Boletes

[Gupps]

Looking for a helping hand here from someone with more experience than myself please..

Although an ecologist by profession, I recently decided to take a stab at picking some edibles. My identification skills generally arnt too bad, however Im completely new to this fungi lark.

Off i went and purchased a good field guide and set off to try and find something edible. The problem im having is my confidence is severly lacking when i comes to what i can and cannot eat.

I decided to try and find some bolete species as they seemed to be the only fungii with spores rather than gills (Is this a correct assumption). Also From what i had read there seemed to be only one poisonous species of fungii that had these pores rather than gills.. (Devils bolete, and these had Bright red pores so i was pretty sure i wouldnt get one by mistakle)..

Anyhow i finally tried some off what id picked yesterday, I identified them as red cracking boletes, and im still here so i guess it was at least an edible species of bolete..

What im basically after is someone that can confirm that no nasty species of fungi exist with pores that look like boletes or if they do tell me what to look out for..

Any help appreciated did i do right to look for species with pores that look similar to penny buns?

[GerryNick2]

I am afraid there is no simple answer to your question.There are three species which are to be avoided at all costs santanas, santanoides and torosus.These three are rare but they have to grow somewhere.
There are a further dozen or so which are listed as being inedible for various reasons, some do contain toxins that can build up in the bloodstream over a period of time.
There are a number of species that can have ill effects if not cooked properly for example Boletus luridus.
If you intend collecting for eating my advice would be to join a local fungi group where you can get on hand advice from an expert.

Gerry

[Gupps]

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunatley unless im really missing something there are no local groups near me. However i appreciate what you said, the only way to gain any confidence is by having an expert on hand to help me identify what i pick.

The variety of different forms of one kind of fungi is the thing that scares me most, although ive taken great care to collect all different ages of the type of fungii im picking it astonishes me that the pore colour, even amongst one troupe can vary from yellow to olive to orange.

I thought i was 99% sure with the red cracking boletes i picked but i just looked up a picture of santanas, which i was sure should have scarlet pores and stain bright blue on cutting and guess what, someone has a picture of one thats got yellow pores a velvety brown cracked cap, a yellow stem with red patches on it and the picture shows it not staining blue...... thats pretty much waht i ate, identified as a red cracking bolete... *sigh*


can you offer any starting point for me of something i should look for thats quite hard to confuse with anything else, and edible... I did think maybe penny buns would be a good starter, but even they are very rare or im looking in the wrong spot because i cant see anything like one....

[Bish]

Hello,

Just talked about boletes in another thread recenetly but can't find it.
I'm surprised that that everyboby finds the devils bolete so frightening. According to some of my French books some people eat it after a long cooking!!!! Mind you, the French eat just about anything
I've never seen any round my way but they're fairly easy to recognize by the every pale cap

I've tried the red cracking boletes. They're ok but a bit mushy. I wouldn't bother again.
In my opinion the best apart from B. Edulis and similar are the
Bay bolete: The small firm ones are very good and bolster up the pan when the edulis are scarce which seems to be most of the time
B. Erythropus: I find it as good as Cèpes and it has a nice crunchy texture. The intense blueing frightens a lot of people off but this disappears on cooking. Needs to be well cooked (at least ten minutes). The Bay bolete blues slightly as well.

[Gupps]

Can anyone offer me a few hints on the location of B. Edulis ?

Is it associated with any particular trees? does it grow in leaf litter or in grass around trees?... Is it me been new at this and overlooking them or are they quite rare?.. oh BTW im from yorkshire (maybe they dont grow around here or all the whippets ate them).

Im pretty sure if i stumbled accross one of these id be able to identify it (not much else looks like them from the numerous pictures ive studied whilst salivating desperate to try one!)

[Bish]

Be careful Bitter boletes can look v. much like B. Edulis.
Generally they're suposed to be more prolific under deciduous but I find most of mine under Pines.
It's a real hit and miss thing.
You've just got to be in the right place at the right time.

Chris, Lyon