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Description and distribution places of oak milk mushroom. Conditionally edible milk mushrooms: photo and description Milk mushrooms that grow under oak trees, how to cook

This handsome man looks like the well-known saffron milk cap crossed with a milk mushroom. This handsome guy even has the same stripes on his hat. But oak milk mushrooms are still significantly different from saffron milk caps. It is noteworthy that it has not one, but two Latin names. Where does this mushroom grow, and how to distinguish it from other species?

Oak milkweed (Lactarius insulsus) belongs to the Russula family, the genus Milky. Interestingly, it has several Russian names and two Latin ones. Mycologists call it Lactarius zonarius or zonal milkweed, and mushroom pickers call it oak saffron milkin or, due to the presence of white juice in the pulp, oak milkweed. It belongs to the conditionally edible lamellar species of mushrooms.

  • The cap is quite large, its diameter is 6-15 cm, but some specimens manage to grow up to 20 cm. In young individuals, it has a convex shape with a distinct pit in the middle and strongly curved edges, gradually takes on a flat-convex shape or immediately looks like a funnel. The edges are smooth, fleshy, slightly pubescent. Mature mushrooms have a funnel-shaped and wide cap. Often the shape may become irregular. The edges are thin, wavy, slightly turned up. Young milk mushrooms may be wet to the touch, but in general the cap of this species is dry, becoming sticky only in rainy weather. The skin color varies from creamy yellow to reddish-orange, sometimes brick red. The cap contains clearly defined concentric circles of a darker shade than the main color of the mushroom. The circles are usually brown;
  • the stem is central, thick, short, up to 7 cm long and 1 to 3.5 cm thick. The shape is a straight cylinder, sometimes slightly tapering or thickening downward. Dense, but hollow inside. The surface color is usually close to the shade of the cap, but lighter - pinkish, whitish, cream. There may also be darker red spots on the stem - they often appear if the mushroom season is rainy;
  • The flesh is dense, hard, but breaks easily. The color is whitish, cream, sometimes changing to pale pinkish when cut. It has a pleasant fruity smell and a very bitter, burning taste.

The cause of the bitter taste is the watery milky juice that releases the pulp when damaged. It is white in color and does not change shade upon contact with air;

  • the plates are slightly descending onto the stem, quite frequent, wide, and have a yellowish or pinkish-red color. By the way, depending on the age of the mushroom or the weather, they can change shade, becoming white and creamy in dry weather, and darken to brown in rain;
  • ocher spores.

Distribution and fruiting period

The oak milkweed prefers to settle in mixed, broad-leaved, deciduous forests, sometimes in pine plantings. It loves oak forests most of all and is usually found next to oak trees - this explains the origin of its name. Also, the oak milk mushroom settles next to hornbeams, beeches, and hazels, preferring to live on humus loams.

Oak milk mushroom often bears fruit in groups, but single specimens are also found. The season of active growth and development begins at the end of July and ends no earlier than the end of September or the beginning of October. It is collected in the fall, since in mid-summer it is still underground, developing there. That is why his hat is usually very dirty.

Now oak camelina is rare, although it used to grow almost everywhere and in large quantities.

Similar species

Oak milkweed is easily confused with pine saffron (Lactarius deliciosus) and spruce saffron (Lactarius deterrimus), but it is quite easy to distinguish these two species if you look at them more closely. The hero of our article has a cap that is usually lighter and paler, and the flesh does not change color when damaged (in camelina it turns green). The taste of the oak milk mushroom is very bitter, and its milky juice is white, while that of the saffron milk cap is orange.

Edibility

Oak saffron milk cap is a conditionally edible and quite tasty mushroom that belongs to category II. But you can use it only after soaking it clean for several days. It is recommended to eat oak milk mushrooms only in salted form.

This mushroom is considered tasty enough to go on a “silent hunt” for it. And it’s a pleasure to collect it, since due to the burning milky sap, oak milk mushrooms are almost never spoiled by worms.

As already mentioned, from a scientific point of view, milk mushrooms belong to the genus Lactrius, or milky. If you break off or cut off a piece of a mushroom, droplets of liquid, sometimes white and similar to milk, will immediately be released from the pulp. So they called it milky juice, and the mushrooms were called milkmen. This genus includes not only milk mushrooms, but also mushrooms such as volushki, nigella, bitters, rubellas, serushki, smoothies and many others. And even royal mushrooms -! Milkies are a fairly numerous mushroom people. There are about five dozen species of them in our country. There are no poisonous milkweeds, but almost all species have pungent and bitter juice. That’s why many milkweeds in many other countries are considered poisonous!

Not all milkweeds have white juice; it can be yellow, orange, and even blue (if we talk about America). In some milkweeds, when exposed to air, the juice instantly changes color: it turns green, purple, or red, while in others it remains unchanged.


The most prized among milk mushrooms is the raw or real milk mushroom, called Lactarius resimus; somewhat inferior to it is the black milk mushroom, Lactarius necator. Some mushrooms from the russula genus look similar to milk mushrooms, for example, milk mushrooms (Russula delica), which is sometimes called dry (that is, not secreting milky juice) milk mushrooms - they are so similar. But the very first cut makes it easy to distinguish milk mushrooms from milk mushrooms by the absence of milky juice.

And we will begin our acquaintance with representatives of the glorious milk mushroom tribe with white mushrooms. These mushrooms are most often found in huge thickets during the mushroom season, and it takes a lot of effort to distinguish them from each other. Because some of them are edible and tasty, while others are bitter and salty, and taste most like sawdust.

Real breast milk, white, raw (Lactarius resimus)

First-class, truly Russian milk mushroom, considered one of the best mushrooms in Russia. In the Volga region and the Urals, real milk mushrooms are called raw milk mushrooms due to the slightly mucous surface of the cap. In Siberia, this mushroom is called pravsky, that is, real.

The cap of a young mushroom is white, the cap of a middle-aged mushroom is creamy, and that of an old one is yellowish, with barely noticeable watery zones around its circumference. Even in dry weather, the surface of the cap is cool and moist.

The caps of young milk mushrooms are flat, slightly depressed in the center, while old mushrooms turn into huge funnels with a shaggy edge of yellowish-ocher fibers. All kinds of forest debris constantly stick to the wet surface of the cap: leaves, twigs, lumps of soil, dry blades of grass. You won't find pure milk mushrooms.


