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The semi-white mushroom is a good edible species, which is also called the semi-white boletus, yellow moss mushroom or semi-white boletus. It is beneficial for the body, but before collecting, you need to carefully study the features of the species and its photograph in order to avoid mistakes.
What do half-white mushrooms look like
The semi-white boletus has a fairly standard structure for a boletus. His hat at a young age is convex and half spherical, later becomes flattened and pillow-shaped, and reaches 15 cm in diameter.
The cap is covered with a thin but tight skin, smooth to the touch and matte, but often wrinkled in adult fruiting bodies. Usually dry, but in rainy weather it can become slimy. The color of the semi-white mushroom Boletus Impolitus can be clayey or light brown, the lower surface of the cap is tubular and yellowish, with small pores, acquiring an olive hue with age.
The leg can rise up to 15 cm above the ground, reaches about 6 cm in girth. A thickening is noticeable in its lower part. The color of the leg is predominantly beige, and in the upper part it is lighter, and in the lower part it is much darker and sometimes with a reddish tint. There are also villi in the lower part of the leg, but there is usually no mesh pattern on its surface.
If you break a semi-white mushroom in half, then its flesh will turn out to be dense, whitish or lemon yellow, with a neutral or weak carbolic smell. From contact with air, the flesh does not change color – this is a characteristic feature of the semi-white boletus.
Where do semi-white bolets grow
The semi-white boletus belongs to the category of heat-loving species that prefer moist soils. You can meet him in Our Country mainly in the southern regions and in the Central region. Usually a semi-white mushroom grows in mixed and deciduous forests under hornbeams, beeches and oaks; it can rarely be seen under coniferous trees.
The period of maximum fruiting occurs at the end of summer and the beginning of autumn. The first mushrooms appear already in May, but grow in the largest quantities from mid-August to October.
Edible or not semi-porcini mushrooms
Although the semi-white bolete does not have a very pleasant smell, this aroma disappears after initial processing. From the point of view of edibility, the boletus of this species is completely suitable for food consumption. According to many mushroom pickers, it is in no way inferior to white mushroom, and even surpasses it in taste.
False doubles
Experienced mushroom pickers distinguish semi-white boletus from other species without difficulty. However, beginners may confuse the boletus with similar varieties, among which there are both edible and inedible ones.
Porcini
In the absence of experience, it is possible to confuse a semi-white mushroom with an ordinary white one – the varieties are almost identical to each other in size and structure. But there are differences – the hat of a white bolet is usually darker, brown in color without an admixture of lemon color. The stem of the white boletus is mostly beige, darker at the bottom and lighter towards the cap.
Varieties can also be distinguished by smell. The white boletus does not have the slight carbolic aroma that is present in the semi-white. Both types are completely edible, but require preliminary preparation – short soaking and boiling.
Maiden boletus
Another edible double of the semi-white mushroom is the maiden boletus, which is occasionally found in the deciduous forests of the southern regions. Varieties have the same structure of hats and legs, are similar in size and color.
But at the same time, the girlish boletus is darker – yellow-brown, red-brown or brown-brown in the hat. The stem of the maiden mushroom is lemon-yellow, brownish in the lower part, with a pronounced mesh, but usually it is thinner than that of the semi-white.
green flywheel
An edible mushroom has a certain resemblance to a semi-white boletus – its hat is of the same shape, pillow-shaped in adulthood and convex in young fruiting bodies. But the color of the green flywheel is olive-yellow or olive-brown, and its leg, although high, is very thin, only up to 2 cm in diameter.
You can also distinguish a green flywheel if you press on the hat or cut it, the flesh will quickly turn blue. The aroma of green mushroom is reminiscent of dried fruit and quite pleasant, in contrast to the smell of half-white mushroom. Although the bottom layer of the cap is tubular in both species, the pores are much larger in the green flywheel.
beautiful boletus
Sometimes you can confuse a half-white boletus with an inedible beautiful boletus – a mushroom of a similar shape and size. But the differences in the double are very noticeable – his hat has an olive-gray tint.
The leg of a beautiful boletus is thick and dense, club-shaped, while its upper part is lemon yellow, the middle is bright red, and closer to the base the leg becomes red-brown. For a semi-white mushroom, such transitions of shades on the stem are not characteristic, although both species have a light mesh on the stem. The flesh on the cut of an inedible beautiful boletus quickly turns blue.
Rooting boletus
Another inedible species, a rooted boletus, has a certain resemblance to a semi-white mushroom. Although the varieties are similar in size and structure, the difference between them is quite large.
The hat of the rooting boletus is light grey, usually much lighter than that of the semi-white. The legs of the two species are very similar, but in the rooting boletus, the leg is usually brown-brown or with greenish-blue spots at the base. On the cut, the inedible boletus acquires a bright blue color.
Collection rules
It is best to go for a half-white boletus into the forest in mid-August. From this time until mid-autumn, the mushroom bears fruit most actively. The most rapid growth of fruiting bodies usually occurs after rainy days.
You need to choose clean forests for collection, located away from industrial facilities and major roads. Since mushroom pulp quickly accumulates toxic substances in itself, fruiting bodies grown in polluted areas can be hazardous to health. It is better to collect young semi-white bolets, they are denser in structure, taste good and also contain a minimum of toxic substances from the air and soil in their pulp.
How to cook semi-porcini mushrooms
Semi-white is considered a versatile mushroom – it can be boiled, fried, pickled, salted and dried for long-term storage. Before any processing method, except for drying, fruit bodies must be cleaned of forest debris, if necessary, cut and soak for an hour to remove slight bitterness from the pulp. Bolets are boiled for about half an hour in salted water, the broth must be drained, toxins may remain in it.
Pickling semi-white bolete
A popular cooking method is pickling a semi-porcini mushroom. The recipe looks very simple:
- 1 kg of fruiting bodies is boiled for half an hour;
- the broth is drained, and the mushrooms are thrown into a colander;
- in another bowl, boil water with 2 large spoons of salt, 1 large spoon of sugar, 3 cloves and 5 peppercorns;
- after boiling, 100 ml of vinegar is poured into the marinade and boiled mushrooms are laid;
- After another 15 minutes, the mushrooms and marinade are removed from the heat.
After that, prepared sterile jars are laid out with onions along the bottom, mushrooms are laid on top and poured with hot marinade. Capacities tightly closed and after cooling stored in the refrigerator.
Hot half-white mushroom
Another popular recipe for semi-porcini mushroom is sautéing. In a hot frying pan, greased with vegetable oil, fry 200 g of chopped onion until transparent.
After that, pre-boiled and chopped semi-porcini mushrooms are added to the onion, after 10 minutes they salt and pepper the mixture to taste, and after another quarter of an hour they are removed from the stove. Fried mushrooms can be served with boiled potatoes, cereals and other dishes.
Conclusion
The semi-porcini mushroom is a fairly tasty edible mushroom that requires minimal processing. If you study his description and photo properly and correctly recognize him in the forest, he will be able to decorate many culinary dishes with himself.