Gorkusha mushroom (bitter mushroom, bitter mushroom): photo and description of how to soak and salt

Milk mushrooms (bitter, Goryanka, red bitter) are considered to be the most bitter of all representatives of the Milky genus – colorless juice, which is abundantly contained in their pulp, exceptionally burning and caustic. At the same time, these mushrooms are conditionally edible and very popular in Our Country and Belarus. After mandatory pre-treatment, they are often fried, salted or marinated. Fans of “silent hunting” should know what a bitter mushroom looks like, where and in what period you can find it, how to soak and cook it correctly. You need to be careful when collecting these mushrooms: among the lactifers there are several species that are outwardly similar to Goryanka, but not all of them are edible.

Description of bittersweet

Bitter milkweed (bitter bitter red, bitter gourd, bitter, bitter, milk-gorchak, bitter milk, milky bitter, putik, wayfarer) is an agaric mushroom, a representative of the Milky genus of the Russula family. Its dense white or cream-colored flesh has a slight sour smell and a pronounced pungent, burning taste, from which the mushroom got its name.

In Latin, the mountain woman is called Lactarius rufus, because her hat is painted in characteristic red tones.

In Belarus, the local folk name “karouka” (“cow”) is also common.

Cap Description

The diameter of the cap of the bitter mushroom varies from 2,5 to 14 cm. In a young mushroom, it is fleshy, flat-convex in shape with a slightly tucked edge. As it ages, the cap becomes prostrate and then funnel-shaped, with a protruding cone-shaped tubercle clearly visible in the center. The outer skin is dark red, brick or red-brown in color (sometimes it can be lighter, fawn shades). The surface of the cap is dry. It is smoother in young fruiting bodies and somewhat “felt” to the touch in those that are older.

The plates are frequent, narrow, at first reddish-yellow, later they acquire a brown tint (they may be pinkish near the stem itself). Spores reticulate, oval. Spore powder of white or cream color.

The milky juice, abundantly acting in places of damage, is white. Oxidized in air, it does not change color.

The flesh is firm but brittle. She is extremely rarely wormy.

Description of the leg

The legs grow in length from 3 to 7-10 cm and are up to 2 cm thick. They have the correct cylindrical shape, break easily. Near the base there is always a fibrous white mycelium.

The legs are usually painted in the same tone as the hat or slightly lighter than it. Their surface may be covered with a whitish fluff.

In young mushrooms, bittersweet legs are solid, in older ones they become hollow in the middle. Sometimes a spongy substance of a reddish or grayish color appears inside the stem of the fungus.

Where and how to grow

The bitter gourd is the most common representative of the milkers. They say about this mushroom that it grows remarkably in any forests of the temperate climate zone. Most often, the bitter mushroom forms mycorrhiza with coniferous trees, as well as with birch.

This fungus prefers acidic soils. Especially a lot of it in pine or mixed forests. Where it is quite humid, the ground is covered with moss, and tree trunks are covered with lichen.

Gorkushki grow both singly and in large groups. The season for their collection, depending on the climate, can begin in June and last until the first frost in mid-autumn. Most actively, these mushrooms bear fruit in August-September.

Twins and their differences

It is known that there are several twins among other lactic bears in the bitter milkweed. You need to have a good idea of ​​how to recognize a conditionally edible Goryanka, because among mushrooms similar to it, you can stumble upon those that cannot be eaten.

Milky liver

This mushroom is often confused with a bitter mushroom. However, it is inedible because it has an unpleasant pungent taste that cannot be corrected.

Key differences of this mushroom:

• its cap is slightly smaller than that of bittersweet, it does not exceed 7 cm in diameter;
• the leg is somewhat thinner – up to 1 cm;
• the outer skin on the cap has a lighter, liver-brown color, sometimes with an olive tint;
• milky juice in the air changes color to yellow.

Milky camphor

This “double” of the bitter mushroom belongs to edible mushrooms, but is considered tasteless.

Its distinctive features:

• it is smaller (the hat grows only up to 6 cm in diameter);
• its leg is much thinner – no more than 0,5 cm;
• the hat is painted red-brown and has wavy edges;
• as the fruiting body ages, the stem may become stained and darken;
• the tubercle in the center of the cap is much smaller than that of the bitter mushroom;
• milky juice has a watery consistency and a slightly sweetish taste;
• the pulp of the fungus specifically smells like camphor.

Milky marsh

This edible lactiferous species is similar in color to the bitter gourd, but prefers to grow in swampy coniferous forests.

It will help to recognize such features:

• cap diameter up to 5 cm;
• the color of the cap of the old mushroom is uneven, it seems to “fade” along the edge;
• whitish milky juice quickly turns sulfur yellow on exposure to air;
• the flesh on the cut has a marsh color.

milky stunted

The stunted milky, like the bitter gourd, is conditionally edible. Often it is called “tender milk” and after soaking it is eaten in a salty form.

It is characterized by such distinctive features:

• the hat is painted in lighter tones than those of the bitter mushroom;
• the leg is loose, slightly expanding towards the base;
• juice at the break of the pulp is not abundant;
• drying up, white milky juice quickly turns yellow.

Milky red meat

This “double” of the bitter mushroom is considered edible, but it also needs to be soaked before being eaten.