The white, acrid-tasting milky juice of milk mushrooms turns yellow when exposed to air. The smell of milk mushrooms is very characteristic, “milk mushrooms”, and to some it resembles the smell of fruit. The plates of young mushrooms are frequent, pure white, but with age they become wide, sparse, and yellowish. On the short, thick white leg, yellowish depressions and notches are noticeable along its entire length. The leg is hollow inside.

You can find white milk mushrooms in birch forests or mixed with birch, with which the milk mushrooms form mycorrhiza. In general, most milk mushrooms, like native Russian mushrooms, form mycorrhiza with the native Russian birch. That is why in Rus' villages were placed mainly next to birch forests: you will always have not only firewood, but also mushrooms.

You just need to know the loading areas; you can walk by and not notice the mushroom until it, already huge and aged, crawls out from under a layer of old leaves and dry grass. It happens that you are walking through the forest and a milk mushroom suddenly becomes fragile under your foot and shows its whitish side. And the aroma in milk mushrooms is special, only milk mushrooms smell like that! Milk mushrooms do not grow alone; they prefer to group and sit tightly under the foliage. The real milk mushroom does not like damp, swampy places.

The real milk mushroom has edible but tasteless twin brothers: the violin milk mushroom and the pepper milk mushroom. Actually, they can be called doubles with a big stretch, since their main difference is very striking: the absence of fringe along the edge of the cap and the characteristic surface of the cap - felt-woolly. And on the caps of these mushrooms there are no concentric zones - rings.

Violin (Lactarius vellereus)

A large, white, very stocky mushroom, which is characterized by a dry, pure white, later slightly ocher cap with a velvety surface, sparse plates and a short thick stalk, somewhat narrowed at the base. The pulp is rough, white, slightly yellow at the break. The milky juice is extremely hot and does not change color in the air.

The mushroom got its name from the sound similar to the squeak it makes when you run something over the cap.



Violins grow everywhere in large numbers throughout the summer and fall. Mycorrhizae usually form with birch trees. They attract mushroom pickers with their massiveness, strength and worm-free nature. When salted, the bitterness in the mushrooms disappears, but the violin tastes more like wood, no matter how much you soak, boil, or season with spices. Of course, there are those who claim that when pickled, the mushroom becomes strong and acquires a mushroom smell. But do we really need a piece of wood with the smell of mushroom?

Pepper milkweed (Lactarius piperatus)

A close relative of the violinist, very similar to her. The pepper milk mushroom lives in broad-leaved (especially oak) and mixed forests. The violin is somewhat less common.


It differs from the skipapa in the smooth, non-velvety surface of the cap, on which brownish spots appear in old mushrooms. In addition, the milky juice of this milk mushroom becomes greenish, gray-green or bluish when exposed to air. You can also distinguish them by their plates: in the violin they are much rarer, but this is visible only in adult mushrooms. Young milk mushrooms cannot be distinguished, although who needs this? Pepper milk mushrooms aren't as woody as violin mushrooms, but no matter what you do with them, you can't eat them. Although, it is possible - but only if there is nothing else at all.

Blue breast (Lactarius glaucescens)

The bluish milk mushroom is very similar to the violin milk and the pepper milk milk, sometimes even described as a form of the pepper milk milk Lactarius piperatus var. glaucescens. It is distinguished by its white milky juice, which gradually coagulates in air and becomes grayish-greenish when dried.

The cap of the mushroom is white, velvety, dry, and with age creamy spots and cracks appear. The plates of the mushroom are very frequent, matching the cap or creamy. Some authors describe the smell of the mushroom as follows: “if you want to recognize this mushroom by smell, it may remind you of the smell of fresh sawdust, rye bread or a faint honey aroma.”

In terms of edibility, the bluish milk mushroom is similar to its twin brothers: the violin milk mushroom and the pepper milk mushroom. Moreover, after cooking, the mushroom takes on an unappetizing bluish appearance.

Aspen, poplar, white milkweed (Lactarius controversus)

This mushroom is large, like a real milk mushroom, sometimes with a light fluff along the edge of a white, slightly pinkish cap, with watery areas on it. The cap of the milk mushroom is very large and fleshy, reaching up to 30 cm in diameter (larger specimens are also found).

The milk mushroom's plates are very dense and creamy-pinkish. The pulp is dense, white. The milky juice is abundant and white in color and does not change in air. The leg is short. It is found quite often and very abundantly from August to the end of October in aspen or birch-aspen forests, also in poplar plantings, less often in willow forests. It grows in large piles and bushes containing several mushrooms. It can be collected not only with baskets, but also with carts (currently trunks :)).



The mushroom forms underground and only its cap peeks out to the surface, abundantly covered with lumps of dirt, leaves and grass. And before you start washing these large mushrooms, you must clear them of forest debris. It doesn’t soak well in water and you have to scrub the mushroom cap with a hard sponge. Although this is on the first day, if you let the mushrooms sit for two days in water, changing the water first, then all the dirt on the cap can be easily washed with a sponge and there will be no need to scrape the top layer of the mushroom.


Unlike its twin brothers: skyripitsa and pepper milk mushrooms, pickled aspen milk mushrooms are slightly inferior to raw milk mushrooms, and some (including us) like them better than black milk mushrooms.


And now a little educational program on the topic "how to distinguish them."

It is difficult to confuse a real milk mushroom - the shaggy edge gives it away completely.

To distinguish the others, first of all we pay attention to the tone of the records. In the aspen milk mushroom they are pinkish, and the cap is often covered with pinkish concentric circles. We also look at the collection site - aspen mushroom grows under aspens and poplars, preferring plantings along roads. The milky juice of the aspen milk mushroom is white, abundant and pungent, and does not change color.

If there is no pinkishness, then we check for rusty spots and whether the flesh turns yellow when scrapped. If so, then it's a violin. They say that the cap is covered with white fluff, but it is not always possible to see it.

If the milky juice turns green when scraped, then it is a parchment milk mushroom (or bluish). If neither the pulp nor the milky juice changes color, but the juice is not liquid, but thick and viscous, then we have a pepper milk mushroom.

