Contents
The bent talker belongs to the Tricholomovye or Ryadkovye family. The name of the species in Latin sounds like Infundibulicybe geotropa. This mushroom is also called clitocybe bent, red talker.
Where bent talkers grow
Talkers can be found in forest clearings and edges. They love fertile soils rich in rotted leaves. More common in well-lit places, sometimes forming rings on the ground. Grow in groups or singly.
The time of mass collection comes from August to September. But you can find the first mushrooms in early July. Clitocybe bent are not afraid of small cold weather, and are often found in the forest until the end of October.
What do bent talkers look like
In young specimens, the hat is convex, then it becomes funnel-shaped with a tubercle in the middle. The diameter of the hat of the govorushka mushroom, bent in the photo, is about 20 cm.
It is colored reddish, fawn or almost white. Under the hat you can see frequent white plates. In large mushrooms, they acquire a creamy yellowish tint.
The leg is from 5 to 15 cm in height, its diameter is up to 3 cm. It has the shape of a cylinder, slightly expanding at the bottom. The internal structure is tough, fibrous, the flesh has a pungent odor. The color of the surface is identical to the cap or slightly paler.
Is it possible to eat talkers bent
Rare mushrooms – govorushki bent or red are edible. Various dishes are prepared from them, boiled, baked or fried in a pan, they are also marinated and salted.
The taste qualities of the mushroom govorushka bent
Curved clitocybes are good quality edible mushrooms. They have a pleasant subtle aroma that they convey to dishes. Young mushrooms make excellent soups and mushroom sauces.
It is not recommended to eat raw: they are bitter due to the content of special enzymes. Usually the bitterness goes away after 20 minutes of cooking. At the end of the heat treatment, the mushrooms are greatly reduced in size.
Benefits and harm to the body
The benefits of bent talkers for the body is a positive effect on health. Healing properties are expressed as follows:
- strengthening immunity;
- body cleansing;
- improvement of the stomach and intestines;
- lowering the level of bad cholesterol in the blood;
- replenishment of the lack of vitamins and microelements (especially a lot of bent B vitamins in talkers).
Folk healers use this mushroom to prepare healing ointments for the treatment of wounds, as well as various decoctions and tinctures that are effective for bronchitis and urolithiasis.
Harm from mushrooms can only be if they are not collected correctly. Stiff legs, collected and cooked with hats, can lead to indigestion.
False doubles
A dangerous poisonous mushroom looks like a bent clitocybe – a reddish or bleached talker. Adult specimens are no more than 5-6 cm in height, with a thin stem. The hat is up to 6 cm in diameter, its surface is covered with a thin powdery coating, it is slightly slimy after rain.
The color of the cap is from gray-white to brownish-pink. The pulp has a sweetish, pleasant smell and mushroom taste, it contains a dangerous toxin – muscarine, which causes severe poisoning 15-20 minutes after consumption.
It also looks like an edible mushroom bent over the photo and description – a giant talker. It, as the name implies, can grow to large sizes, the maximum diameter of the cap is 30 cm.
This mushroom is inferior in taste to the bent clitocybe, its flesh does not have a special aroma. But he has the ability to produce the antibiotic clitocybin, which is active against tuberculosis.
Collection rules
The bent talker is included in the Red Book of Our Country, so when you see it in the forest, you should not rush to collect it. In European countries, where it is more common, it is harvested during the fruiting season.
Like other edible mushrooms, it is better not to cut the red talker above the soil surface, but to unscrew it from the mycelium. The place of separation should be lightly sprinkled with earth. This method of collection will save the mycelium, it will not rot, and will be able to bear fruit for many years to come.
Young clitocybes are more suitable for food, old specimens may have a sharp, unpleasant odor.
Cooking bent talkers
After harvesting, the mushrooms are washed under running water. Only hats are used for food. After washing, they are poured with cold salted water, put on fire and boiled for about 20 minutes from the moment of boiling. Then the water is drained, and the talkers are thrown into a colander so that the excess liquid is drained. Boiled mushrooms can be fried with onions or baked with cheese and vegetables, cooked with potatoes in sour cream, or made into a mushroom sauce for pasta.
Mushroom risotto recipe
The talkers are boiled, then fried in butter. Dice onion, pepper and tomatoes. Fry vegetables in a pan in vegetable oil, adding crushed garlic to them. Washed rice is poured into a pan with vegetables, poured with chicken broth, salted, spices are added to taste, and stewed until tender. At the end, fried mushrooms, grated hard cheese and chopped fresh herbs are put in rice. For the recipe you will need: 500 g of boiled mushrooms, 200 g of rice, 800 ml of broth, 20 ml of vegetable oil, 50 g of butter, 1 onion, 1 tomato, 2 sweet peppers, 2 cloves of garlic, 50 g of hard cheese, salt, spices and greens to taste.
Conclusion
The bent talker is edible. It grows in forests with deciduous trees. It is popular with mushroom pickers in European countries due to the long fruiting season. Mushrooms are eaten stewed, fried and boiled. They make delicious pickled blanks for the winter. In Our Country, these mushrooms are listed in the Red Book, and are rare species that should not be collected.
