Hi Gote,
You are right of course in your comments: if one is knowledgable about mushrooms and recognize the edible ones there is very little danger. I get the impression that people gather a few favoured species and leave the rest alone. I find it remarkable from my viewpoint the popularity and availability of wild mushrooms in Europe. You do not see wild collected mushrooms for sale in the markets in this country though some like Boletus = Suillus granulatus are very common and could be gathered in large quantities, I would be interested to hear your comments on the culinary merits of this particular mushroom.
Well, I have very little experience of it. Iin my place it is the similar 'Lärksopp' (Suillus grevillei) that will occur in proximity of Larix trees. I rarely pick that one because it is not very abundant and often full of larvae. This differs from an agaricus/psalliota. I would always try to rescue one of these because they are very tasty. The cultivated ones are but a faint echo of the real thing.
The bolets I usually pick are Boletus edulis and its closest relatives. They are very abundant in good years like 2006 and 2008 and biggish. The taste is fine but not strong. It is easy to overwhelm it so they are best used in recipes where they are more or less on their own. Fortunately this is easy because of the good yield.
What I normally do is that I cut them into 2cm cubes and fry with a little butter until the excess water is gone. Then I use them in sauce or soup or as wedgetable. Seasoned but sparingly so. the rest goes into the freezer in lots suitable for a meal.
Of course I also pick chanterelles and others but your question was Suillus.
I treat all fungi that way with allowance for the differences in taste.
If I find any Gyromitra esculenta I would treat them differently since they contain a toxin that must be extracted but this is rather theoretical since I practically never find any.
In my ecological situation it is not possible to just dry fungi in order to preserve them. There are always eggs and some larvae belonging to Sciaridae or Mycetophilidae along and they would take over otherwise good loking specimen unless killed one way or the other.
Cheers
Göte
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