So we dealt with the white milk mushrooms. The next ones we will meet are milk mushrooms of other colors.

Black breast, nigella (Lactarius necator)

Nigella is a large mushroom that, perhaps, cannot be confused with any other. The black milk mushroom is squat, its color is camouflage, and in a dark forest among last year’s foliage it is not so easy to find. Greenish-olive caps with dark, almost black centers, on which concentric brown zones are faintly visible, are almost always sticky, lumps of soil and dry leaves stick to them. At a young age, the surface of the cap is lighter, yellowish. The velvety, curled edges of the cap are also yellowish. Although the mushroom is called black, a small shade of marsh color in the cap is visible through the brownish, almost black color.

Chernushki grow in old birch and mixed pine- or spruce-birch forests. The main wave of mushrooms occurs in August-early September, and they sometimes appear in such huge quantities that you get tired of picking. And sometimes mushroom pickers make special “chernushka forays” into the forest.

When pickled, black milk mushrooms acquire an appetizing burgundy color, like a ripe cherry. The mushrooms begin to turn red on the second day of pickling. They remain strong and crisp for two to three years.

All milk mushrooms have their own sharpness in taste, sourness - their own individual milk mushroom taste. But somehow things didn’t work out for the black milk mushrooms. Although its milky juice is caustic, the causticity disappears both when salted and when fried, and nigella remains just a crunchy salted mushroom. Black milk mushrooms do not have their own zest in taste, so when pickled they are preferred to be flavored with various spices, seasonings, currant and oak leaves, to add aroma and aftertaste. This mushroom is not for everybody, although it can be either salted or fried.

Yellow breast (Lactarius scroboculatus)

It is found both in mixed and in spruce and spruce-fir forests. We encountered yellow milk mushrooms in small quantities in the deciduous forest, along oak and maple trees. The surface of the cap of the yellow milk mushroom, like that of the true milk mushroom, is felt-woolly, slimy in wet weather, golden or straw-yellow, yellow-ocher, often with darker, barely noticeable concentric zones, slightly darkens when pressed, brownish indentations on the short stalk . When broken or cut, it releases abundant thick milky juice, which quickly turns yellow in air.



Salted yellow milk mushrooms are in no way inferior to real milk mushrooms, so they can be salted together. But when pickled, the yellow milk mushroom is strong.

Purple breast, blue breast (Lactarius repraesentaneus)

This mushroom is a colored double of the yellow milk mushroom; it is popularly called “dog milk mushroom.” The lilac milkweed is a northerner, a resident of the taiga and forest-tundra. It can also grow in the tundra among dwarf birch trees. But most often it is found in rather damp taiga-type forests.

The cap of the milk mushroom is yellow with protruding villi and a shaggy edge; when pressed, it acquires a characteristic purple color. The milky juice is white, quickly turns purple in air, with a mild taste, slightly bitter.



Due to its mild taste, purple milk mushroom is considered a delicacy, and it is not only salted, but also fried. The taste is a little spicy.

Pink volnushka, volnyanka, volzhanka (Lactarius tirminosus)

Pink Volnushka is a very beautiful mushroom. The cap of the wave is pink-red with a shaggy edge and dark concentric circles. Pink moths grow in deciduous and mixed forests, forming mycorrhiza with birch trees, mainly young ones. They often appear at the edge of the grass in very crowded groups, literally overlapping each other. And if in one flock of milk mushrooms you can see mushrooms of all ages, then the little mushrooms pour out almost simultaneously, as if especially for a mushroom picker - the same size, as if selected.


The name of the mushroom volnushka, volzhanka, volnyanka comes from the ancient Slavic word "vlna" ("wave"), which means wool, sheep's wool. The furry edges of the caps are very reminiscent of real fur!

Western mycologists classify this shaggy pink mushroom as a poisonous mushroom. Yes, in their raw form, volnushki are very bitter. Maybe something will happen to your stomachs if you happen to eat raw trumpets. But it’s unlikely that a bitter mushroom will whet anyone’s appetite. Although one or two mushrooms can be added to the overall mushroom stir-fry, they will enhance the taste of the dish with a slight bitterness, like a seasoning. Traditionally, volushki are salted, and usually in a hot way - with boiling. However, with proper salting - cold - the mushrooms will be just like milk mushrooms, except perhaps less fragrant. But unlike milk mushrooms, salted milk mushrooms do not like long-term storage; they become very sour. So it’s better to eat salted trumpets in the first six months.

White trumpet (Lactarius pubescens)

The white volnushka is more inconspicuous than the pink one, more squat with a very short leg. The cap of the mushroom is whitish, only pinkish-fawn in the center; in older mushrooms it becomes yellow. The concentric rings on the cap are almost invisible. There is a thin fluff along the edge of the cap.

It prefers to grow in young birch forests and wetlands, but is found in deciduous and mixed forests, forming mycorrhiza with birch. Waves appear throughout the summer and autumn, but the August wave is especially productive. In open places among young birch trees there are so many ripples that sometimes there is nowhere to step, and if you do step, it will definitely be on a family of mushrooms hidden in the grass.

For salting, choose small or medium-sized frills with edges curved inward. Unlike old mushrooms with funnel-shaped caps, whose flesh is loose and too watery, young mushrooms are strong and beautiful. Some fans boil mushrooms in boiling water for about 10 minutes to remove bitterness. This is where another name for the mushroom appeared among the people - decoction, although almost all low-quality mushrooms are called this way in different places.

After cooking, the mushrooms become gray in color. But when salted in a cold way, they almost do not change their color and remain slightly yellowish. And with this salting, they have a richer taste.

Camelina (Lactarius deliciosus)

The most delicious mushroom among mushrooms. Saffron milk caps grow in coniferous forests and plantings. Their orange outfit cannot be confused with any other mushroom. There are several types of saffron milk caps: spruce, pine, real and red. More details about saffron milk caps can be found in the article "".


Rizhik is a mushroom that can be eaten raw, but it is also tasty when fried. Its bright orange milky juice is not at all bitter, sweetish-spicy with the most pleasant smell of fir trees.

