Boletus Erythropus

[brucemacdonald]

I am a bit confused over Boletus Erythropus.

In Ray Mears' book "Bushcraft" he says that it should not be eaten; yet in his earlier (and better) book "The Survival Handbook" it is listed amongst the edible fungi.

My confusion is made worse by the fact that I have found, picked, cooked and eaten boletus erythropus and lived to tell the tale. First I fried a bit with some butter, which was delicious. Having survived that ordeal my dear wife then made an autumn casserole with said fungi and chestnuts and pheasant (yum) which we fed to her parents....they were a bit unsure about wild fungi and left theirs which was their loss.

Boletus erythropus is far nicer than birch boletus which when cooked has the consistency of snot. :roll:

So can you guys give me a definitive answer on this? As far as I am concerned this is edible and if I find any more I will eat some.

Thanks

Bruce

 

[Stuart]

boletus erthropus is edible however easy to confuse with a poisonous member of the boleteus family boletus satanas

 

[Adi007]

boletus erthropus is edible however easy to confuse with a poisonous member of the boleteus family boletus satanas

... and you don't want to eat a boletus satanas ...

Here are pics of the two:

Boletus satanas

Boletus erythropus

 

[Tantalus]

thanks for the pics adi it helps a lot

i learned a lot of fungus names in german and get easily confused in english

further compounded by the fact that a lot of fungi have different names depending on what book you pick up or indeed which local woodsman ya choose to ask about your fungi

personally i avoid red stemmed ones there are usually plenty others to choose from anyway

birch boletes are one of my favourites tho, firm and solid
also great for slicing and laying out on cardboard to dry in the airing cupboard and adding em to stews thru the winter

all birch boletes are edible AFAIK, look for the grey dusting on the stem that makes it look like it grew beside a busy main road in the rain , kinda dirty

mebbe you got unlucky and they were a little old bruce?

only thing birch boletes can really be confused with is the bitter bolete which has a distincly pink sponge under the cap when it is open, not poisonous but bitter enough to make your stew inedible
taste a tiny bit when it's first picked, you WILL know if you have a bitter one

Happy foraging
Tant