Two pounds of smooth chanterelles, young dryad’s saddle, a few old-man-of-the-woods, a black velvet bolete and some lovely white-pored chicken of the woods.
Two pounds of smooth chanterelles, young dryad’s saddle, a few old-man-of-the-woods, a black velvet bolete and some lovely white-pored chicken of the woods.
Well, this was my first time trying them. I’ve heard that some people find the taste poor, possibly depending on subspecies or substrate, but I have no complaints. I discarded the fibrous stalk and fried them up with herbs and butter. Meaty and delicious, with a surprising tangy note. I’d absolutely harvest them again.
All right, thanks for the reply!
It still looks like it might take some getting used to, but maybe I should give this species another chance (they’re actually pretty common here some years). The way you describe the taste, it sounds a bit like the red-footed boletes, which also have a slightly sour taste.
Definitely give them a try! I was lucky, these two were actually my first time getting to try boletes. Porcini-types aren’t common in my area, and I tend to have an abundance of the really bitter Tylopilus, as well as the various red and yellow blue-bruising boletes that are tricky to ID. I’m looking forward to slowly learning and hopefully sampling more of them. Your red-footed boletes are Neoboletus?
Sorry for the late reply.
The red-footed boletes in my area are Xercomellus and are usually quite abundant in all kinds of forests and even parks and hedges. The only drawback with this group of species is that they are very susceptible to gold mold and become worm-eaten very quickly. Therefore, it really only makes sense to harvest young specimens, and because of the species’ small size, harvesting them is less worthwhile than harvesting other boletes found here.
Ah, like the smaller cracked-cap guys with the usually slender stem? I think I’ve seen a few of those, and never very large fruitings at once, either. Understandable.