First time actually eating them, played it safe and boiled for 10 mins, cooked for 15. Really tasty but totally overdid it haha, no GI upset though. Had a bad time with Chlorophyllum brunneum once and didn't want a repeat.
Seem to be Armillaria sinapina, yellow veil remnants and thats what is most common in my area.
A seasoned collector once advised us, if we try a new type of mushroom, start with a only a handful, maybe even less, and see if it upsets your stomach. If it doesn't, you can eat more.
Also obviously never force other people to participate in such experiments. You never know if they can tolerate the same mushrooms as you do.
Yes, definitely what we usually do with new species but took a little extra care this time because GI upset seems to be common. When I got mushroom poisoning from the C. brunneum it was a group lunch so definitely learned my lesson, I think Chlorophyllum tends to cause a high number of issues too.
Man I wish I could gather these but in my region it has a really similar, dangerously poisonous mimic. I don't trust myself to tell them apart :(
Yeah, I feel you. I've been seeing these for years and just didn't feel confident enough in my skills to eat them until this year. Now I don't think I could mistake them for much else. I do still check each one, there were some Hypholoma sp. growing pretty close to these, not incredibly similar but enough to keep you on your toes.
Out of curiosity, what's the lookalike?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina these.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galerina_marginata specifically, myrkkynääpikkä in Finland)
Ah we have those here too, they're pretty widespread. Taking a spore print is a surefire way to tell them apart: cut off a cap and put it on a piece of foil, then put a cup over it. After a few hours you'll either have white spores (Armillaria) or brown spores (Galerina).
IMO Galerina Marginata don't really look much like honey mushrooms once you're familiar with them. Honey mushrooms have scales on the stem and sometimes the cap depending on the species which Galerina never have. Galerina also tend to be smaller with insubstantial cap flesh and thinner stems. Both grow in clusters but Galerina grows in smaller clusters of 3-5 vs 10 or more.
These are just made by nature for marinade. No better way of cooking for these, ever. Also could be served on winter holidays.
What is your recipe?
Clean the mushrooms (take particular care to make sure there are no traces of dirt left and no slugs on gills - eww), cut into comfortable pieces and wash once again. Honey mushrooms are particularly slimy ones, wash them well.
Bring the mushrooms to boil in plenty of water, slightly salted (1 tbsp salt per liter), keep boiling for ~30 min.
Drain the mushrooms on a colander, wash with cold water. Drained mushrooms could wait in a fridge overnight if needed.
Select good clean glass jars (you will also need the lids for them eventually), optimal jar volume being 500 mL to 1 L. Put the mushrooms in the jars, take care to not pack them too dense, I try to leave ~3-4 cm headspace.
With mushrooms, into each jar go the spices (reminder: spices better be fresh). For 500 mL jar (scale approximately for jar size): 10-15 black peppercorns, 3-4 allspice berries, 3-5 cloves, a bit of cinnamon (small bark piece or a bit of powder, ~1/5 tsp).
Prepare the marinade. For each 500 mL of water: 1 tsp sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1/3 tsp citric acid. Heat to dissolve, boil briefly, then remove from heat and add 6 tbsp vinegar 5% (I prefer apple cider vinegar, but any will do the job). Vinegar is the key to keep this preserve safe for a long time, make sure you check the concentration on the package and adjust as needed.
Pour the still hot marinade into jars with mushrooms and spices, make sure the marinade covers the mushrooms. Wait for it to fill the empty spaces (this may take a few minutes or you can gently mix mushrooms and the marinade in the jar with a spoon), and then add some more marinade if needed.
Cover the jars with lids (do not close yet), "sterilize" in boiling water: 30 min boiling time for 500 mL jars, 40 min boiling time for 1 L jars. Close the lids tightly after the boiling. Ready.
Boiling setup could be any one you like. I use a large can with a lid, put a thick cloth at the bottom to arrange the jars on (so that the jars do not touch the bottom of the can), pour the hot water to approximately 3/4 height of the jars, bring to gentle boil on induction stove top.
tsp = teaspoon, tbsp = tablespoon
Looks great.
My strategy with honeys is: blanch in boiling water for 5 mins, drain, slice, the dry fry (or dry saute) for at least 5 more mins. Kind of crunchy after cooked. Not my favorite, but good enough. 2nd tier, maybe. And when you find them, they tend to be pretty abundant.
I'm a little jealous, I have had a very non-existent mushy year. Just too dry. ☹️
I'm surprised we got these, season started out good but now we are going on almost 2 months with no rain in my area.