Mushrooms

[WapitiTalk1]

Mmm, mushrooms. I go out for the Pines and King Bolete's in WA when I can. The Bolete's are plentifull but the Pines are tough to find (for me anyway). I just slice thin and saute in butter and lightly season. Not a very creative recipe but darn tasty, especially as a side dish while camping/hunting.

[Harmy]

I hunt for mushrooms every chance I get. King Boletes, Chantrelles, Hawkswings, Morels (very rare for me though), and Puffballs. Butter with salt. I also dry them by slicing thin and using a dehydrator. I then powder them with a coffee grinder and add to soups and stocks for a great additional flavoring. We often find Puffballs during the elk hunt. Nothing beats fresh mushrooms, onions, and liver
Thes two are about 8 inches in diameter. The largest bolete I have ever found was 24 inches in diameter! Full of bugs but still fun to find...

Boletes.jpg (153.79 KiB) Viewed 6794 times

[>>>---WW---->]

We always used to flour up the morels and fry em. Mmmmm! If you find a bunch, just get a needle and thread and string em up. Hang them in the smokehouse and let them dry out naturally. When you want a batch, just soak them in some water and they are just like fresh picked ones.

[Huntrgathr]

Thought you'd never ask ! As I've said before, I pick mushrooms for a living (part of the year). I'll have to resize a lot of my pics to get them on here, which takes awhile, but I've got thousands of pics and plenty of recipes...

Here's a Bolete (porcini) and trout dinner I made one year in morel camp (car camping). Big slices of porcini with bacon, potatoes and onions and a couple of crispy trout on top, caught that day. Doesn't look like much but it was one of the most memorable meals of all my trips.

2007_06150032.JPG (50.73 KiB) Viewed 6786 times

2007_06150033.JPG (66.49 KiB) Viewed 6786 times

[WapitiTalk1]

Hello? Hello? Hi, this is Phantom16.. I'd like to place a delivery order for the crispy trout, porcinis, and onions please. Can you have it to my office, say in 20 minutes? Thanks..

[Harmy]

I'm with Phantom. Gimme some o them trout and porcini's...

[FemoralArchery]

Hello? Hello? Hi, this is Phantom16.. I'd like to place a delivery order for the crispy trout, porcinis, and onions please. Can you have it to my office, say in 20 minutes? Thanks..

If you get him to bite, make it a double order, I'll drive to WA and eat with you. I'll cover the tip, but you're paying for the delivery.

[Huntrgathr]

A few tips on Boletes : Disclaimer -There are a lot of look-alikes so you better know what you're doing. Always learn from an experienced forager before you go out on your own. Guide books are not sufficient. No one has died from commercially harvested wild mushrooms. It's always the hobbyists that go out in the woods and start sampling the fungi without proper training. So, with that out of the way...

You want to pick them when they are young. Look for caps that are just pushing up the dirt or needles. The ones in the picture are perfect specimens. I found them when I noticed an almost imperceptible bump in the duff and carefully dug them up. By the time they pop out completely they are often invaded by bugs and their larvae. In the business we call them 'Blowouts". They're a good indicator of where the patch is, but not very good eating. They're soft and slimy when cooked and have a fishy aroma. The best ones are small, as dense as a potato, with a creamy white sponge on the underside (where the gills would be on a gilled mushroom). They can be eaten raw and have a pleasant nutty flavor. It's better to grill them or saute'/fry them, but in a pinch you can slice them and throw them in a piece of foil with whatever you have to flavor them.

2009_07150079.JPG (158.19 KiB) Viewed 6743 times

[Huntrgathr]

Hello? Hello? Hi, this is Phantom16.. I'd like to place a delivery order for the crispy trout, porcinis, and onions please. Can you have it to my office, say in 20 minutes? Thanks..

If you get him to bite, make it a double order, I'll drive to WA and eat with you. I'll cover the tip, but you're paying for the delivery.

If you guys want some crazy good camp food it's real easy - just call in a bull for me and dinner's on me ! Also, I'm going to be doing some guided mushroom trips this Summer. We're expecting an epic morel season. I'll keep you guys posted !

[Harmy]

Huntrgathr, WOW on your chantrelle gathering. Where the heck do you live anyway? Certainly not in the Desert like I do...

