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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Bleeding Milk Caps / Lactarius Sanguifluus

Bleeding milkcaps lactarius sanguifluus

Bleeding milkcaps/Lactarius sanguifluus

From my experience, finding Lactarius that are good for the table is tough. There’s always bugs to compete with, but they just aren’t as reliable as a good old chanterelle, black trumpet, chicken/hen of the woods, or morels where I live. One year I’ll see more than you can pick with a wheelbarrow, then next year I’ll see five.  Like so many things, their rarity makes me want more.

Many mushroomers will know Lactarius deliciosus saffron milk cap, even if they haven’t had it. If you dig through mushroom literature like David Arora though, you’ll know that there are other milk caps too, and some of them are rated as much better edibles than the saffron milk cap. 

My friends from Spain will probably disagree though. On the Iberian peninsula, the rovellones, or niscalos as they’re called, are by far the favored wild mushroom to hunt for the table. 

Bleeding milkcaps lactarius sanguifluus

On my wish list to find has been Lactarius sanguifluus-the bleeding milkcap. It resembles the saffron milkcap, but is rusty-red instead of orange. I’ve heard of people seeing them in the U.S. but sighting seem to be rare, compared to the saffron milkcap which seems more widely distributed.

Bleeding milkcaps lactarius sanguifluus

I’ve gotten messages from mushroom hunters in Turkey saying this is their preferred species of Lactarius to pick, the local name translates to “the bloody one”, as you can see with the red staining here.

During my recent trip to Provence they were growing along many of the French hiking trails we went through, and were being sold at almost every market that had fresh wild mushrooms.

For the most part, bleeding milkcaps will cook up nice like any other fresh mushroom, but as is the case with Lactarius and some other species (honey mushrooms for example) when pickled or stewed they release a natural mucilage that can get thick and gooey. Searing or blanching them first negates the effect.

Bleeding Milkcaps Lactarius sanguifluus

Bleeding Milkcaps at the market in Aix-en-Provence

One of the tour guides I had on the trip went to school for botany, so she knew a thing or two about plants and mushrooms. When she saw me stooping down to pick up a bleeding milkcap, she got excited and told me that many people eat them, but that the flavor isn’t as intense as some of the more celebrated mushroom varieties. She said the usual way to enjoy them was marinated, as part of a salad.

marinated milkcap mushroom salad

Provencal Milk Cap Salad

The salad here is deceptively simple. I based the dressing off of one I tasted at a pastry chef’s house in St. Remy de Provence. Her dressing was so good I had to ask for the recipe, and was surprised when she told me it was just a tiny bit of garlic put through a press, good olive oil, and just the faintest touch of balsalmic vinegar. Having the garlic mashed completely into a paste, and not using too much is what makes it. The cooked goat cheese crouton is very typical of the salads I ate over there as well-a classic Provencal touch.

The type of goat cheese is important here. For the traditional Provencal crouton you want to use a goat cheese that has a rind on it that will melt nicely. Typical chevre found in log form is not the right kind of cheese. I’ve listed two Midwestern substitutes below that would work just fine. 

Serves 2
Ingredients

  • 1/3 cup Marinated milkcaps (recipe follows)
  • 4 ounces mixed young lettuces of your choice
  • Small slices of french bread
  • 1 ounce lightly aged goat cheese, such as Paille de Larzac (a common French goat cheese), Montechevre boucheron and Chevre Fluerie are locally made Midwestern cheeses that would be a great substitute
  • ¼ tsp garlic, pressed through a garlic press or minced and crushed with the back of a knife
  • Kosher salt and pepper, to taste
  • 1 teaspoon balsalmic vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil

Method
Heat and oven to 350 degrees. Put a slice of cheese on the bread and toast it in the oven until the cheese is melted and the bread is just crisp. Meanwhile, mix the garlic with the oil and vinegar in a salad bowl with a fork for a minute, then add the greens and mushrooms and season to taste with salt and pepper. Divide the salad between two chilled plates, top each with a warm cheese crouton and serve immediately.

Marinated Milkcap Mushrooms

I asked our tour guide how people in Provence liked to marinate their mushrooms, and it’s pretty similar to how I typically marinate mushrooms. The wild French thyme was all over the place in Provence and flavored the cuisine, dried domestic thyme is a good substitute since the wild thyme is very strong. Note also there’s also no acid in the marinate, which means the mushrooms should be eaten a day or two after they’re made. 

Ingredients

  • 1 lb milkcaps, cleaned, trimmed, and quartered or halved if large. If the mushrooms are small, leave them whole.
  •  ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  •  ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  •  ½ tablespoon chopped wild thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  •  2 cloves of garlic, sliced
  •  ¼ cup flavorless oil
  •  ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
  •  Zest of half a lemon, grated

Method
Heat the oil in a non-reactive saucepan, add the mushrooms and cook until lightly browned, then move them to the side of the pan, add the garlic and cook until lightly browned. Add the thyme, lemon zest, salt and pepper and stir to combine. Remove the mushrooms from the pan with a slotted spoon and put in a container, then top with the extra virgin olive oil, pressing the mushrooms down so that the oil covers them. Label, date, and refrigerate until needed.

More

Forager’s Guide to Saffron Milk Cap Mushrooms

Related

Previous Post: « Thoughts on Ramarias / Coral Mushrooms
Next Post: Winter Watercress »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Will K.

    February 16, 2016 at 12:22 pm

    Recipe sounds great! I’ve collected and eaten several Lactarius species- L. volemus, L. corrugis, L. indigo & L. paradoxus. I thoroughly enjoy the Lactarius volemus & Lactarius corrugis and collect them whenever I find them, but I’m not so keen on the other two, even though the Indigo milky is visually appealing.

    Reply
  2. Vicky

    March 3, 2016 at 10:34 pm

    I am from Barcelona, Spain, and “rovellons” were THE mushrooms to hunt. They are just delicious sautéed with garlic and parsley. Moved to Nashville, TN, 3 years ago and have not been able to find them anywhere. I also find the mushroom hunting culture to be not so popular as where I come from originally and still keep an eye looking for markets selling wild mushrooms (which seem as hard to find as rovellons in this region).
    Nevertheless, excited for morel season 😉 and getting used to receive canned rovellons from my parents.
    Awesome webpage!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      April 21, 2016 at 8:03 am

      Fun to hear about your experience, and yes the Spanish really seem to love their rovellons. I love seeing the different species preffered in other countries.

      Reply

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Alan Bergo
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
Oh the things I get in the mail. This is my kind Oh the things I get in the mail. 

This is my kind of tip though: a handmade buckskin bag with a note and a handful of bleached snapping turtle claws. 😁😂 

Sent in by Leslie, a reader. 

Smells like woodsmoke and the cat quickly claimed it as her new bed. 

#buckskin #mailsurprise #turtleclaws #thisimylife #cathouse
Bluebell season. Destined for a Ligurian ravioli Bluebell season. 

Destined for a Ligurian ravioli as a replacement for the traditional borage greens. 

#mertensiavirginica #virginiabluebells #spring #foraging
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