As soon as July comes, milk mushrooms appear in the forests – one of the most popular mushrooms in Our Country. Depending on the species, these fruiting bodies in the mycological classification belong to different categories of edibility (from 1st to 4th). One of the most popular species is the real breast – it has been assigned the 1st category of value. Most often, these fruiting bodies are salted and pickled after preliminary soaking and boiling.
Autumn milk mushrooms are the most delicious and crispy. It is in September that you can collect baskets with real milk mushrooms. Finding them is not easy, as they hide in the grass. There used to be a lot of them. From time immemorial, milk mushrooms were salted in barrels and fed on them during fasts. Now there are significantly fewer real mushrooms, and now they most often grow in clearings or an open area near the forest zone under small Christmas trees.
You will learn about the forests in which milk mushrooms grow, and how different types of these mushrooms look, by reading this material.
Aspen breast
Habitats of aspen mushrooms (Lactarius controversus): damp aspen and poplar forests. Mushrooms form mycorrhiza with willow, aspen and poplar. These mushrooms grow, as a rule, in small groups.
Season: July-October.
The cap has a diameter of 5-18 cm, sometimes up to 25 cm, fleshy with steeply turned down edges and a depressed middle, later flat-convex with a slightly deepened center. The color of the cap is white with pale pink spots and slightly visible concentric zones. The surface in wet weather is sticky and slimy. Edges become wavy with age.
Pay attention to the photo – this type of mushrooms has a short, thick leg 3-8 cm high and 1,5-4 cm thick, dense and sometimes eccentric:
The stem is white or pink, similar in color to the cap, usually with yellowish spots. Often narrowed at the base.
The flesh is whitish, dense, brittle, with a very pungent milky juice and a fruity odor.
The plates are frequent, not wide, sometimes forked and descending along the stem, cream or light pink. Spore powder is pinkish.
Variability. The color of the cap is white or with pink and lilac zones, often concentric. The plates are whitish at first, then pinkish and later light orange.
Similar types. This type of mushroom looks like a mushroom real mushroom (Lactarius resimus). However, the latter has a much greater value, its edges are densely fluffy and there is no pinkish color of the plates.
Edible, 3th category.
Cooking methods: salting after pre-treatment by boiling or soaking.
Real milk
Where do real milk mushrooms (Lactarius resimus) grow: birch and mixed forests, with birch, form mycorrhiza with birch, grow in groups.
Season: July-September.
The cap has a diameter of 6-15 cm, sometimes up to 20 cm, fleshy with edges steeply turned down and with a depression in the center, later convex-prostrate with a depressed central region. A distinctive feature of the species is densely fluffy or shaggy edges and a milky-white color of the cap, which eventually becomes yellow or cream with little or no areas. This variety of mushrooms may have yellowish spots.
Leg 3-9 cm long, 1,5-3,5 cm in diameter, cylindrical, smooth, white, sometimes yellowish or reddish at the base.
The flesh is white, brittle, with a pleasant odor, which secretes a white milky juice that turns yellow in the air and has a pungent taste. The pulp has a fruity odor.
The plates are 0,5-0,8 cm wide, descending along the stem, frequent, white, later yellowish. Spore powder is white.
Similar types. According to the description, this variety of mushrooms is similar to желтый груздь (Lactarius scrobiculatus), which may also only have slightly shaggy edges, is golden yellow or dirty yellow in color, and lacks a fruity fleshy odor.
Edible, 1th category.
Cooking methods: salting after pre-treatment by boiling or soaking, you can pickle. It has long been one of the most beloved and delicious mushrooms in Our Country.
See how real mushrooms look in these photos:
Black breast
Black mushrooms, or nigella (Lactarius necator) – a favorite delicacy of many s because of the crispy state after salting. These mushrooms grow in swampy areas or near wet areas of the forest, often not far from forest paths.
Where do black mushrooms grow: mixed and coniferous forests, often in clearings, forms mycorrhiza with birch, usually growing in groups.
Season: August-November.
The cap of this type of mushroom mushroom has a diameter of 5-15 cm, sometimes up to 22 cm, at first convex, then smooth with a depressed middle, in young specimens with felt edges bent down, which then straighten out and may be cracked, sticky and sticky in wet weather and mucosa with inconspicuous concentric zones. A distinctive feature of the species is the dark color of the cap: olive-brown or greenish-black.
The stalk is short, thick, 3-8 cm high and 1,53 cm thick, narrowed down, smooth, slimy, generally the same color as the cap, but lighter at the top.
As can be seen in the photo, the pulp of this variety of mushroom mushrooms is white, turning brown or darkening on the cut:
The pulp abundantly secretes white burning milky juice. Spore powder is yellowish.
The plates are frequent, narrow, descending to the stem, forked-branched, whitish or pale yellow, often with a greenish tint, blacken when pressed.
Variability. The color of the cap, depending on the degree of maturity and the geographical zone, varies from completely black to brown-black.
Edible, 3th category.
Cooking methods: salting after pre-treatment by boiling or soaking. When salted, the color of the cap becomes cherry red or purple-red.
Pepper
Picking season for pepper mushrooms (Lactarius piperatus): July-September.
The cap has a diameter of 5-15 cm, at first convex, then smooth with a depressed middle, in young specimens with edges bent down, which then straighten out and become wavy. The surface is white, matte, often covered with reddish spots in the central region and cracks.
The leg is short, thick, 3-9 cm high and 1,53,5-XNUMX cm thick, solid and very dense, tapering at the base, with a smooth, slightly wrinkled surface.
The flesh is white, firm, but brittle, with a burning taste, secretes a white milky juice with a peppery taste, which becomes olive green or bluish in the air.
The plates are very frequent, descending along the stem, whitish, often with a pink tint or reddish spots, not wide, sometimes forked.
Variability. The color of the cap, depending on the degree of maturity and the geographical zone, varies from completely white to off-white with greenish or reddish hues. In the air, the white flesh becomes greenish-yellow.
Similar types. Peppercorn looks like a mushroom violin (Lactarius volemus), in which the hat has a felt white or white-cream surface, the milky juice is white, non-caustic, turns brown when dried, the plates are cream or white-cream.
Cooking methods: salting after pre-treatment by boiling or soaking.
Edible, 4th category.