• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Forager Chef

Foraging and Cooking Mushrooms, Wild and Obscure Food

  • Home
  • About
  • Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Species Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Red Cinnabar
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
        • Fairy Rings
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Elderberry
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • The Wild Harvest
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

Bleeding Milkcaps / 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 milkcap, even if they haven’t had it. If you dig through mushroom literature like David Arora though, you’ll know that there are other milkcaps too, and some of them are rated as much better edibles than the saffron milkcap.

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.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Print
  • Email
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit

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

Leave a Reply to Alan Bergo Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Pre-Order MY BOOK

Categories

Forager Chef

Forager Chef

Instagram

foragerchef

How you turn in a culinary manuscript 🙏💫😁 How you turn in a culinary manuscript 🙏💫😁🥳 #thatsawrap #36chambersofshaolin #authorlife #trussed #givingbirth #foragerchef
Sesame enoki pancakes (think loosely bound fritter Sesame enoki pancakes (think loosely bound fritters) were a great way to use up my excess enoki stems. 

Cut them into 1 inch lengths, mix with some ground toasted sesame seed, dash of fish sauce and a good handful of culantro, rau ram, or cilantro, an egg, fry them up and dip in some zippy ponzu.

 #enoki #flammulinavelutipes #wildfoodlove #allthemushroomtags #pancakelove
Some nice wild enoki clones from @unkle_fungus Can Some nice wild enoki clones from @unkle_fungus Cant wait until these start popping up when the snow melts. The difference between the coloration of wild ones (pic 1) and cultivated that are white from the lack of sun (pic 2) is always interesting to compare. (The cultivated ones are a different species of Flammulina too). 

We’re really lucky to have such a vibrant community of small, local mushroom growers and related makers. Feel free to tag your favorite you like or one I should know about in the comments. 

#enokimushroom #mushroomgrowers #flammulinavelutipes #blanche #allthemushroomtags #wintermushrooms
Celebrated my birthday last night with a few stiff Celebrated my birthday last night with a few stiff spruce’n’sodas. The spruce tip liquor I collaborated on with @ida_graves_distillery drinks like a mildly piney gin. Dangerously easy to drink. #sprucetips #craftliquor #drinkatree #itsmybirthdaybitches #im25again
Social media can be a wall-to-wall, endless string Social media can be a wall-to-wall, endless string of triumphs. We all know reality isn’t like that, so with the snow melting here, I thought I’d share a funny maple season fail with you (at the time it was not funny).

I was making maple soda out of sap, sweetfern and syrup that I like. I’d kept the glass bottle of soda in the fridge for a couple weeks, waiting for a good time to get to it. I’d started the mother batch with a pinch of commercial champagne yeast, which is vigorous stuff. 

One night I got up and poured myself a glass of water, and sleepily forgot to close the fridge all the way, which increased the temp. A few hours later I woke up to what sounded like a grenade going off. 

The bottle exploded and the inside of the fridge, all its contents, and the floor were covered with sticky maple juice, and I spent the next two hours mopping and picking out shards of glass that had embedded themselves like shrapnel in the walls of the fridge. 

Now, I use plastic restaurant cambros to make carbonated drinks. 💫

#fermentationfails #fail #soda #fermentation #explosions #dontrythisathome
My chief editorial assistant about to do backflips My chief editorial assistant about to do backflips for smoked goat kidneys. 

If you would have asked me a few years ago if I would see myself writing recipes (and filming videos) on making dog treats I would have laughed. 

But, working with @shepherdsongfarm, trying to figure out creative, economical methods for butchery and whole carcass utilization for lamb and goat has pushed my creativity into new places. Grateful for that. 💫

If you get down on kidneys, I have a good version for humans on my site too. A good piece of charcuterie to know. 

Hand model @pgerasimo 

#grassfed #goat #eatmoregoat #kidneys #offal #dogtreats #rescuepitbull #editorialassistant
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Footer

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.