Oak milkweed (Lactarius insulsus)

A bright red cap with noticeable concentric circles and wavy, uneven edges. If you look at the mushroom from above it looks like a saffron milk cap, from the side it looks like a milk mushroom. Due to its external resemblance to saffron milk cap, the oak milk mushroom is sometimes called “mushroom” or “oak saffron milk cap”. The plates of the mushroom are light cream in color. Very bitter, white milky juice does not change color in air. This fungus forms mycorrhiza with oak, beech and hazel.

Some mushroom pickers compare oak milk mushrooms in taste to bitters. But after soaking and proper hot salting, the mushroom becomes quite edible. True, its smell is not the same as that of raw milk mushrooms. Not that it's less pleasant, just different.

Serushka (Lactarius flexuosus)

A dense mushroom with a dry pink-gray, grayish cap with a slight purple tint. On the surface of the cap, weakly defined concentric circles are visible, sometimes there are small depressions and holes. The edges of the cap are almost always uneven and wavy. Serushka's plates are thick, sparse, uneven, yellowish. Serushka is a warm- and light-loving mushroom, most often found in birch and mixed with birch forests, in open grassy places: clearings, forest edges, and the sides of forest roads.



The milky juice resembles milk heavily diluted with water, not very abundant, and bitter. When pickled, the sorushka does not have a special taste or aroma, and it is better to salt it in a mixture with other mushrooms (nigella, volnushki, white mushrooms).

Gladysh, hollow (Lactarius trivialis)

Other names: alder, common milkweed.

The cap of the mushroom is always wet and smooth, which is why it is called smooth in some areas. In wet weather, the surface of the cap is sticky, slimy, and the concentric circles on it are often intermittent. The color of the cap varies from gray-violet to brownish-yellow. Young mushrooms are darker, dense, and fleshy. The old ones fade greatly and change color to pale yellow with a pinkish tint, their flesh becomes loose and brittle. The plates are thin, frequent, whitish-cream. The stem of even a young mushroom is hollow, with rather thin walls, “hollow”. Therefore, the most common name for this mushroom is nest, or yellow hollow.


This mushroom is found in mixed forests under coniferous trees, especially near pine trees. However, it can settle in thickets of raspberries, buckthorn, forest honeysuckle, and among young birch trees in a pine forest. Loves to grow in moss.

When pickled, the mushroom turns bright yellow. Bright raspberry salted nigella with bright yellow hollows look very beautiful on a plate. In the northern part of Russia, duplyanka is considered an excellent mushroom; in the European part it is less common and hence less known.

Euphorbia, milkweed (Lactarius volemus)

Other names: common wood, smoothy.

A large mushroom with a yellowish-orange or brick-colored fleshy cap and pale yellow frequent plates. The cap grows up to 10 centimeters in diameter. The stem of the mushroom is powerful and dense, the same color as the cap or slightly lighter. Thick white milky juice appears very abundantly on the damaged areas; in the air it immediately turns brown and becomes viscous like soft rubber. The milky juice does not taste pungent, like most milk mushrooms, but is soft and sweetish. The pulp is white with a specific odor.



Euphorbia is not often found; it grows in groups of several mushrooms or singly. Its habitat is deciduous, often broad-leaved forests. He loves hazel bushes, for which he received the name hazel. Gladysh is the name given not only to this species, but to several other laticifers, which are discussed in this article.

In Western countries, milkweed is considered a “good edible mushroom” and is compared to camelina, a mushroom that can be eaten raw. Mushroom pickers have different opinions about the taste of milkweed: it is considered simply pleasant, sweetish, and is compared to herring or lobster. Old mushrooms acquire an unpleasant odor, which is compared to the smell of rotten herring. So the mushroom is very much for everyone.

We have been collecting red milk mushrooms for quite a long time, but unfortunately, we have never found a Latin name. Externally, the mushroom is similar to some species: spurge, rubella, non-caustic milkweed, but still this mushroom differs from them. So we’ll call it the red mushroom. Or maybe you recognize this mushroom? Then we will be happy to read your version.

Red mushrooms grow individually or in small groups of several mushrooms in deciduous forests, forming mycorrhiza with oak.



The cap of the mushroom is smooth, in young mushrooms it is flat-convex, and with age it becomes funnel-shaped, without obvious concentric zones. The color of the cap is red-brown, burgundy, sometimes with a yellowish tint, diameter is 4-12 centimeters. The leg is the same color as the cap, up to 10 centimeters high and up to 3 centimeters in diameter. The plates are the same color but lighter; with age they acquire the color of the cap. The milky juice is white, non-caustic, sweetish, with a slight bitterness, and does not change color. The cut flesh is slightly lighter than the cap of young mushrooms and darker of old ones; it does not change color when broken; the smell is pungent, characteristic of mushrooms. Found from July to October in light deciduous forests under oak trees, sometimes in large numbers.


A tasty mushroom, good raw, lightly salted. Place the clean caps of young mushrooms with the slices facing up, sprinkle with salt, wait for the salt to be absorbed - and the appetizer is ready. Red milk mushrooms are also delicious in... Like all milk mushrooms, they are very tasty if eaten. When pickled, red milk mushrooms have their own incomparable taste and a pleasant milk mushroom aroma.

Other

Here we come to those milkweeds that are rarely collected for various reasons. Firstly, the sizes are small. Secondly, more interesting mushrooms grow at this time. Thirdly, in appearance they are very similar to each other, and until you start to specifically understand, you will not find out how many completely different small milky creatures of a creamy-orange-red-brown color are actually found. In fact, much more than you might imagine. We will meet some of the representatives.

Bitterweed (Lactarius rufus)

Bittersweet can be found in swamps, damp pine forests, and among mosses. It exists both in the tundra and high in the mountains. Bitterweed grows throughout the summer and forms mycorrhiza with pines, spruces, and fir trees. The mushroom is small, and many people mistake it for a toadstool and do not collect it. The cap grows from 3 to 10 centimeters in diameter. This mushroom is easy to recognize by the clearly visible tubercle in the center of the cap. The cap is dry, velvety, red-brown in color, without zones. The flesh of the mushroom is gray-white in color and becomes brown with age, with a faint, unclear odor, which some consider unpleasant. The white milky juice is very bitter and burns the lips; it does not change color when exposed to air.