Milky meat-red is distinguished by the following features:

• its leg is shorter than that of the bitter gourd (it does not grow longer than 6 cm), it is narrowed down;
• the cap is dark, terracotta in color and covered with a very slimy, “greasy” skin;
• in its center there is no tubercle characteristic of the bitter gourd;
• sometimes the cap can be non-uniformly colored: blurry brown spots can be distinguished on its surface.

Is the mushroom edible or not?

In foreign science, bitter mushrooms are most often considered inedible mushrooms. In domestic special literature, they are usually described as conditionally edible, having category IV of nutritional value. This means that they can be eaten after pre-cooking.

Is it possible to get poisoned with bitters

Like all conditionally edible mushrooms of the Milky genus, bitter mushrooms can provoke an attack of acute gastroenteritis – inflammation of the stomach and small intestine. This is due to the high content of resinous substances in the composition of their juice.

Poisoning caused by improper preparation or violation of the rules for pre-treatment of bitters occurs in a mild form.

How bitter mushrooms are prepared

You can cook these mushrooms in different ways. Most often they are salted in a cold or hot way, less often they are marinated and fried. In cooking, well-cleaned and pre-soaked milk mushrooms are used, boiled for 15-30 minutes.

Do bitters need to be soaked?

Milk mushrooms must be soaked before using them for cooking. This allows you to rid the pulp of mushrooms from burning juice, which has an unpleasant “pepper” taste.

Before soaking, the mushrooms should be thoroughly washed, with a sponge or brush, clean the skin from the ground, adhering leaves or blades of grass, cut off the lower parts of the legs, leaving no more than a couple of centimeters at the base of the caps. Dark and damaged areas of fruiting bodies must be removed with a knife. Large specimens should be cut in half. Next, the bitter mushrooms should be folded into a wide container, poured with cold water and kept for 2-3 days. It is necessary to change the water 2-3 times a day.

What happens if bitters are not soaked before cooking

Milk mushroom juice is very pungent and pungent in taste. In the event that the cook is too lazy to soak these mushrooms, he risks simply spoiling the dish.

If it happens that bitterness can be “scored” using seasonings and spices, you need to remember that soaking pursues not only aesthetic goals, but, above all, prevents possible harm to health. The juice of bitter mushrooms is rich in resinous substances, which, as mentioned above, can cause acute pain in the stomach and cause mild food poisoning.

How to fry bitter mushrooms

Fried milk mushrooms are perfectly combined with potatoes under sour cream. For this dish you will need:

1. Soak the peeled and washed bitters in the manner described above and boil for 20 minutes.
2. Peel the potatoes and also boil them whole in salted water. When ready, cut it into slices.
3. Heat vegetable oil in a saucepan. Put the mushrooms, sprinkle them with flour. Fry, stirring constantly, until golden brown.
4. In a baking dish of a suitable size, fold the potato slices, on top of them – fried bitters. Pour in sour cream.
5. Place in oven preheated to 180°C for 15 minutes.

Salting bitters at home

It is believed that the most delicious bitter mushrooms are obtained in a salty form. There are two basic options for salting these mushrooms, the so-called “cold” and “hot” method.

It is believed that it is preferable to salt these mushrooms in a hot way by boiling them in a brine with spices. In this case, they are elastic and break less.

To prepare such a salt, you should take:

1. Place the peeled and soaked mushrooms in a saucepan, cover with water and boil for 10 minutes.
2. Drain the mushrooms in a colander and rinse immediately with clean, cold water (this will make them crispy).
3. Prepare a brine from water and salt. Boil it, lower the mushrooms there and boil for about 15 minutes.
4. Put some seasonings on the bottom of the prepared container (enamelled pan or bucket). It is advisable to pre-dip the greens for the preparation of pickles with boiling water. Spread the mushrooms in layers, alternating them with dill and garlic.
5. Pour in the cooled brine, cover with a flat plate on top and press down with oppression.
6. Put in a cold place for a couple of weeks. Having endured this time, mushrooms can be served at the table.

Cold salting of bitter mushrooms implies a longer period during which it is necessary to withstand the mushrooms.

For this dish you will need:

1. Mushrooms need to be prepared and soaked, then rinsed thoroughly with clean water and squeezed lightly.
2. In prepared containers (jars), lay the bitters with their caps down, sprinkling each layer with salt and shifting with seasonings.
3. After filling the jar, put greens and garlic on the very top. If the liquid from the mushrooms is not enough, additionally prepare the brine and add it to the container.
4. Place a wooden circle on top and put oppression. Place the jars in the cellar or refrigerator.
5. You can try the finished salting in two months.

The use of bitters in medicine

It is known that the extract from the fruiting bodies of bitter mushrooms has medicinal properties. In medicine, it is used as an antibiotic agent that prevents the reproduction of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and a number of groups of pathogenic bacteria that cause purulent inflammation, typhoid and paratyphoid.

Conclusion

Milk mushrooms are conditionally edible mushrooms found in abundance in the forests of Our Country and Belarus. Despite the fact that they have several “twins” among other representatives of the Milky genus, it is not difficult to determine the Goryanka, looking closely and knowing the characteristic features that distinguish them. Many mushroom pickers are afraid to pick these mushrooms due to the fact that the juice contained in their pulp is extremely bitter and caustic. However, it is enough to properly process and soak the Goryanka before salting, frying or marinating. And in finished form, they will surely appeal to connoisseurs of mushroom dishes.