Saffron Milk Cap

Description:

Lactarius deliciosus, commonly known as the Saffron milk cap, Red pine mushroom, is one of the best known members of the large milk-cap genus Lactarius in the order Russulales.

Habitat:

It is found in Europe and North America and has been accidentally introduced to other countries under conifers and can be found growing in pine plantations.

Notes:

Lactarius deliciosus is a widely collected mushroom in the Southern Pyrenees and Majorca and used in Spanish Cuisine. One recipe recommends they should be lightly washed, fried whole cap down in olive oil with a small amount of garlic and served drenched in raw olive oil and parsley. The same recipe advised that butter should never be used when cooking this mushroom. Further north and east it is a feature of Provençal cuisine.[10] They are also collected in Poland, where they are traditionally served fried in butter, with cream, or marinated. They are also very known in Cyprus, where they are usually cooked on charcoal and marinated with olive oil and lemon, or fried with onions with red wine. In some older guides, the saffron milk cap is considered an excellent mushroom, having 'a crisp texture'. In fact, when naming the mushroom (deliciosus = delicious), the mycologist had mistaken the mushroom with Lactarius sanguifluus, which is an excellent, pleasantly crunchy mushroom. Today, most mycologists hold Lactarius sanguifluus in higher esteem than its pretender, Lactarius deliciosus.