The mushroom is productive and rarely wormy, but a bitter mushroom is a bitter mushroom. Its bitterness does not completely disappear even after several months of pickling. Therefore, bitters are salted in a mixture with other mushrooms.

Rubbella (Lactarius subdulcis)

Rubella is very similar in appearance to bittersweet; it also prefers to grow in damp places among moss in coniferous and deciduous forests. The cap is thin and fragile, red-brown, burgundy in color with a darker middle and a small tubercle; the yellowish plates become brownish-red with age. Adult mushrooms have a cap up to 8 centimeters in diameter. It differs from the bitter mushroom in its red-yellow pulp and non-caustic watery-white milky juice, which in adults begins to taste bitter.

Young redfish are used for pickling.

Lactarius camphoratus (Camphor milkweed)

This mushroom is smaller than bitter, its flesh is thin, brittle, reddish-brown, the plates and stem are the same color. White, non-caustic milky juice appears abundantly, as soon as you touch the plates, and is clearly visible against their dark background. The cap of this milkweed also has a tubercle, but not as prominent as that of the bitterweed. The edges of the old mushroom are very thin and wavy.

Camphor milkweed grows in coniferous and mixed forests in large groups from July to September.

Since the mushroom has non-palatable pulp, it makes sense to collect it - it’s not suitable for pickling, but for roasting.

Lactarius spinosulus (Lactarius spinosulus)

Outwardly it looks like an unsightly, emaciated wave: on a pink cap, dark pink waves-circles. But both the cap and the stem are thinner and more fragile; there is no hairy fringe along the edge of the cap. The pink leg is often curved. The pulp turns green, gray and even black when cut. These mushrooms grow in damp birch or forests mixed with birch in August-September.


Despite the non-acidic pulp, it is considered inedible, although it can be salted with other milk mushrooms; when pickled, it is no worse than other “small milk mushrooms”.

This mushroom is found in deciduous forests with an admixture of oak, with which it forms mycorrhiza. The cap of the mushroom is brown-cream, dirty brown, with a darker center and fuzzy dark concentric circles. The leg is up to 6 centimeters long and 0.5-1 centimeter thick. The plates are frequent, cream-colored and become covered with brownish-rusty spots with age. The flesh is light cream when broken and exudes a watery white non-caustic milky juice.


Although the mushroom is common, it is not particularly popular; some people do not like its very peculiar smell. And the edible mushroom is salted after preliminary procedures.

Lactarius uvidus (Wet or lilac milky)


This milkweed grows in deciduous forests. The mushroom cap is moist, smooth and sticky in wet weather, grayish-brownish, with faint concentric zones. The flesh of the mushroom is medium fleshy, dense, whitish or yellowish, and turns purple when cut. The plates turn purple when pressed. The milky juice is not caustic, bitterish, white.

Lactarius helvus (Grey-pink milky plant)

Although the mushroom is called gray-pink, it rarely has caps of this color. The usual color is reddish, sometimes more yellowish, sometimes more red. The cap is large, 6-15 centimeters in diameter, with a small tubercle. The surface of the cap is dry and velvety, there are no concentric zones on it. Leg up to 8 centimeters high. The milky juice of the mushroom is completely colorless, transparent, like water, you won’t notice it right away.

This mushroom prefers marshy places among moss and cranberries. In pine forests it chooses the lowest, dampest places with wild rosemary and blueberries and always grows in large groups.



This mushroom cannot be confused with other mushrooms because of its pungent smell - cloying, bittersweet. The mushroom is considered inedible. But there are mushroom pickers who are not bothered by the smell. Although the unpleasant smell remains after boiling, it also transfers to other mushrooms when pickled.

Lactarius vietus (Lactarius vietus)

It grows in damp birch and forests mixed with birch, often found in August-September. Outwardly it looks like a hollow mushroom, but the mushroom is very flimsy, thin-fleshy, and brittle. A small cap 3-7 centimeters, with a thin wavy edge, sometimes with a small tubercle, lilac-gray, grayish-flesh color with barely noticeable zones. Its juice is acrid and white and turns gray in the air.

Of course, you can collect these mushrooms; when pickled, they taste similar to yellow milk mushrooms, but... there is a high probability that you will bring home a bunch of grayed pieces from the forest.

Lactarius pyrogalus (Holly milkweed)

A small mushroom with a grayish-flesh cap, similar to Lactarius vietus (milky faded), but it does not grow in typical places for milk mushrooms - under birch and spruce trees, but in bushes, among forest roads, and is found in gardens. Mycorrhiza forms with hazel. Milky juice is caustic. The smell of this mushroom is characteristic of milk mushrooms - slightly fruity. But even though they appear en masse, picking these mushrooms will tire your back, and the result will be meager.



Although the name of the mushroom is scary, the mushroom is edible, and its pungency disappears when pickled.

Of course, the list of mushrooms of the genus Lactarius is incomplete, but either these species are not found in Russia, or they are so small and thin that they are not worth mentioning.

Salting milk mushrooms

As already mentioned, the fruiting body of the milk mushroom is formed underground, and when the mushroom appears on the surface of the soil, there is always a lot of forest debris on its cap: lumps of soil, leaves, blades of grass, twigs. And although some mushrooms are lucky with the places where they grow, such as saffron milk mushrooms, which grow in moss and pine litter and remain clean, most milk mushrooms are dirty.

So it’s not enough to collect milk mushrooms - they also need to be cleaned. And when to clean them, if during the mushroom season the harvest is counted by cartloads? While the women washed one batch of milk mushrooms and placed them in wooden tubs and sprinkled them with salt, the rest of the milk mushrooms were filled with water, so as not to spoil and soak off the dirt, changing it every day for fresh ones. Milk mushrooms can be stored “soaked” for several days, so you have time to process and pickle the entire harvest of milk mushrooms.

But this folk method of preparing milk mushrooms for pickling was forgotten, and now in many cookbooks about mushrooms you can find a description that “the milk mushrooms need to be soaked before salting, and for at least three days!” And it would be fine in spring water - but not in the chlorinated water of a city apartment! In fact, there is no need to soak milk mushrooms; mushrooms without excess water will be richer and tastier.

