#boletus

Amongst gilled mushrooms, some are delicious, and some are fatally toxic. Learning proper ID is of course important for all fungi, but moreso with gilled mushrooms. There can be some very nasty lookalikes for edible ones and you don't want to make any mistakes there!

Interestingly however, even though boletes also have toxic fungi, none of them seem to have a record of fatality or even long-lasting damage. Bad ones can make you extrmely ill - nauseous, cramps, vomiting etc - but eventually it seems most people recover completely... eventually. Which means your leeway for getting things wrong is marginally better.

⚠️ I'm not saying that you can play loose and free with boletes - do NOT play with safety in foraging ever! But it's interesting to think on why folk customs and advice get passed down in this form...

For UK boletes, and as far as I have read, north European boletes, if you stick to not eating any that have red colouring, or any that stain quickly blue upon cutting, then you'll rule out toxic ones altogether. Note: this is only for boletes !

An aside, another interesting fact about boletes is that they are all mycorrhizal, that is, they associate with specific trees and form symbiotic relationships with trees, in a two-way nutrient exchange, and helping funnel nutrients even between individual trees - in fact from the fungi's perspective, they cannot subsist without attaching to a compatible tree species 🥲 arAre the fungi vehicles of communication for the trees? Or are the fungi custodians themselves of the trees they manage nutrients for? Both? 🤯

Pictured are various ones we found on a few different trips. Ones that frequently feature are slippery jacks (Suillus luteus). Peel the caps (texture is allegedly not great, and often has had the effect of gluing grass, needles, deadleaf and debris). The remaining raw mushroom tends to feel like some sort of packing foam 😅

These guys work best given the butter and garlic treatment in a frying pan. Add a bit of sour cream or crème fraîche, and then fold it in with some short pasta like fusilli or maccheroni and top with fresh herbs.

I've found a good vegan alternative to butter that also packs flavour is coconut oil (stay away from margarine, just use oil instead). Instead of cream, you can make a roux with flour and coconut oil, then add some veg stock or just hot water with herbs.