The Mushroom Thread (for Craig)

[Tman]

@CraigM has been dropping all these awesome pics and stories of his mushroom hunting in miscellaneous threads and I finally went out today and got some of my own, so I think it’s time to start what will hopefully be a thread of avoiding death by identifying wild mushrooms that are edible

We got some chantrelles, some bolletes, some oyster mushrooms and a few miscellaneous.

I’m using this book to help me identify:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0898153883

Today, we left several on the trail b/c we couldn’t identify them but did get a decent haul. We’re not sure how good the deer mushrooms are (there are thousands of them out there), so we only grabbed a few to try them out.

[Don_Quixote]

Those are excellent looking, especially the boletes and chanterelles. I’m not a forager, but I know a few I used to buy from when I was a real chef. Now I’m jonesing to give them a call.

[Tman]

So upon further reading / researching how to cook, etc, we decided we’re not 100% sure of what the “deer mushrooms” are and decided for now to not eat them. Here are some closeups. Maybe Craig has ID’d these by now.

We did slice up a few of the Zeller Bolettes and sauteed them in olive oil. OMG. Amazing mushrooms. We all loved them.

[CraigM]

Nice! Very cool, and thanks for starting!

So the website I use primarily identification on is:
http://www.alpental.com/psms/PNWMushrooms/PictorialKey/

And this is the book I have to bring with when foraging

Mushrooms of the Northwest: A Simple Guide to Common Mushrooms (Mushroom Guides)

And as always the important thing is be sure!

Actually on those oysters one thing to watch for is Angel Wing mushrooms. Those were considered edible at times, but also have potential deadly reactions so are marked as inedible toxic in many places. And to be honest, those look like they might be angel wings. The main thing to look for is spore print, and stem. Angel wings don’t have a defined stem, while oysters generally do. And angel wings tend to take on more water, and have a semi translucent jelly consistency when washed, oysters less so.

But congrats on the chanterelles! And the boletes, I got some of those same type as well, but when I got home they were pretty beat up and I tossed them.

[Don_Quixote]

Those ‘deer mushroom’ look like what we call yellowfoot chanterelles- way different from ‘normal’ white or yellow chants. But, of course, I don’t know for sure.

This reminds me. Last year I was down in Portland for the annual Lovecraft Film Fest, and ended up at the Hollywood Farmer’s Market one of the mornings. There was a mushroom forager there, and he had these black chanterelles- I think he said they were black trumpets but they weren’t like any BTs I’ve ever seen. The ones I get from the foragers up here in Seattle are more thin? And papery? But delicious! These things were pitch black, and thich- almost like chunks of auto tires, really. Never seen anything like them before or since.

EDIT: Here’s the yellowfoots I was talking about:

Yellowfoot Chanterelles

[CraigM]

When in doubt, take a spore print. Cut off the cap and put on white or black paper. Deer mushrooms are an agaricus type, so should have chocolate to charcoal colored spores. They have free gills, so I think you are in the ballpark.

However watch for the toxic agaricus. And very much watch out for amanitas! Amanitas often look similar, especially the a. olivacea, and care must be taken. Spite prints really help, as does digging all the way to the base. Look for a egg looking sac at the ground, if it has one STAY AWAY! It’s probably an amanitas, which though a select few are edible, it has most of the will kill you mushrooms in our area. Things like destroying angel, a single one of those will kill you.

The other thing to watch for is discoloration. A very common agaricus, which I pull 20 lbs out of my lawn each year, is the western flat top agaricus. Similarly the agaricus xanthodermus, the yellow stained. Scratch the base of the stalk, if it discolored yellow it’s probably one of those family. Additionally smell it, it’ll smell like phenol. These are inedible. Not kill you inedible, but give you the runs (can confirm it gives upset stomach, I cooked and tried one last year to confirm, it didn’t taste good and my stomach rumbled)

But I always keep construction paper handy. To confirm my honey mushrooms yesterday I took this spore print:

Since it was white, and not tan/ brown, I knew it was a amarilla (honey) mushroom, not the deadly Galerina. They’re the mushrooms below the boletes in the picture.

EDIT: deer mushrooms are pleuteus, not agaricus, but the advise stands as they do look similar (free gills). But they, like agaricus, do not have white spores. If you take a spore print and it is white, always be extra careful if you are not 100% sure on ID

[Don_Quixote]

Wow, now that’s a haul.

[CraigM]

My family loves mushrooms, and I love being outdoors :)

We hunted for about 4 hours yesterday just west of Timber

@Tman FYI if the spore print is white, it’s probably a smiths amanita or death cap, which are easily mistaken for matsutake or agaricus mushrooms if you aren’t sure

[Tman]

@CraigM

Deer mushrooms are an agaricus type, so should have chocolate to charcoal colored spores.

