The edges got a bit overdone, but the nice thing is you can’t dry them out easily. I just tried an easy grilled chicken recipe. Put a little oil on them with a traditional rib-rub and then glazed with bbq sauce at the end. Tasted very similar to bbq chicken thighs.
2 Likes
Man, those look terrific! Gonna hit the woods this afternoon and see if the CotW that bloomed early this spring is putting on a summer flush.
No Chicken. Did find a couple of Indigo milkcaps, a few past-their-prime smooth chanterelles, and then noticed a big flush of white oyster mushrooms on some elm logs that I’d cut and rolled out of the woods road this spring, where the top split out of a big old elm in the fenceline.
2 Likes
Lots of mushrooms here, it’s been wet so far this year. I picked a nice bag of chanterelles yesterday and saw lots of different toadstools that I don’t know the names of
2 Likes
I hope this hasn’t been said already, but I don’t recommend anyone eat wild mushrooms unless they are 100% of what they have found. Death by Amanita phalloides, the death cap, can take a week, and is unpleasant.
Also avoid picking near roads, due to car exhaust pollution, on polluted ground as fungi pick up heavy metals and other toxins, and anywhere that people walk dogs.
Perhaps the best advice is to join a local mushroom society, or find a knowledgeable friend. I used to eat wild mushrooms, but I honestly think most are overrated. Agaricus bisporus, or cultivated mushrooms, are as good as any if not better.
Regarding Lion’s Mane, Hericium erinaceus, in Britain it is a protected species and illegal to pick, I don’t know about elsewhere. Some fungi are rare and are best left.
One of the safest common mushrooms to pick is Boletus edulis, also known as penny bun, cèpe (French), porcino (Italian, plural porcini) or Steinpilz (German, stone mushroom).
My own website is English Fungi (I can’t post a link) which has some pictures and descriptions of wild mushrooms.
1 Like
If you ever find yourself in a Western or Eastern Slavic country, make sure to never ever say that out loud unless you want the locals to drag you through forests on a mushroom hunting expedition for as long as it takes you to see the light. 
3 Likes
I’ve probably spent more time searching for mushrooms than any of the locals, and I’ve eaten a lot. People rave about Chanterelles, Cantharellus cibarius, I find them bland. I’ve cooked them myself and eaten them in an expensive restaurant. Cèpe, Boletus edulis, is pleasant especially when dried and used as a seasoning in a dish. Oyster mushrooms, Pleurotus ostreatus, are chewy and not so good. Morels, Morchella esculenta etc, are nice. Orange Birch Bolete, Leccinum versipelle, are overrated. Only my opinion of course. I prefer to look at them, as they are very beautiful.
I do rather like Saffron milk caps, Lactarius deliciosus, and Velvet Shanks, Flammulina velutipes, are rather nice in asian soups.
1 Like
Now that would be taken as an insult without prior acquaintance, as mushroom hunting is an inherent part of Slavic culture (you hunt mushrooms as soon as you can walk) and most of those locals will be better at identifying various species of boletes than telling appart maple and white poplar. Dried mushrooms are a staple and a decent gift, and secret mushoom hunting locations are considered family silver.
You are of course entitled to not appreciate the culinary qualities of wild mushrooms and enjoy their visual aesthetic only - all the more mushrooms left for those who do. In fact, I’d like to ask you to pass your message onto the misguided hordes who raze our forests on Saturday mornings from early Summer till November. Tell them to save gas and get their tasteless oysters and portobellos from the supemarket, so the rest of us can pick our mushrooms without waiting for weekdays or hiking too far to avoid the company and competition. Cheers!
2 Likes
if you ever came here i could bring you on a mushroom hunt and never see a single person in the woods. i started mushrooming in earnest about 10 yrs ago. other than oysters, no one knows anything about them and ive never seen another person in this area collecting them. all the locals think they are all poisonous. i can go out in the right time in summer and collect 50lbs of king boletes in a hr. we dont have oaks growing here originally so we dont have maitake or hen of the woods. but we have been planting red oaks in the local 4 seasons parks’ forest. some are 20ft. now. its a pity we dont have the mushroom culture Europe has. i love going out and seeing what’s popped up after a good rain.
1 Like
I’ve only seen that as a teenager in Norway in the '90s and could not wrap my head around people passing by magic circles of huge boletes. It was quite a culture shock. But I was told it was due to the route of the radioactive cloud from Chernobyl.
1 Like
Ganoderma: yes
lucidum: likely not
more likely it is applanatum
1 Like
Hot take, but I kind of agree. After many years of hunting wild mushrooms and trying to develop unbiased opinions about which I like best, a lot of them are just… not great. Storebought crimini / portobello (same species) are some of the best. But there are still a good few wild species that I like better.
1 Like
2 Likes
Looks like bitter bolete (Tylopilus felleus). I have the bitter tasting gene, so I sometimes check by licking a fresh cut on this one if unsure (which happens very rarely and only because I am testing for technically edible but bitter). Together with caloboletus radicans (not sure if this one lives only in Europe), it is the most hated bolete because it smells great, but the bitterness is extremely enhanced by cooking and a tiny piece can mess up a whole pot of food. At which point even non-tasters will end up spitting and cursing…
When it’s young, a fresh cut will turn slightly pink and then oxidize into pale blue before fading. I don’t think yours would do it as it’s too old, but there are traces of the coloration in your first pic.
3 Likes
It is not easy to recognize overgrown bolete. They change color of the sponge and loose their distinctive marks, but I agree with Tana, looks like bitter bolete.
4 Likes
The problem with this one is that many people confuse it with older and thinner (or sun-exposed) specimens of Boletus edulis or with Leccinum thalassinum and Leccinum decipiens as these two can also change colour when cut. Mushrooms tend to adjust their shape and colours depending on substrate and weather, so sometimes the only way to tell for certain is spore microscopy…
Another characteristic is that bitter bolete mostly grows on decomposed wood. The problem is when that wood is mixed into the soil or covered with a thin layer of soil. But the taste is unique - if you can catch it before spoiling a whole meal… I have won some money as a kid betting on it. 
3 Likes
we have that one here as well. also could be the birch bolete. though edible it has no taste and they usually come up here only in September. i have flushes of it in my yard. i get huge flushes of blewit here in the fall around my compost piles and the chicken run. i dont eat them as they are in contact with raw manure but the chics will .
The trick with birch bolete is to dry it and grind it into powder to use in soups, sauces and even in bread (the last one if you use lard to lure out the flavour).
1 Like
But Shuimitao’s mushroom is unlikely to be any leccinum - those have much rougher grainier stems.
1 Like
good to know. i get dozens of big ones under my mature birch. i will sometimes use them in a stir fry or something that has a strong sauce.