Yummy! 
@ZombieFruit If itâs any consolation, @IL847 has a much more tolerant and appreciative taste palate than most people. She like likes her pawpaws browning and gooey soft. I wonât even touch the stuff once it gets to that stage. >_<
Youâll never really know until you try something yourself though. For me, texturally and flavor wise, Iâm not keen on puffballs.
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Tofu is exactly how I would have described it. I like tofu, but I donât really need a tofu substitute.
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I prefer a good morel or chanterelle, but when Ma Nature gives you puffballs, you run with it. Mostly, theyâre a carrier for butter &/or bacon grease!
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Thatâs what inoculated mushroom logs are for. >_<
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FWIW, I found a nice batch of Shaggy Manes a couple days ago alongside the road near my house. Iâm recovering from an Achilles tendon rupture, so my mushroom hunting is reduced to whatever I can see from the car. 
In addition, a friend brought me a nice bunch of Hen of the Woods, which pops up regularly under the oaks behind his house. Another friend send me pictures of what appear to be ~100 Honey Mushrooms growing in his yard. I didnât see them in person and in any case Iâm not yet 100% confident in my identification of that species. Iâve never eaten them.
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Iâve eaten them. Theyâre decent, but theyâre a lot of work. Theyâre best if picked on the young side and you peel the slimy skin off the cap.
Iâve found that a little soy sauce towards the end of cooking helps bring out their innate flavor (as well as adding soy sauce flavor, of course). Once I figured that out, they went from âI guess you can eat thisâ to âIâd go out of my way to eat thisâ in my book.
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Shaggy Mane is the 1st wild mushroom I ever picked myself and then ate. In the process of confirming the ID, I found a source who called it one of the top 3 culinary mushrooms in the world. Given that endorsement, I figure itâs just up to me to bring out the best.
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Shaggy mane is one I havenât quite sorted out yet. The breaded recipes havenât worked for me, and treating them more like sauteed mushrooms led to an unappetizing slurry. I should see if there are still some popping on the trails by my old office building. Them and blewitsâŚ
But, I agree with what youâre saying there. Great cooking comes from making good food from difficult ingredients. It doesnât take a culinary genius to make a filet mignon taste good.
The last recipe I used had me heat them until the water was gone and the butter had started to brown. So no slurry. The taste was quite strong, and I thought maybe theyâd be better diluted in rice or something.
had a huge flush of blewits last week near my chicken run but on the downhill side. all the manure washes down there when it rains so i figured not to take the chance. picked them for the chics and they loved them. lucky birds.
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I think I mentioned it here, but it could have been a different thread. Use only young shaggies that the gills are still pinkish with no liquidessing. Rinse, split in half lengthwise, dip in seasoned egg wash, and then cracker crumbs. Sautee in some butter till browned on each side.
When I make shaggies, itâs pretty much a short-term thing. Meaning you need to be cooking them ASAP after picking. Any blackness = grossâŚness
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I havenât tried quite that exact preparation, but Iâve always picked young ones and cooked them within hours (at most) of picking. Just gotta keep trying, I guess.
Once the nights dip into the mid 20Fs is it game over for finding mushrooms? I looked 2 weekends ago but didnât see much but the forest i looked in was awfully dry///we did get some rain since then//.but this next week looks cold.
So long as day temp is above freezing, you can have fruiting, but it really depends on what mushrooms you are referring to.
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ive found fall oysters this time of year on hardwoods. mostly maples when i was out huntingâŚ
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My oyster logs agree with you. I will be bringing them indoors once snow hits to get winter fruiting.
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I donât know if this counts, but today I found 1 shiitake on an oak log that I inoculated this past spring (2021), roughly 6 months ago. Obviously thatâs not a big harvest, but the timing seems a great omen for next year. Probably it reflects how wet the summer was. Last time I did this, it took a year for any fruit and 18 months for a decent harvest.
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There is a guy around me that does some pretty good seasonal mushroom videos. There is stuff to find all year long if you know what you are looking for. https://youtube.com/c/LearnYourLand
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