By the way, pickling mushrooms is not just soaking mushrooms in salt! In fact, this is a complex biotechnological process - just like sauerkraut, for example. In a brine of the correct concentration, of all the microflora, only the “necessary” lactic acid bacteria are able to multiply, which convert - ferment - the mushroom glycogen into lactic acid, which gives the mushrooms a sour taste and protects them from mold and other harmful microorganisms. During the fermentation process, carbon dioxide is also released, so the container with salted mushrooms should not be sealed.

Hot way

With the hot method, the washed mushrooms are first boiled for about 10 minutes, and the broth is drained. Then the mushrooms are salted. Salts are added 5-6% of the weight of mushrooms. As a seasoning for mushrooms, you can add garlic, peppercorns, horseradish leaves, currants, oak, and dill umbrellas. Although this method is simpler and boiled mushrooms become edible faster - after just a few days, they have a less pronounced taste and are inferior in aroma to cold-pickled mushrooms. If it still somehow suits violin mushrooms and pepper milk mushrooms, then boiling all the other milk mushrooms will only spoil it, and the bitterness and acrid taste disappear during the pickling process (even without soaking!). Just wash them and you can salt them. In this way (it’s called cold) you can salt all milk mushrooms and milk mushrooms, as well as white mushrooms - with the exception of saffron milk caps.

Cold way

The milk mushrooms are washed, cleaned, the stems are cut off from the caps and the caps are placed in layers on top of the plates in a container. If there is no wooden tub, then glass jars or large plastic buckets will completely replace it. You can salt the milk mushrooms without any additives, just put horseradish leaves on top to prevent the mushrooms from molding. And only then, when the mushroom’s own taste is understood, you can gradually begin to add spices. Salt is added 4% by weight of mushrooms. If there are a lot of milk mushrooms, they are salted in a barrel, then the total amount of salt is divided into 3-5 parts, if there is little, for example a jar, then all the salt can be poured on top. Small baby food jars filled with water are great for pressing into a 3-liter jar, and a lid from a mayonnaise bucket cut to the diameter can be used as a circle.

With the cold method, the mushrooms will be ready in a month and a half. If they turn out to be too salty, they can be soaked in milk for 20 minutes, after which the excess saltiness will disappear.

Dry method

They say that only saffron milk mushrooms are salted dry, but we also salt red milk mushrooms and all the others that we managed to collect clean. With this method, the mushrooms are not washed so as not to become saturated with water, but only cleaned of adhering needles and blades of grass; in the worst case, you can lightly wipe them with a damp sponge. Salt is added to 3% of the weight of mushrooms for saffron milk mushrooms, and 4% for red milk mushrooms. And - no spices! The mushrooms themselves are so rich in flavor that they don’t need any spices.

Ryzhiki can be consumed after just 2-3 days, lightly salted, red milk mushrooms - after a week.

For our taste...

Almost every year we conduct a tasting of different types of salted milk mushrooms, and each type (those collected) was given its place in the list of delicacies:

First place We divided the real milk mushrooms, saffron milk mushrooms and red milk mushrooms. Each one is delicious in its own way. The breast is real - sour, fleshy, strong mushroom, very tasty when salted. Saffron milk caps are saffron milk caps, these brightly colored mushrooms can be eaten raw and lightly salted. When salted, they are tasty for the first week, then they become over-salted and become less crispy. Red milk mushrooms are aromatic, their taste cannot be compared with any milk mushrooms, they have their own taste.

Second place- aspen milk mushroom, yellow milk mushroom. Aspen milk is comparable to white milk, but less aromatic when pickled. We came across yellow milk mushrooms in very small quantities, so we were not able to really taste their taste. When salted, yellow milk mushrooms darken, acquiring a greenish tint.

Third place- waves. Freshly salted volushki are more sour, but juicy and crunchy, but it is better to eat them in their salted form in the first six months, after which they become overly sour.

Fourth place- black milk mushroom, gray milkweed, faded milkweed. Apart from its beautiful burgundy outfit, the black milk mushroom has no advantages, nor its taste. Yes, it’s crunchy and salty, but the taste doesn’t stand out at all. Serushka is a light mushroom taste, very diluted. The faded milkweed tastes like trumpet, but... all the mushrooms collected in half an hour were placed at the bottom of a 100-gram jar

Skripitsa, pepper mushrooms - don’t flavor them with any seasonings; when salted, they are inedible: tasteless in taste and unpleasant in consistency.

Lactarius) family Russulaceae (lat. Russulaceae). Conditionally edible.

Description

  • Cap ∅ 5-12 cm, flat-rounded, then funnel-shaped, often irregular in shape, with a wavy, curled edge; orange-brick or reddish with darker zones.
  • The plates are descending, yellowish.
  • The spore powder is yellowish-cream or ocher. Spores 7-8.5 × 6-7 µm.
  • The stem is 3-7 cm in height, ∅ 1.5-3 cm, the same color as the cap, but lighter and with darker notches.
  • The pulp is whitish or creamy, slightly pinkish when cut, with a pleasant smell.
  • The milky juice is watery-white, scanty, acrid.

Ecology and distribution

Found in deciduous forests. Forms mycorrhiza with oak, beech, and hazel. Grows singly or in large groups.

Season: July-September.

Synonyms

Latin synonyms

  • Agaricus insulsus Fr. 1821basiconym
  • Gloeocybe insulsa Earle 1909
  • Galorrheus insulsus (Fr.) P.Kumm. 1871
  • Lactarius zonarius var. insulsus (Fr.) Bataille 1908

Russian synonyms

  • Oak saffron milk cap

Nutritional quality

Conditionally edible. Consumed salty.

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Literature

  • Serzhanina G. I. Cap mushrooms of Belarus. - Minsk: Science and Technology, 1984.

