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    Home » Wild Mushroom Recipes

    Dried Saffron Milk Cap or Lactarius Broth

    Published: Nov 16, 2019 Modified: Feb 18, 2023 by Alan Bergo This post may contain affiliate links 2 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Dried lactarius mushrooms make fantastic stocks and broths. Here I use it as the base of a very simple soup with diced shrimp mousse and vegetables, but you can add many different things to the basic recipe.

    Lactifluus volemus mushroom broth with shrimp mousseline dumplings

    Snow is on the ground, and that means it's time to start working through the mushroom stash. The first thing in my queue was a simple broth with shrimp dumplings based on an old recipe I used to run as a deep fried fish cake appetizer.

    Shrimp mousseline sous vide recipe
    Squaring off a slow poached shrimp cake, afterwords it gets cut into shapes.

    Dried Milkcaps Make Exciting Stocks and Broths 

    I'd made this broth before, and my journal had an underlined note that said "tastes like chicken broth" or something like that. The flavor's a little hard to explain.

    It's mushroomy, but mushroom flavor doesn't describe it well enough, that's like saying yogurt and cheddar taste similar because they're both made of milk. The flavor is definitely more toasty-nutty than it is deep and woodsy, which is how I'd describe most others used for broth, boletes being a good example.

    Another good analogy would be that if dried porcini taste like beef, then dried lactarius taste like crustaceans, or fish. The milkcaps have a lighter weight on the palate, the flavor is completely different than what the words "mushroom broth" conjure up.

    After learning from the time I threw away a batch of ischnoderma broth, this one I kept as simple as possible, and it worked great.

    Only a few aromatic ingredients

    A scroogy handful of scallion greens, some onion skins for color, a few leaves of celery, and, most importantly, a couple slices of fresh ginger, and salt until it was right, and that was it. (An inch of lemongrass would've been welcome too). After it was seasoned and cooling, I drank half of it straight away.

    Lactarius volemus or Lactifluus volemus milkcap mushrooms
    Voluminous milkcaps are what I used here, and they're excellent.

    The next time you think about passing up on some milkcaps, you might consider drying them, and probably picking up a pack of ramen noodles on your way home, too.

    Lactifluus volemus mushroom broth with shrimp mousseline dumplings
    Lactifluus volemus mushroom broth with shrimp mousseline dumplings
    Print Recipe
    5 from 1 vote

    Saffron Milk Cap or Lactarius Broth

    Broth made from dried Lactarius mushrooms. This will yield about 3.5 cups.
    Prep Time15 mins
    Cook Time30 mins
    Total Time45 mins
    Course: Soup
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: Lactarius, Lactarius volemus, Mushroom Broth
    Servings: 4 Servings
    Calories: 16kcal
    Author: Alan Bergo

    Equipment

    • 1 3 quart sou pot

    Ingredients

    • 20 grams dried lactarius volemus or similar milkcaps such as Lactarius hygrophoroides
    • The skin of a small yellow onion
    • 1 small clove of garlic with skin
    • ½ inch piece of ginger thinly sliced
    • ¼ cup of chopped leek or scallion greens
    • 1 four inch rib of celery
    • 5 cups of water
    • 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more to taste

    Instructions

    • Very lightly toast the Lactarius, (or dehydrate at a high temperature) then combine with the remaining ingredients, cover, bring to a simmer, and cook for 30-45 minutes.
    • Add the salt, stir to dissolve, taste and adjust as needed until it tastes good to you, cool to room temperature, strain and refrigerate.
    • If your mushrooms were in attractive pieces, you can reserve them and add to the broth as a garnish.

    Notes

    Mushrooms to use 

    I used voluminous milk caps here, but many different lactarius can work. Saffron milk caps are a great choice. 

    Nutrition

    Calories: 16kcal | Carbohydrates: 4g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 0.1g | Saturated Fat: 0.02g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.01g | Monounsaturated Fat: 0.02g | Sodium: 590mg | Potassium: 103mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 0.2g | Vitamin A: 45IU | Vitamin C: 0.5mg | Calcium: 5mg | Iron: 0.1mg

    More

    Saffron Milk Caps: Identification, Cooking and Recipes

    « Simple Shrimp Mousseline
    Fermented Wild Mushroom Kimchi »

    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Mariama

      January 12, 2023 at 8:03 am

      This looks great, I'll need to try it out! I'm sure the saffron milk caps are the most undervalued mushrooms out there. I've got only blanched and frozen saffrons so I wanted to ask you if you ever freeze saffron milk caps for winter?

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        January 12, 2023 at 8:31 am

        Yes I do freeze them if I find a bunch. You will want to blanch them in boiling salted water for a minute to make sure they keep their color.

        Reply

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