type said;
"I always leave one uneaten beside plate, whenever sampled, as a guide, should the worst happen"

Good advice I thought, and he was known as something of an expert.

[rolyrat]

They look great. Have em on toast. YumYum

[cyberface]

look tasty to me. Don't bother with the 'ripe' one if it's started to rot - the others look fresh and, as you say, like regular field mushrooms.

Got me going now, I'm about to make myself a wild mushroom risotto, unfortunately no recently collected 'wild' shrooms so have to make do with dried porcini and sainsbury's shiitake. Yum

[andy mac]

LuS1fer said:

Try it, you seem like a fun guy.

Oh dear... Oh dear... Labotomy equipment to LuS1fer's room please!

[Hilts]

cy88 said:

OK, picked some and here they are. They're growing in rings about 12 foot around. They have a definite mushroomy smell

Mushrooms with a mushroomy smell ? Shocker.

OK just shrooming with you....

Where do you find shrooms of the Paul Daniels variety ?

[andy mac]

Mushrooms are fine, as long as you keep reminding yourself not to think about what they grow them in....

[cy88]

Hilts said:

Mushrooms with a mushroomy smell ? Shocker.

apparently some of the poisonous ones don't smell of mushrooms?

[andy mac]

cy88 said:

Hilts said: Mushrooms with a mushroomy smell ? Shocker. apparently some of the poisonous ones don't smell of mushrooms?

They smell of poison?

[simpo two]

My favourite mushrooms are truffles.

Chocolate ones

[mikef]

I'm a real coward when it comes to wild fungi - if it's not one of Cepes/Porcini/Steinpilze/Boletus Edulis, Girolles/Pfifferlinge/Cantherellus Cibarius or Pied-de-Mouton/Semmelstoppelpilze/Hedgehog mushroom/Hydnum Repandum then I don't take the risk

Fortunately these are all fairly easy to find in the local woods - I love this time of year


ps: why does no-one have English names for this stuff? then again, that's probably why there is no competition apart from the insects...