Well, looking at your website and going through it, they are spot on for this:

http://www.alpental.com/psms/PNWMushrooms/PictorialKey/Collybioid/Gymnopus%20peronatus%20@%20Steve%20Trudell.htm

I was so confident, I tried biting into them and they do have a slight hot flavor.

And, speaking of Amanita, we found some huge field of 8-12 Amanita’s, but we couldn’t ID them to our liking. Are these the fabulous Coccora’s or the Gemmed or Yellow Veiled, which are not recommended for eating? These were HUGE, like 8-10" across.

[CraigM]

The fact the cap looks strirate makes me think that it could be a coccora, but since I see the gemmed amanita everywhere, including the mulch in my front yard, I wouldn’t risk it under any circumstance. Even though the coccora is considered good edible, the fact it is so visually close to the gemmed amanita makes it a no go.

Given this is the reference to the gemmed amanitas toxicity

Toxicity is suspected to be due to the presence of muscimol and ibotenic acid.[17]

Generally, symptoms of poisoning appear within three hours of ingestion of the mushroom as visual hallucinations, nausea, vomiting, stomach pain, diarrhea, irregular and slow heart beat and agitation. Severe cases involving coma, convulsions, or death are extremely rare.

Well it isn’t worth the risk. There’s plenty of other edibles that don’t look so close.

I mean, seriously, I find more gemmed and Panther amanitas than anything else out here in the burbs.

[Eric_Majkut]

I remember when I was a little kid one time my grandfather picked a bunch of wild mushrooms from the park near his house. My grandmother was convinced he was going to poison himself. He sauteed them up with some butter and let me try some. They were so good! I feel like that memory is a big part of why I love mushrooms so much as an adult. Yum! Wish I knew of some places around here to forage for them.

[Tman]

So the URL that Craig provided above for identification uses spore color as it’s first decision point and I did my first spore print. How interesting is that!

Well, actually my first spore print was on white paper and I wasn’t sure, so put it on a cardboard box and it came out white! Thanks @CraigM for saying how easy it was.

This further confirms the ID of the deer mushroom that I thought above.

[CraigM]

Nicely done on the spore print! I’ve even seen people selling good ones on etsy, since they can look very cool.

[CraigM]

So it was a beautiful, if cool, October day here in the PNW so of course I went mushroom hunting. Different spot than last time, one I’d been to before* but struck out on but have seen people pulling baskets out of as well.

Armed with the success and knowledge of last time on where to look for chanterelles, particularly the types of terrain, I went back.

Well I did not come home empty handed. Quite the opposite. Early morning and I was out there a good 3-4 hours, but came home bag completely full. Never found a bountiful flush, but did have consistent clusters of 3-4 at a time. So with some persistence I cleaned out.

Bonus, late in the trek I got a solid 6-8 inch King Bolete/ Porcini mushroom. And an Admiral bolete that was a solid 4+ inches.

Huge haul of coral mushrooms too, great for soups. Some honey mushrooms, and of course chanterelles.

• for @Tman off route 6 not too far for Gales Creek and Rogers Creek campgrounds

[Don_Quixote]

Holy shit. Congrats on the nice haul.

[Tman]

How do you eat all that before they go bad? Gorgeous hall.

[CraigM]

I don’t. I prepare some fresh, but the remainder I’ll cut up and sautee in butter, then freeze in labeled bags. So I’ll have a bag of boletes, some of corals, some of honey mushrooms, some of chanterelles. Then we just pull out a bag and cook what we need. Tomorrow I’m making a tuna casserole with a portion of the lobster mushrooms, and whatever is left will go in the freezer.

We did this last year and so had mushrooms until April.

[Tman]

Interesting, so does sauteeing them in butter make it better to freeze? I’ve never frozen mushrooms before, but it’s a damn good idea!

[CraigM]

Eh, more about just cooking them down. I did a dry sautee last year (just in the pan with nothing) and cooked them down until they reabsorbed all their juices. And with boletes this works really well, and will probably do the same with those monsters. I wasn’t sure about the lobster, and definitely knew the coral mushrooms weren’t as moist on their own so the butter was to help with that.

Plus it makes them easier to just toss in a recipe, or heat up and throw on some steaks. But not strictly required.

I’m going to to the chanterelles in a batch with some olive oil in the oven on medium heat. Try and bring out the flavor as much as possible.

But really as long as you cook them down, there isn’t a bad approach. It’s just like blanching veggies, it helps them keep.

[Don_Quixote]

Yeah. I started reading that and was like ‘butter, what?’. Then I read the rest and it makes sense. It depends on the water content, basically. I would get little, early-season ‘button’ chanterelles and freeze them jus foline, because they are so dry. But when the rains start and the season kicks into high gear, you need to get rid of the water first. I hadn’t thought of just sauteing them first (that’s a great idea!) we usually just put them in a dehydrator for a while. Not enough to dry them out completely, just for a little while. I’m surprised the lobsters need any treatment- they’re usually pretty dry.