On Sun, 29 Sep 2013 17:02:20 +0100, Nick Maclaren wrote:

In this particular case, you first have to positively identify the
fungus as a boletus. The rules for doing that are definitely in any
good book on British fungi. The secondary ones are to avoid any that
EITHER have red gills OR stain (especially blue).

You've ruled out my entire harvest of the day! Lots of Boletus
erythropus, and some good Boletus badius (Bai). The Red Foot is, to my
taste, as good or better than the Cepe; what's more the bugs don't like
it so even older ones are usually sound. The blue turns black in the
early part of cooking but then goes an appetising yellow as the moisture
boils out. It ends with a crunchy texture and nutty taste. It has red
tubes (not gills as you mis-typed) and flashes quite blue -- as does the
bolet bai -- but nothing like the Satan, which also has a nasty whitish
creme cap. We did find some Boletus calopus, not common but does turn
up, which has a similar cap to the Satan but is of course not edible
anyway (and doesn't have red tubes).

I know a fairly crazy guy who actually cooked and ate the Satan, (yes,
intentionally), he reported getting pretty sick but "it wasn't that
bad." Not an experiment I'd like to carry out!



--
Gardening in Lower Normandy