Please help with ID

[eat-bolete]

The 3 milkies have soft edge, not really hairy but feels soft kind of like Amanita's volva, milk is white, not changing color. Some gills are forked. Stem feels leathery

The other milky has much closer spaced gills that also fork. Stem slightly ridged/corrugated.

The other shrooms are Clitocybe?

Bolete tasted mild.

[Dave W]

Top photo (milkies with inrolled cap margins)... maybe L. decetivus or L. subvellerus var. subvellerus. Deceptivus usually has a brownish scaly cap center. So I'd go with the latter.

Milkie with really crowded gills is probably L. piperatus.

Brown-capped clustered mushroom is very likely Gymnopus luxurians.

Cool bolete! I don't recognize the species. Looks like something currently placed in genus Boleteus (likely to change in the near future). I wonder if the cap may have showed more color and faded over time? B. carminipes looks like a possible match. Do the pores bruise blue?

[eat-bolete]

Thanks Dave. looks a lot like B. carminipes, the cap is just a little grayer/paler. Pore surface bruises blue instantly.

I wish I got more piperatus, enough to pickle, but it was mostly the L. subvellerus, which I believe is poisonous?

[Dave W]

Well, I have pickled piperatus with success. But my method --a makeshift cold marinating of three-bolied mushrooms-- was not in accordance with what's typically done in Scandinavian or East European countries. The pickling done with hot milkies in these areas is really more of a salt-curing. The (I believe raw) mushrooms are heavily salted and layered between leaves of a particular type of tree. The layers are then compressed under the weight of a stone, and everything stays this way for weeks. I think there's more than one species used like this in some areas.

The method I used was basically an adaptation of cold-pickling Armillarias (Honey Mushrooms) shown to me by a Russian friend. It worked pretty well for the L. piperatus, although most of the hot flavor was gone from my finished product, which actually was a bit of a disappointment. So my pickled L. piperatus was basically an experiment that worked okay... at least for me and my wife. We never ate very much all at once. I used it as an ingredient in Nori rolls.

[eat-bolete]

I called it pickling but yes, I meant salt curing. I'm of the russian descent and there are basically 2 ways that I know of, but both start with soaking the L. piperatus in cold water for a few days, changing water a few times. After that it is either steaight to layering them with salt and dill, garlic and peppercorns, which takes 40 days to cure, or boiling them for 20 min and doing the same layering, but it cures in 7-10 days. The latter process speeds things up but you lose some of the flavor and crunch. I can understand how boiling them 3 times can take all the flavor out, we only do that with red capped Leccinums.

[Dave W]

Okay, so you know about this salting/pickling thing. Great! Looking forward to hearing about anything you accomplish with these hot milkies.

The "three waters" boiling is what a lot of the Polish immigrants --two generations before me-- did with Russulas and Armillarias. Many colorful Russula species, including some acrid types that are considered to be sickeners, were all thrown together into a large pot for boiling. After three water changes the mushrooms were apparently all rendered edible.

I still boil Armillarias, once before preparing or freezing. This has little effect upon the flavor or texture of these resilient mushrooms.

[eat-bolete]

Thanks for letting me know about Armillarias, I'm planning to try some for the first time this year.

I'll let you know about the milkies maybe i'll still pickle the L. deceptivus and try a little bit, there are so many growing around, maybe I'm passing by a decent pickling fingus.

[brianf]

Dave have you ever eaten A.Mellea without boiling? I eat these cooked from raw all the time without issue. Up here we have a pretty safe strain or something.

Picked these last year:

Do either of you have any experience picking/eating Hypholoma Sublateritium/brick caps? It actually is extremely popular up here. Due to it's commonality. I know folks who have no interest

in picking any other wild mushroom but harvest brick caps due to it's abundance. By end of August early September both of these mushrooms are everywhere.

It's another mushroom people consider to be "hot" and tend to take extra caution when preparing, but I've never had any problems myself consuming it.

Granted, both mushrooms can be confused with some dangerous ones.

[Dave W]

I have tried Brick Caps only once or twice. They tend to be out while Armillarias are available, and I like the Armillarias better. The species must have received a promotion... The former H. sublateritium is now known as H. lateritium.

As per my father's family tradition I par-boil all my Armillarias (popinkees). My understanding is that Armillarias contain an indigestible substance that some folks are particularly sensitive to. I personally know two people who have been sickened by Arimillarias, and in each case par-boiling was not utilized. Last year I met someone else who got sick from eating non-boiled Armillaria. His wife did not get sick from eating the same meal. So this small body of evidence supports the "some sensitive people" hyposthesis, as well as the "par-boiling may reduce the risk" hypothesis.

[brianf]

Haha......they're full fledged lateritium now!

I agree, A.Mellea is considerably more tasty. Once the brick caps hit a certain size they can start to run the pipe from bland to acrid and bitter. Some say the small ones have a "nutty" flavor but I disagree with this. I think they taste like supercharged bisporus with a hint of sweetness.

Armillarias definitely make people sick all the time. For some reason I have a massive tolerance to poisons of all sort. I'm not subject to poison ivy, oak, or sumac. I've eaten some seriously questionable mushrooms. I'm completely immune to local anesthesia. Yet, I cannot take any sort of narcotic or synthesized painkiller as I will have a serious bout of anaphylaxis.

And to answer any questions. Yes, I have had to have surgery without anesthesia and nothing stronger than advil.