Links

An excerpt characterizing the oak milkweed

Suddenly something happened; The officer gasped and, curling up, sat down on the ground, like a shot bird in flight. Everything became strange, unclear and cloudy in Pierre’s eyes.
One after another, the cannonballs whistled and hit the parapet, the soldiers, and the cannons. Pierre, who had not heard these sounds before, now only heard these sounds alone. To the side of the battery, on the right, the soldiers were running, shouting “Hurray,” not forward, but backward, as it seemed to Pierre.
The cannonball hit the very edge of the shaft in front of which Pierre stood, sprinkled earth, and a black ball flashed in his eyes, and at the same instant it smacked into something. The militia who had entered the battery ran back.
- All with buckshot! - the officer shouted.
The non-commissioned officer ran up to the senior officer and in a frightened whisper (as a butler reports to his owner at dinner that there is no more wine required) said that there were no more charges.
- Robbers, what are they doing! - the officer shouted, turning to Pierre. The senior officer's face was red and sweaty, his frowning eyes sparkling. – Run to the reserves, bring the boxes! - he shouted, angrily looking around Pierre and turning to his soldier.
“I’ll go,” said Pierre. The officer, without answering him, walked in the other direction with long steps.
– Don’t shoot... Wait! - he shouted.
The soldier, who was ordered to go for the charges, collided with Pierre.
“Eh, master, there’s no place for you here,” he said and ran downstairs. Pierre ran after the soldier, going around the place where the young officer was sitting.
One, another, a third cannonball flew over him, hitting in front, from the sides, from behind. Pierre ran downstairs. "Where am I going?" - he suddenly remembered, already running up to the green boxes. He stopped, undecided whether to go back or forward. Suddenly a terrible shock threw him back to the ground. At the same instant, the brilliance of a large fire illuminated him, and at the same instant a deafening thunder, crackling and whistling sound rang in his ears.
Pierre, having woken up, was sitting on his backside, leaning his hands on the ground; the box he was near was not there; only green burnt boards and rags were lying on the scorched grass, and the horse, shaking its shaft with fragments, galloped away from him, and the other, like Pierre himself, lay on the ground and squealed shrilly, protractedly.

(suburban, podryzhik)

or oak milk cap, oak milkweed

- conditionally edible mushroom

✎ Affiliation and generic characteristics

Oak milk mushroom(lat. Lactarius insulsus) or oak camelina, oak milkweed, but people call it sorrel, podryzhik is a conditionally edible mushroom from the genus Lactarius, the family Russulaceae and the order Russulales, which differs from other milk mushrooms in its coloring of a reddish or yellowish-orange-brick color and its preference to grow among broad-leaved trees, such as oak, beech and hornbeam, or near hazel and hazel, for which it received its popular names - “hothorn” or “hotwood”.
It is considered conditionally edible only because it belongs to a large group of species belonging to the genus of laticifers, which contain in the pulp of their fruiting body white milky juice, very bitter and acrid in taste, which, however, can be attributed to the advantages of this (and all the rest) milk mushrooms, because due to its presence, mushroom worms rarely grow in it.
The milk mushroom received its name for its ability to grow in families and nests, similar to heaps or piles. And our modern word pile in Old Church Slavonic sounds like gruz d i e.

Similar species and nutritional value

Oak milk mushroom in appearance it is very similar to all other milk mushrooms and differs from them only in the slightly reddish or yellowish-nutty, or orange-brick color of its fruiting body. It can also be confused with an ordinary saffron milk cap (it’s not for nothing that it is called “podryzhik”), which is distinguished by a more juicy red color of the entire fruiting body; and with yellow milk mushroom, which is distinguished by a more yellow color, dimples on the leg and larger sizes; and with blue milk mushroom (blue yellow, golden yellow, lilac, violet) (lat. Lactarius repraesentaneus), which, when damaged, quickly acquires a purple color and is distinguished by weakly pronounced concentric rings on the cap and lilac milky juice; and even with smoothie or with serushka, or with rubella, which have more purple, gray and red in color than oak milk mushroom (mystery mushroom). But all this is absolutely not scary, because they are all edible mushrooms from the same genus, family and order, even if not all of the same quality, but they are also good for pickling.
Inedible and poisonous counterparts of the oak milk mushroom have not been found in nature.
The oak milk milk, as well as the aspen (poplar) milk milk, is the main competitor of the black milk milk and loses to it only in the presence of more debris on the surface of the cap due to the fact that the ripening of the oak milk milk, as well as the aspen (poplar) milk milk, usually occurs under the ground and on the surface it appears already in a mature form.
According to nutritional and consumer indicators, oak milk mushrooms belong to the conditionally edible mushrooms of the second category.

✎ The main differences between white (light) milk mushrooms

How to learn to easily and accurately distinguish between “white milk mushrooms”? To do this, you need to remember simple signs of their differences:
It is quite difficult to confuse a white (or real) breast with others; its cap always has a very shaggy (fluffy) edge, which completely gives it away. And in order to distinguish the remaining white milk mushrooms, you must first of all pay attention to the color tone of their plates. The aspen (poplar) milk mushroom has pinkish plates, the cap is often decorated with pink concentric circles, and its milky juice is white, abundant and pungent, and does not change its color. If there is no pinkishness, then you need to check the rusty spots, which also occur on aspen (poplar) milk mushrooms or pepper milk mushrooms, and whether their flesh turns yellow at the break and cut. If it turns yellow, it means it is a felt milk mushroom (violin), moreover, its cap is sometimes covered with light white fluff, which is still not always possible to see. If the milky juice turns green when scraped, then the mushroom is parchment or bluish. If neither the pulp nor the milky juice changes color and the juice is not liquid, but thick, very viscous, then it is a pepper milk mushroom. And if there is no milky juice at all on the scrap, then it is a white load.
It is worth paying attention to the place where milk mushrooms are collected. The white milk mushroom grows next to the birch and is found in deciduous or mixed forests with linden undergrowth, and with it the parchment milk mushroom and the bluish milk mushroom grow. Yellow milkweed grows near coniferous trees (spruce, fir), but sometimes (this is an exception) and next to deciduous trees (birch). The oak milk mushroom grows in forests with broad-leaved trees (oak, beech, hornbeam), and the pepper milk mushroom likes to settle next to it. Aspen (poplar) milkweed always grows under aspens, willows, and poplars, preferring plantings along roads. White Podgruzdok can grow successfully not only in deciduous, but also in mixed forests with a predominance of aspen and poplar, but it grows especially well near wild forest apple and pear trees, or along the banks of large rivers on turf-sandy soil.
Paying attention to the indicated signs, it will not be difficult to understand the white milk mushrooms.

