This strong-looking mushroom is familiar to most of our compatriots. It is very nutritious and tasty, which is why it is so popular among gourmets. It is not very difficult to find it in any wild forest. The main thing in this matter is the ability to distinguish it from false mushrooms - poisonous "relatives" and toadstools.
This is a wonderful boletus mushroom. Where does it grow, how to distinguish it from other mushrooms, what valuable properties does it have? The answers to these and other questions can be found in the article.
Growing places
Mushrooms grow in places where there is spruce, pine, birch or oak. They choose dry places. They do not grow in shady, low-lying, wet areas and among swamps.
It is quite likely to meet him in small groves and small plantings in the summer. In autumn, you can look for them in the depths of the old forest or on the edges. You can also meet them along paths and forest roads, as well as on slopes. They usually grow in groups, and if you're lucky enough to meet at least one mushroom, you can probably find more.
Why do people call these mushrooms porcini, even though their hat is dark brown and the stem is brownish?The reason is as follows: when drying, s alting or pickling, the flesh does not darken, and remains white in the boletus mushroom.
Description
Borovik (Bolet) is a genus of mushrooms belonging to the Boletov family. This is also the name of the White mushroom (one of the most common species of the genus).
In scientific terminology, "boletus" is a genus of mushrooms, which includes about 300 species. Among them are both edible and poisonous. But in everyday life, only one species is usually called a boletus - white mushroom.
When describing the appearance, the difficulty lies in the fact that this mushroom is very variable, since it is found in almost all forests of the northern hemisphere. Some scientists distinguish up to 18 subspecies of boletus, differing in color, size and ripening time.
And yet, a generalized description of the fungus can be done. It has a large size. The hat of a mature specimen reaches sizes ranging from 7 to 30 cm (and even up to 50 cm). The old mushroom has a slightly flattened hat, but not prostrate.
General characteristics:
- fruiting body is massive, hat-and-nosed;
- hat round or cushion-shaped, smooth or velvety;
- fibrous or mesh (rarely smooth) stem thickened in the middle part or at the base;
- flesh is white or yellow, turns blue on the cut in many species, a little less often remains uncolored or turns red;
- spore powder has various shades of brown.
In general, it can be called a beautiful mushroom, which can be immediately noticed duringwalks in the woods.
About mushroom shapes
The most popular among the 18 shapes are spruce, oak, pine and birch mushrooms:
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Spruce boletus mushroom. It grows in the central zone of the northern part of Russia, in spruce and mixed forests. His hat has a light brown or brown tint. A fairly long stem widens towards the base. From mid-July to early September is the time for picking these mushrooms.
Spruce Boletus -
Oak boletus. The mushroom has a brownish hat with a gray tint. Occurs from July to early October in preserved oak forests. This form is thermophilic.
oak boletus - Pine boletus. It is a stockier mushroom with a dark red-brown cap. The leg is strongly thickened at the bottom. Found from July to September in light pine forests with sandy soil.
- Birch boletus. It occurs in June-October mainly in birch and mixed forests. The shade of the cap is reddish-yellow or light brown. The short leg is thick.
All these types of mushrooms are edible.
Nutritional value
It is believed that this genus has the most valuable properties among hat mushrooms. Boletus has not so much exceptional nutritional properties as excellent taste and ability to stimulate the entire digestive system. White mushroom has many useful substances: vitamins, proteins,extractives and minerals. It belongs to the first category.
Worms and other forest dwellers liked its beneficial properties, and therefore, before cooking, they should be well soaked in s alted water so that all living creatures float to the surface.
And today in some Russian villages they continue to pickle and dry porcini mushrooms. It is usually eaten boiled and fried.
False mushrooms
Inexperienced mushroom pickers may well confuse the boletus mushroom with mushrooms similar to it (poisonous and inedible).
The gall fungus (false boletus) especially looks like it. It is not poisonous, but has a very bitter taste, which makes it impossible to eat. Distinctive features of the boletus mushroom:
- hat diameter does not exceed 10 cm;
- the pulp at the cut site turns red;
- due to bitter taste, does not get wormy;
- mesh pattern on the stem is slightly darker than the main color (the porcini is lighter).
Another false mushroom is satanic. It is a close relative, as it belongs to the same genus - Boroviki. This is a very toxic mushroom that should not be eaten at all. It is not difficult to identify, but sometimes it looks very similar to a white mushroom. Distinguishing Features:
- the main feature is the color of the stem, which is usually orange or red (the shade is always darker and more saturated than that of the cap, while the opposite is true for white);
- hat is never brown (usually itgrayish, white or olive gray);
- on the cut, the white flesh of the cap turns noticeably red or blue, and the flesh in the leg initially has a reddish color;
- old mushrooms smell bad;
- The stem of a young mushroom is spherical or egg-shaped, and with age it becomes turnip-shaped or barrel-shaped (narrowed upward), but not cylindrical.
When to collect?
Due to the fact that the required temperature for growth is kept for a long time in the summer months, then the collection of boletus mushrooms must be done at this time. With frequent changes in humidity and temperature, the fruiting bodies of mushrooms develop worse.
Good climatic conditions for boletus mushrooms:
- thunderstorms are short;
- warm nights with fogs.
Begin to collect them before sunrise, when the mushrooms are more visible. The optimal time for collection is a week after the last rain. During this time, they have time to grow.
During a wet summer, boletus mushrooms grow away from trees, on well-heated dry hills, edges and clearings. In the dry season, mushrooms usually hide under trees, among dried grass, where moisture is well preserved.
It has been observed that these mushrooms are found where morels grow.
