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Birch white mushroom is highly valued for its pleasant taste. But in order to correctly recognize it in the forest, you need to study the description of this species and its photographs, as well as false doubles.
What do birch boletuses look like?
The white birch mushroom is also called the spikelet, since its fruiting occurs during the period when rye begins to ripen. The species has a large cap that is hemispherical or pillow-shaped in adulthood, characteristic of boletes, reaching 15 cm in diameter. The skin on the surface of the cap is smooth or slightly wrinkled, shiny, but not slimy.The color of birch boletus is usually light yellow or whitish-ochre; sometimes fruiting bodies are almost white in color.
The bottom of the birch boletus cap is covered with whitish or light yellow tubes in adulthood. The pulp on the break is whitish, dense in structure and with a pleasant mushroom smell.
According to the photo and description of the white birch mushroom, it rises above the ground up to 12 cm, and its leg reaches 2-4 cm in girth. The shape of the leg is dense, similar to a barrel, and its hue is whitish-brown with a visible light mesh in the upper part.
Where do white birch mushrooms grow?
The species can be found almost throughout the entire country. But more often it is found in northern regions with a fairly cold climate - in Siberia and the Murmansk region, in the Far East. White birch boletus chooses mixed forests and birch groves for growth; it appears most often under birch trees, but can also grow near other deciduous trees. You can see the spikelet on forest edges and near roadsides.
Is it possible to eat birch porcini mushrooms?
Birch spikelet is completely edible and has an excellent taste. After boiling, it is consumed in any form - boiled and fried, pickled and salted. Also, white birch bolet can be dried without boiling, then it can be used for a long time after collection.
Interestingly, even after drying, the spikelet remains white, its flesh does not darken or turn brown.
False doubles
Birch spikelet can be confused with some other species.Mostly, false doubles are edible or conditionally edible; in these cases, the mistake will not lead to unpleasant consequences. However, the spikelet also has doubles that are unsuitable for food consumption, and here it is worth taking special care.
Gall mushroom
The bitter or gall mushroom is very similar to many representatives of the Boletaceae family and therefore often ends up in the basket of inexperienced mushroom pickers. Bitter mushroom is similar in external structure to the birch mushroom. It is also characterized by a cushion-shaped or hemispherical cap at a young age with a lower tubular layer, a strong stalk and a yellowish-brown tint of the skin. The species are similar in size - bitterling rises above the ground up to 10-12 cm and grows up to 15 cm in diameter.
However, there are important differences between the varieties:
- The cap of the bitterling is darker and the skin is easy to remove, whereas the cap of the white birch is difficult to remove.
- There is a mesh pattern on the stem of the gall fungus, but it is not light, but darker against the background of the main color of the stem.
- The lower tubular surface of bitterling is white or pinkish; if you press on the spongy layer, it will clearly turn pink.
- The bittergrass pulp changes color when broken, it becomes pink, but the birch spikelet does not change the white shade of the pulp.
- If you lick the cut mushrooms, the taste of the spikelet will be neutral, while the bitter taste will be very bitter.
Spruce porcini mushroom
This species is a close relative of the white birch boletus and is therefore very similar in external structure.The species combine identically shaped hemispherical or cushion-shaped caps, dense legs and a tubular bottom layer.
But spruce boletus can be distinguished by several characteristic features. His hat is darker, closer to chestnut brown. In addition, the species differ in their growth area - white spruce is also found in deciduous plantings, but it can be seen much more often under spruce trees and in coniferous forests.
Spruce mushroom is suitable for consumption. It is necessary to distinguish it from birch white simply in order to improve your mushroom picking skills.
Common boletus
If you lack experience, you can confuse the white birch mushroom with the common boletus mushroom. The species are similar in their cap - the cap of the boletus is also large and cushion-shaped, up to 15 cm in diameter.
However, the differences between the species are much greater than the similarities. The boletus is usually darker in color, closer to chestnut, although yellowish-ochreous fruiting bodies are also found. In wet weather, the cap of the boletus becomes covered with mucus. The easiest way to distinguish species is by the stem - in the boletus it is covered with characteristic dark gray scales, which the white birch boletus does not have.
The boletus is a good edible mushroom, and the bug does not pose any danger. However, it is very desirable to distinguish between mushrooms.
Oak white mushroom
A close relative of the spikelet is the white oak boletus. They are similar in structure - the oak mushroom also has a semicircular cushion-shaped cap of similar sizes, a thick stalk with a light mesh pattern.White oak grows in deciduous and mixed forests; it is more often found under oaks and beeches, but sometimes it can also grow under birch trees, which increases the likelihood of error.
The species can be distinguished primarily by shade. Oak white has a darker cap color - from light ocher to coffee. The leg is also of the same shade, whereas in the spikelet it is much lighter, closer to a whitish-yellow color. The oak porcini mushroom is completely edible, so there is no danger of confusing the varieties.
Collection rules
It is recommended to go to the forest for spikelets from the end of July, and they grow mainly until the end of September. To collect spikelets, you should choose clean forests located away from major roads, railways and industrial areas. Since mushroom pulp intensively absorbs toxic substances, fruiting bodies collected in contaminated areas will not bring health benefits.
When collecting, you must use a sharp knife and cut the mushrooms along the stem, not high above the ground. You can also carefully unscrew white birch bolts. It is necessary to ensure that the underground mycelium of the fruiting body does not suffer, otherwise the spikelet will no longer be able to grow again in the same place.
Use
Edible white birch mushroom is used in almost all preparations. Since it is still not recommended to eat the spikelet raw, it must be processed after collection.
Preparation consists of clearing the fruiting bodies of all adhering forest debris, washing them under cold water, and then boiling them with salt for about 15-30 minutes.
For cooking, take only young, strong and untouched mushrooms - if the spikelet is eaten by worms and insects, it must be trimmed to clean pulp.
The decoction from the fruiting bodies is drained and not used for food. Although there are no toxic substances in the pulp of the spikelet, there may remain harmful substances in the water that the fungus has managed to collect from the soil and air.
After boiling, white birch boletes can be eaten boiled or fried. The fruiting bodies are also salted and pickled, this allows them to be preserved for the winter. Fresh spikelets can be dried, in which case there is no need to cook it, just shake off the debris from the caps and stems, and then hang the mushrooms on a thread and wait until they dry completely and the moisture evaporates.
Conclusion
Birch porcini mushroom is considered very tasty and versatile in preparation. You can prepare it using any existing methods, but it is important to correctly distinguish the spikelet from other similar varieties. Also, the pulp must be processed before cooking to remove all possible harmful substances from it.
