The season for this is normally late summer to early autumn, however I found one this evening while out hunting for kindling wood.Most people don't pick this mushroom, since it has the red pores which are normally associated with the (possibly deadly) poisonous Boletus satanas, and the (merely) poisonous Boletus satanoides. However I do, as I suspect do all the commercial fungi collectors who pick the stuff which ends up as dried 'porcini' at Waitrose at £5 for 100g.
Boletus erythropus causes stomach upsets when raw but is edible - and good - when cooked. Hence the reason why shop-bought dried mushrooms must always be thoroughly cooked, since you really don't know what's been sneaked in there under the guise of 'cep'.
Boletus Satanus and boletus satanoides ( now called boletus legaliae) are not deadly poisonous, they cause stomach upsets.
ReplyDeleteThanks Joel. I've edited the post to make it clearer that the 'possibly deadly' refers to Satanas.
ReplyDeleteHowever I'm not about to risk either when there are so many other species which are 100% safe and good to eat. :)