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Suspect Sub-Species: Giant Aborted Entolomas

 

giant aborted entolomas

Don’t be fooled, these are not your typical entolomas. These were smaller, but still the real deal. Unfortunately my pics of larger specimens from two years ago were lost in a computer malfunction.

Wandering around the woods in Minnesota I see plenty of funky mushrooms. For the past couple years though, I have seen, very rarely, an interesting phenomena. Aborted entoloma mushrooms are usually thought to be a product of an interaction of honey mushrooms and entolomas. When they grow in close proximity, the entolomas react somehow (I’m not a professional mycologist here) and create these little popcorn ball-looking mushrooms instead of the typical gilled entoloma variety that we are used to seeing.

The phenomena I have run across is that once in a great while, still in the presence of honey mushrooms, I find aborted entolomas of incredible size. Usual aborted entolomas are probably about the size of golf balls. These ones however, dwarf the usually seen variety. The biggest ones I saw were two years ago, each was about softball size and very, very dense/heavy.

Now to the untrained eye, many mushrooms can look alike. When you begin to study a bit of the terminology that goes along with identification though, things can become very confusing, very fast. What is the pileus (cap) like? Is it umbonate (umbrella like) plane, or convex in shape? What are the lamellae (gills) like? Are they decurrent, (running partially down the stem) how far apart are they from each other? Does it even have gills? Hedgehog mushrooms have teeth instead, and any mushroom from the bolete family will have pores, or a honey comb shape underneath.

Compounding these semi tongue twisting characteristics is the fact that little differences in mushrooms that may look the same at first glance can mean they are in fact a different species. For a time I thought that my friend Mike Rasmussen (a talented twin cities comedian) and I had a patch that grew only porcini. The first time we picked from it, giddy with excitement, we quickly cut all the baby boletes growing from a hillside shaded with oak. After the initial rush wore off and we were inspecting our score, we noticed some of the mushrooms were slightly different. The pores on some of the boletes were slightly more green-ish. Eventually we figured out there was a species of tylopilus (a related bolete) growing near a lone pine tree in the patch. It was not coming from the oaks, like the porcini. To the naked eye though, they looked the same at first glance. The point is that little differences can mean mushrooms may not even be in the same family that you think they are.

Bigfoot morels and giant entolomas, a similarity?

Search after online search yielded nothing to me as far as information on why these massive things were appearing. The aborted entoloma doesn’t really have that much information about it online at all, and what is out there doesn’t even begin to try to approach it’s culinary uses. It is still a bit unkown as far as mushrooms go. Here in Minnesota we can pickem by the backpack full though on a good day, and I’ve heard stories of people picking and selling these to restaurants in the Twin Cities since the early nineties.

I had a notion a while back while pondering morels. Here is my hunch: its pretty well known and that a species of morel is affected in a similar way. Occasionally at the end of the spring season  here in Minnesota we will see a couple really, really big morels, they are called bigfoots. As far as the nomenclature goes, they are in the family of morchella esculenta (esculenta in Latin meaning “fit to be eaten”) but they are classified as a subspecies written as: variation-crassipes.

bigfoot minnesota morel morchella crassipes

A bigfoot morel

So my theory here is that the same thing is happening with the entolomas in the fall here in Minnesota. Somehow, on occasion, the stars align, making the conditions right for them to grow to behemoth size. Its interesting to note too that it seems to infect all of the mycelium in a given area. When I find the huge entolomas, I don’t find small ones nearby, although there may be other ones in the forest. If I do find a couple, they will all have the same firm, hard flesh, it’s pretty easy to discern them from typical entolomas.

So you might be wondering: do they taste different? Nope. They taste like aborted entolomas, which is to say they have a pleasant mushroomy taste and a texture not unlike cooked shrimp. They are interesting in the kitchen in that they are so dense and heavy, you could actually cut of slices and grill them, as a contact of mine in Oregon told me he was doing to a giant 1lb hedgehog mushroom“spreader”, this year, which is another story.

If anyone else has some concrete information or has seen these I’d love to hear about it! I suspect people have around here, or in other areas that can host aborted entolomas.

As a final note, I’ll tell you this isn’t the only rare shroom like this I know of and have cooked with. There is another one in particular that I’ve only seen once, and it’s like something from an alternate dimension and much, much more rare. I’ll save that one for another time though.

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sam Schaperow

    February 3, 2014 at 6:39 pm

    U can post the questions to MushroomTalk for numerous mycologist & other opinions.