I agree on your bolete notes with the best being just under or just having popped out of the ground. Usually in the 2-3 inch diameter range. However, I have found that even blowouts provide quite a bit of value to me. For those much larger than 4 inches and which have larvee I slice thin and dry them out (but toss out the slimy tubes and just keep the top of the cap and part of the stem. I find that even when they are in this condition they still make great flavorings for sauces and stocks (I really like to load the ground porcini dust into my elk demi glace). Where I gather, and in a decent season (about 1 in 4 if lucky), I regularly find caps in excess of 8 inches that do not have much or any larvae as long as they were well covered under the base of a fir tree (like the back cap in my photo posted earlier had no infestation and the front one had minor). Those in the open are attacked almost as soon as they pop and those I usually skip or look nearby for others about to come out. I have also observed that we humans are not the only ones eating these boletes. I wish I had a photo but I have seen several times where an elk or moose has taken a huge bite right out of the cap, leaving perfect teeth marks. Of course, the rodents also nibble on them quite a bit. Unfortutely, Utah is far from a shroom capital. Some seasons we get hardly any to come up. Others I have collected several hundred in a few hours. Like this day after an hour scouting in the elk woods.

Bolete Day.jpg (102.8 KiB) Viewed 6738 times

Here is an example of one that had hardly any bugs and was about 6 inches around.

Bolete good.jpg (128.94 KiB) Viewed 6738 times

And an 8 incher that was blown out bad...

Bolete Blownout.jpg (129.24 KiB) Viewed 6738 times

One of my worst problems scouting for elk is that I find myself not looking for elk. I have my nose to the ground looking for mushrooms... Of course, this lets me see tracks and sign much more easily than when simply out trying to find animals. It really becomes a problem though when your partner shows up to help haul out an elk and his pack is completely filled with puffballs and refuses to leave the shrooms for the last haul. He got to carry the rifle and bag of straps and scraps on that first carry

[Harmy]

Here is a photo of the largest Hawkswing I have found to date. I have been able to harvet these in the same exact spot 3 of the last 5 years.

Hawkswing.jpg (71.61 KiB) Viewed 6738 times

[Huntrgathr]

Harmy, NICE HAUL ! You're right about drying the blowouts. I do the same thing. I throw those in with my deer and elk stews and any soups I'm making. The powder is awesome for making breading for chukars and pheasant too. Sounds like we're into a lot of the same stuff. I make demi with my elk and deer bones also. Here's a how to thread I did over on AT - http://www.archerytalk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1905543 . To answer your question, I live near Boise but I pick mushrooms all over the West and parts of BC and Yukon. I posted a few pics from my last Yukon trip in my antler carving thread in the elk hunting section on this site.

Hey RJ , you mentioned picking 'Pines" (Matsutake) over in your neck of the woods. Here's one of my favorite recipes for them - one of my favorite mushroom recipes period ! I like to grill them instead of putting them in the oven though. Also a link to the whole article - http://www.mssf.org/cookbook/matsutake.html



Pickled Matsutakes

Serves 4 as an appetizer

Pickled matsutakes can be used as a relish with almost any food.

1 pound matsutakes, cut into 3/8-inch slices
4 green onions, minced
3 tablespoons dry sherry
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
Preheat an oven broiler and broil the mushrooms until brown. Combine all the other ingredients in a small saucepan and boil for 5 minutes. Cool. Place the mushooms in a glass or ceramic baking dish, pour the liquid over, and store in the refrigerator at least 1 day before serving.

--Gathered Mushroom Recipes, College of the Redwoods

[scrubs]

Love the Chantrells, but Matsutakes are my favorite. I`ve never tried the Boletes or Morels.

[pointysticks]

harmy..that photo of the giant shroom is very well done!! very well done.

i am thinking of signing the wife and i up for some local classes..thanks for the great idea.

[Huntrgathr]

Morels should start showing up in the lower elevations late next month ! Here's a few pics from trips past. We usually pick burn site morels and my son likes to come along. The picture of him is one that he took when we had been camped out in the woods for over 3 weeks. He's normally not that dirty !

2003_0101Image0088707.JPG (262.79 KiB) Viewed 6683 times

2006_0624Image0134.JPG (150.97 KiB) Viewed 6683 times

[scrubs]

Dang huntrgather, you take your mushrooming seriously! . Thanks for sharing the pics.