✎ Distribution in nature and seasonality

Oak milkweed is found quite often, only in forests rich in humus loam, forming mycorrhiza with broad-leaved trees such as oak, beech, hornbeam, and not just, but preferring old, huge trees. It is often found in mixed forests, so large families of oak milk mushrooms can be found next to hazel in the grass and in fallen leaves. Its main period of ripening and fruiting occurs approximately in the middle of summer (mid-July), and closer to autumn (in August) it crawls to the surface, where it continues to grow and bear fruit at least until the end of September - beginning of October.

✎ Brief description and application

The oak mushroom belongs to the section of agaric mushrooms and the spores by which it reproduces are found in its plates. The plates are wide, frequent, descending to the stem, whitish-pinkish, yellowish or reddish-orange in color. The cap is first flat-rounded, then funnel-shaped, concave and wide, often irregularly shaped, with wavy and slightly felted edges rolled inward, reddish or yellowish-orange-brick color with dark zones. The leg is dense, smooth, slightly narrowed at the bottom and hollow inside, the same color as the cap, but lighter and with darker notches. The pulp is dense, whitish or creamy, slightly pink when cut, with a pleasant smell, and the milky juice is white-watery, not abundant, but pungent.

Oak milk mushrooms are eaten only in salted form, after thorough preliminary soaking in cold water to remove their bitter taste. It should also be remembered that oak milk mushrooms, just like all other milk mushrooms, are never dried.

In our pine, birch or forests with an admixture of birch they grow milk mushrooms from the second half of summer, and especially in August - September. They usually grow in nests, “families”. Hence they got their name from the ancient Slavic words: “gruddie”, “breast” (heap, heap). A large group of species is known under the name milk milk, belonging mainly to the genus of milkweeds, containing in the pulp of the fruiting body a very pungent white milky juice. In air it turns gray-yellow, and when cooked it loses its toxicity.

For collecting milk mushrooms requires special skill. Often these mushrooms are not visible under a layer of forest litter, and only inconspicuous tubercles of last year’s leaves and rotten needles help to detect someone who likes to play hide and seek. Often a mushroom picker discovers milk mushrooms by stepping on one of them. When searching for milk mushrooms, it is useful to use a “magic wand” with a 4-6 centimeter fork at the end. The stick is about a meter long and 1.5-2 centimeters thick. Using a stick, they lift or move aside branches of trees, shrubs, as well as herbaceous plants that cover areas of interest to the mushroom picker. It is used to push away tree branches that interfere with walking in the forest, and to tear off cobwebs so that they do not stick to the face and clothes. However, it is better to leave spider webs in place and avoid them: spiders destroy flies, mosquitoes, and other harmful insects.

When looking for mushrooms with a stick, only stir up freshly fallen leaves. There is no need to disturb the forest floor, so as not to damage or destroy the mycelium from which the mushrooms grow.

Immediately clean any found mushrooms from soil, debris, leaves and pine needles.

Gruzdey There are several species in nature. The best ones are real or raw milk mushroom, and yellow.

This is a large mushroom from the lamellar group. It lives in birch forests or forests with an admixture of birch, usually in large numbers. The cap is fleshy, dense and large, up to 20 centimeters in diameter, almost flat or depressed in the middle, with a furry edge curved down, later almost funnel-shaped. Its pearlescent whiteness is delicate and bright, and the hat seems to be made of ivory. White plates with a yellowish edge have grown to the stem. The leg is smooth, hollow, 2-5 centimeters high, white with yellowish spots. White milky juice turns yellow in air. Milk mushroom juice has a special unusually pleasant smell and a very pungent taste.

It is found in birch forests or forests with an admixture of birch quite rarely, but sometimes in large groups. Grows from July to September.

The cap is large, up to 20 cm in diameter, at first white, rounded-convex or almost flat, with age it becomes funnel-shaped with a furry edge turned down, slightly yellowish, with barely noticeable watery zones.

The flesh of the mushroom is white, dense, with a specific aroma. The milky juice is white, pungent, and bitter in taste; when it comes into contact with air, it turns sulfur-yellow.

The plates descending along the stalk, white or cream, with a yellowish edge, wide, sparse. The spore powder is yellowish.

The leg is thick, up to 5 cm long, naked, white, sometimes with yellowish spots.

lives mainly among spruce trees from late July to October. It differs from the violin in the yellow color of the cap with watery concentric rings on it and pubescent edges.

settles in aspen and floodplain forests from late July to October.

Its peculiarity: on the white cap, concentric circles of zones are barely noticeable, which stand out more sharply at the edge of the wrapped cap. The plates are low, frequent, white, with a barely noticeable pink tint. The violinist does not have these signs.

common in deciduous, especially broad-leaved groves from July to September. Its cap is yellowish, yellow-orange with concentric darkish rings. The plates are whitish-cream, dry. The leg is smooth, whitish. These features are its distinctive features.

White podgrudok (or cracker) - grows in all forests. The main distinguishing features are: rough white plates, absence of milky juice and yellow spots on the mushroom cap.
It is consumed in salted form, after preliminary boiling it can be fried.

People call him “gypsy”, “nun”, “blackie”. From the name you can guess that this milk mushroom is unusual in color and does not resemble any other species.

Due to the presence of a very caustic milky juice, it is less susceptible to insects than other mushrooms. Black milk mushroom grows from the end of July until frost in deciduous, mainly birch and mixed forests in nests. Its signs are as follows: the cap is dense, fleshy, flat at first, later slightly funnel-shaped, large in size, slightly slimy. The edges of the cap are steeply turned down, velvety, lighter in color than the center of the cap. The plates are usually narrow, of medium frequency, descending onto the stalk, whitish, then yellowish, with age, brown spots appear when pressed or damaged. The leg is thick, dense, becomes hollow with age, and greenish-brown in color. The pulp is rough, dense, darkening at the break. The smell is resinous. Spore powder is white.

Black milk mushrooms are consumed only in salted form, since only in the process of salting do the acridity and bitterness disappear. It should be borne in mind that when salted, this mushroom changes color: first it becomes purple, then dark cherry.

The mushroom is conditionally edible. In terms of economic value it belongs to the first category. Used for pickling, less often for pickling.

All types of milk mushrooms have no resemblance to poisonous and inedible mushrooms.