    Reply
  2. Dan Farmer

    February 3, 2014 at 6:57 pm

    “this isn’t the only rare shroom like this I know of and have cooked with.”

    O the suspense!!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      February 3, 2014 at 11:26 pm

      Suspense indeed, the crazy mushroom I speak of I have only seen once, as a teaser, it is bright orange, grows from the ground around oak, and has convoluted folds like a brain, as well as being brain/orb shaped. Hopefully I can get a picture, otherwise i’ll have to put up a crude caveman drawing of it!

      Reply
  3. Rose Hughes

    April 14, 2017 at 3:11 am

    Ok.. I’m hooked… and I am also blown away with what I think might perhaps be one of the biggest aborted-entoloma ever found. LOL… or its an alien fungi cause I can’t find anything that looks like it but some few images of aborted entolomas. I have posted some of these pics on my facebook in search of answers. Here is one of them… https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1714031521945978&set=pcb.1714031988612598&type=3&theater

    And another growing in the same area here… (a different species?) https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1714031698612627&set=pcb.1714031988612598&type=3&theater

    One is around 6 inches across… the other about 8 and still growing. HA

    Reply

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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Alan Bergo
HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mul HALP! I’ve been keeping an eye on two loaded mulberry trees and both got a bunch of fruit knocked down by the storms and wind. 

If anyone in West WI or around the Twin Cities knows of some trees, (ideally on private property but beggars can’t be choosers) that I could climb and shake with a tarp underneath, shoot me a DM and let’s pick some! 🤙😄

TIA

#throwadogabone #mansquirrel #beattlefruit #mulberries #shakintrees
Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of t Lampascioni, or edible hyacinth bulbs are one of the more interesting things I’ve eaten. 

These are an ancient wild food traditionally harvested in Southern Italy, especially in Puglia and the Salentine Peninsula, as well as Greece and Crete. I’ve seen at least 6-7 different names for them. 

A couple different species are eaten, but Leopoldia comosa is probably the one I see mentioned the most. They also grow wild in North America. 

The bulbs are toxic raw, but edible after an extended boil. Traditionally they’re preserved in vinegar and oil, pickled, or preserves in other methods using acid and served as antipasti. (Two versions in pic 3). 

They’re one of the most heavily documented traditional wild foods I’ve seen. There’s a few shots of book excerpts here.

The Oxford companion to Italian Food says you can eat them raw-don’t do that. 

Even after pickling, the bulbs are aggressively extremely bitter. Definitely an acquired taste, but one that’s grown on me. 

#traditionalfoods #vampagioli #lampascione #cucinapovera #lampascioni #leopoldiacomosa #foraging
Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke Went to some new spots yesterday looking for poke sallet and didn’t do too well (I’m at the tip of its range). I did see some feral horseradish though which I don’t see very often. 

Just like wild parsnip, this is the exact same plant you see in the store and garden-just escaped. 

During the growing season the leaves can be good when young. 

They have an aggressive taste bitter enough to scare your loved ones. Excellent in a blend of greens cooked until extra soft, preferably with bacon or similar. 

For reference, you don’t harvest the root while the plant is growing as they’ll be soft and unappealing-do that in the spring or fall. This is essentially the same as when people tell you to harvest in months that have an R in them. 

#amoraciarusticana #foraging #horseradishleaves #horseradish #bittergreens
In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo In Italy chicken of the woods is known as “fungo del carrubo” (carob tree mushroom) as it’s one of the common tree hosts there. 

My favorite, and really the only traditional recipe I’ve found for them so far is simmered in a spicy tomato sauce with hot chile and capers, served with grilled bread. 

Here I add herbs too: fresh leaves of bee balm that are perfect for harvesting right now and have a flavor similar to oregano and thyme. 

Makes a really good side dish or app, especially if you shower it with a handful of pecorino before scooping it up with the bread. 

#chickenofthewoods #fungodelcarrubo #allthemushroomtags #traditionalfoods #beebalm
First of the year 😁. White-pored chicken of t First of the year 😁. 

White-pored chicken of the woods (Laetiporus cincinnatus) are my favorite chicken. 

Superior bug resistance, slightly better flavor + texture. They also stay tender longer compared to their more common yellow-pored cousins. Not a single bug in this guy. 

#treemeat #ifoundfood #foraging #laetiporuscincinnatus #chickenofthewoods
TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with @jesseroes TBT brisket face 💦. Staff meal with 
@jesseroesler and crew @campwandawega
📸 @misterberndt 

#staffmeal #brisket #meatsweats #naptime
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