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Foraging and Cooking Mushrooms, Wild and Obscure Food

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Lactifluus Volemus

Lactarius volemus

A perfect little nugget of a mushroom. They bruise and stain quickly though, like most lactifluus.

I’m lucky and grateful to have a network of friends that hunt different plants and mushrooms. We share information on places we’ve hunted, seasonal changes, what’s coming up when, and it helps to have company sometimes since mushroom hunting is for the most part a solitary sport.

Last year my friend Matt, a local artist and mushroom hunter who’s working on collecting specimens for a new mushroom hunting and cooking guide for the Midwest he’s working on, brought me by a bag of Lactifluus volemus, (formerly Lactarius volemus) with the caveat that I keep my eyes peeled for a few mushrooms he needs photography specimens of to include in his book, scouring the land for individual species of shrooms is a lot easier said than done.

Lactarius volemus

Note the gentle brown staining and how the caps are nice and curved down when young. The cut stem you can see is not hollow when young, either.

He dropped off a bag a couple bags of them, and mentioned something about their aroma, which my line cooks were quick to describe with colorful adjectives revolving around intercourse and bodily fluids. Lets just say that you can use the, “cheesy” smell as a way to help identify them.

In the summer, after picking on a hot day and put into a warm car, you may need to roll the windows down, but when they hit the pan the smell transforms into a rich, nutty flavor. They’re one of the best of the Lactifluus family I’ve tasted, and I’ll say I might prefer them to any of the L. delicious (saffron milkcap) group that I’ve had so far, well, with the exception of Lactarius thyinos.

lactifluus volemus

Some mushrooms this year had really fat stems, much more heft than the ones I cooked last year.

Habitat 

Since my friend introduced me to them, I’ve been able to pick them growing spots at a number of different places, most of the time they seem to like the same habitat as lobster mushrooms, which will be mixed deciduous hardwoods around the Twin Cities and Midwestern Minnesota, In Northern Minnesota you’ll likely see them with various conifers, but I have yet to find them up there. I often see them in chanterelle patches, too.

lactifluus volemus

Vegetables like corn and peppers are great with these.

Various ID Characteristics 

I don’t usually do ID run-downs, but these have so many particular, easy to notice differences than a lot of other mushrooms I thought It could be helpful.

Smell

The first thing to know is that you may actually smell these before you taste them. Volemus have a very strong aroma, and I’ll often catch it on the wind when they’re near. It’s a cheesy, fishy scent, and you’ll know it when you smell it.

Spore Print

Lactifluus volemus has a white spore print

Latex

Latex is the liquid these give off when cut, a characteristic of milk cap mushrooms. Volemus has a kind of unsettling quality in that when you cut it, it doesn’t drip-drop latex, it oozes latex, all over the place. As wierd as the latex might look, romaine lettuce technically gives it off too, so don’t let it weird you out too much. Know too, that you can also use latex to help you identify qualities of the mushroom in the field, as some will taste hot, bitter, etc. Volemus latex is white, thin, copious, tastes mild, and dries brown on the mushrooms.

Lactarius volemus

A little blurry here but note the brown staining and thin milk (latex), they give off a lot of it!

 

Lactarius volemus

For scale

Cooking

David Arora says they’re one of the best eating mushrooms in North America. While I had them in the restaurant I cooked them alongside a selection of summer mushrooms for a few fungi loving guests, the volemus as well as fragrant black trumpets (Craterellus foetidus and cinereus) beat all other mushrooms I served them with: boletes, chanterelles, lobster mushrooms, club fungus, chicken of the woods. Like I mentioned their smell completely goes away cooking, it gets nutty, pleasant and mild.

Recipes 

Here’s a recipe that highlights their slightly fishy/cheesy quality, and a few others made for milkcaps, or where they could easily be substituted. Lactifluus Volemus with Smoked Paprika, Garlic, Parsley and Shrimp 

  • Catalan Saffron Milkcaps
  • Wild Mushroom Conserve
  • Wild Mushroom Duxelles
  • Pickled Milkcaps
  • Milkcaps Preserved In “Holy Oil”
  • Turkish Saffron Milkcaps With Cumin Yoghurt
  • Fricando Of Veal With Saffron Milk Caps
  • Wild Mushrooms With Garlic And Parsley
  • Stinging Nettle Tortelli In Lactarius Broth

Lactarius volemus recipe

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Lucy

    August 20, 2017 at 7:27 am

    Are you aware of any look-a-likes that also grow in the same conditions/same general location this time of year? After reading this, I think I may have found some last week. White latex when cut, but no bruising in the minute or so I observed it. I didn’t notice a smell…does that take a little while to develop?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 2, 2017 at 10:47 am

      I don’t know of any off hand, sorry.

      Reply
  2. Mary Jenn

    August 22, 2017 at 10:39 pm

    I found the recipe with shrimp a little too rich, so I combined both (to add vegetables), added abrorio rice and vegetable stock to make a risotto. Thanks for sharing the recipe!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 2, 2017 at 10:46 am

      It is a rich recipe, it’s meant to be a small bite, or the base of another dish, I should probably flesh that out a little more. Thanks Mary.

      Reply
  3. Will K

    August 23, 2017 at 3:52 pm

    One of my all-time favorite mushrooms! The first summer I started collecting wild mushrooms in earnest, these and L. corrugis were the most abundant mushroom I found. I haven’t seen them fruit like that since. I still call them Lactarius (old habits die hard). Great sounding recipe!

    Will

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 2, 2017 at 10:44 am

      I know, old habits die hard, when can we stop changing all the darn names? lol.

      Reply
  4. Christopher

    August 7, 2018 at 9:55 am

    Picked and enjoyed these wonderful natural gifts during the summer in the Western North Carolina mountains during the 1960’s and early 1970’s. They seem to have have all but disappeared. My hopes are that we did not bring about extinction in our area by annual harvesting. I sure miss them. I have searched on the internet for a place to purchase however have been unsuccessful. Any leads would be appreciated.

    Reply
    • Wenzday

      September 18, 2020 at 5:13 pm

      I found some today in North Carolina near Statesville!

      Reply
  5. Jules

    September 16, 2020 at 11:42 pm

    5 stars
    I’ve found some of these, but never as many as I want! The last time, I found a nice big cap that remained curved under and hadn’t gone funnel-shaped yet, and let me tell you, friend, listen carefully, because what I did made my toes curl, it was so good. Best damn mushroom I’ve ever eaten in my life. I stuffed it with breadcrumbs, herbs and spice, bit of parmesan I think, and baked it. And it was so gorgeous. I stuffed it and baked it because I saw an Eastern European person say that that’s how they traditionally cooked it, and who can argue with tradition? I tried sauteing a few of these, and it was kind of meh, but baked? Food of the gods!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 18, 2020 at 7:46 am

      I think they’re excellent mushrooms. I’ll have to try baking them.

      Reply

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