• 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 Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other Mushrooms
        • 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
        • Hedgehogs
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Honey Mushrooms
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Ramps
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
      • Spruce and Conifers
      • Pollen
      • Prickly Ash
      • Bergamot / Wild Oregano
      • Golpar / Cow Parsnip
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged Animals
      • Venison
      • Small Game
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

The Fawn or Deer Mushroom

The Fawn or Pluteus CervinusAfter the morels have come and gone in Minnesota, there’s a bit of a variety season and the fawn is one of the first you might see. It’s a graceful looking mushroom with a delicate structure. Their stem grows out from dead wood, (or buried stumps) hovering over logs in the woods kind of like little flying saucers. I don’t usually see these in huge fruitings, more or less there will be one or two here, then a couple there. They’re relatively easy to identify with a basic knowledge of mushroom I.D. techniques, and are worth collecting once in a while if there is nothing else.

Cooking

Pluteus are fun, albeit a bit brittle to work with. They have an interesting, radish flavor that makes for interesting uses with fresh vegetables and fish. If you smell the gills close up, you will notice a definite aroma of radishes. If you caramelize and brown them in a pan, this flavor leaves and they take on a taste that is more mushroomy and earthy. If you stew them, without caramelizing though, the radish flavor will remain.

The Fawn or Pluteus Cervinus

Identification

  • The fawn mushroom has a tell tale “nipple” on its cap, called being umbonate
  • Very young mushrooms may have a totally brown cap
  • These are decent sized mushrooms, I usually pick ones that have caps at least 4 inches in diameter.
  • As the mushroom grows older, it’s cap might flip up like an umbrella as it shoots its spores and matures.
  • The cap may develop little cuts or slices in it as it grows, almost looking like someone sliced it with a knife, or cut small chunks from it.
  • The gills of the mushroom have a sort of pinkish red tint to them.
  • Notice in the picture below that the gills also do not touch the stem.
  • These always grow directly from wood, but remember to check the ground for signs of former trees, since mushrooms can grow from buried wood too.
  • There will never be a “sac” or anything at the base of its stem resembling an egg, also the stem is totally bare and clean, with no evidence of any kind of ring or other decorations.
  • The cap is composed mostly of gills that are packed tightly together, it’s thick, bushy, and brittle.
  • It has a brownish-pink spore print

If you want to preserve some of these for later use, there are plenty of options. They can be sliced and dried easily, or even left whole. They have a mild flavor after re-hydrating that’s a decent addition to a stock or soup. Pickling them is always a fine option too, refer to my basic recipe for mushroom conserve.

The Fawn or Pluteus Cervinus

Note the thick, pinkish gills

Recipes

  • Wild Mushrooms With Garlic And Parsley
  • Wild Mushrooms With Breadcrumbs, Garlic, And Chili
  • Hedgehog Mushroom Conserve
  • Hedgehog Mushroom Duxelles
  • Bison-Black Barley Stew, With Wild Mushrooms

Share this:

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

Related

Previous Post: « How to Dry or Dehydrate Wild Mushrooms
Next Post: Croissant Stuffed With Morels Ramps And Nettles. »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Dan Farmer

    September 20, 2013 at 6:17 pm

    Thanks for teaching me about these, Alan. I have since found several more. However, I do find that they are just about impossible to get home in less than 100 pieces; delicate little suckers that they are.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 21, 2013 at 2:11 am

      The caps are very delicate, when stewed fresh they have a pleasant taste with a hint of spicy radish. I have a stump in the backyard these grow off of, like a natural garden. There are at least two different species I have seen in minnesota from this family (pluteus) and I have eaten and enjoyed both of them. I separate the caps from the stems when cooking.

      Reply
    • Geralyn_D

      May 13, 2019 at 9:12 am

      I love these mushrooms and go foraging prepared with my flat basket and sometimes if caught without it I simply field dress (gently press the center cap with fingers spread under it to dislodge the stem) and stack them if you are so fortunate as to find enough for a meal. I call these my bacon mushrooms and fry them CRISP in butter and season the gill side with poultry seasoning. use them where bacon is served, also as the shrimp component in green papaya salad, also chipped into rice stir fries. Mmmm… I have only tasted the radish flavor when raw and only for verifying mushroom type. I have never stewed these lovelies as I covet them for savory use and cannot get enough of them. This is a mushroom that may grow on you… always verify them (the lead in picture is a bit misleading) they do NOT grow from earth or grass UNLESS there is a root or log under it! Always see the wood substrate and then confirm the pinkish spores in the gill area.

      Reply
  2. Kathleen Rodgers

    August 13, 2019 at 5:38 pm

    We have been getting the pestasatis variety here courtesy of the power company.I have not tried this one and we will see how it cooks.

    Reply
  3. Kevin

    May 14, 2020 at 7:30 am

    Sorry to butt in here, but for the sake of avoiding (potentially dangerous!) confusion, the “free” gill type is NOT called adnate. Adnate means attached at the stipe. I doubt your readers will read this far into the comments section so perhaps you could edit that? Thank you for the information on edibility and cooking!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 16, 2020 at 9:33 am

      Hey Kevin, yeah I don’t know how that mistake has survived in here, thanks for catching it.

      Reply
  4. Michael Norris

    October 24, 2020 at 4:33 am

    Do they grow in north america, and do they prefer deciduous or conifers or like both? does it have a mucous layer and are those markings always present on the cap? i found some similar in washington state. they were in a wooded area mostly maple and filbert there, tho heavily wooded with conifers in other parts of the area not far from where they were specifically. they were under ferns base seemingly in dirt but there easily could have been pieces of maple decomposing under the surface. any help is appreciated..

    Reply
    • Christina

      December 25, 2020 at 7:25 am

      5 stars
      I live in NE Texas. Found commonly here. https://www.mushroomexpert.com/pluteus_cervinus.html

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Mushroom Diary - UK Wild Mushroom Hunting Blog | Fawny coloured Deer Shield says:
    August 15, 2015 at 4:18 am

    […] Edibility-wise there’s not much going for our lovely Deer Shield, but it still is edible (although it may not agree with some). The flesh is white, delicate and thin with a slight odour and taste similar to radish. I found a great blog tackling this culinary challenge, see here for a little advice on the subject: https://foragerchef.com/the-fawndeer-mushroom-pluteus-cervinus […]

    Reply
  2. #142: Pluteus cervinus, the Deer Mushroom – Fungus Fact Friday says:
    May 25, 2018 at 8:25 pm

    […] https://foragerchef.com/the-fawndeer-mushroom-pluteus-cervinus/ […]

    Reply
  3. Wild Mushroom Caps Cooked in Embers says:
    December 9, 2019 at 9:31 am

    […] some slightly easier candidates where I live like Megacollybia rodmani or Pluteus cervinus, and they would be great, as both are relatively easy to ID, and are pretty easy on the stomach. It […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply 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

🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Last entry. I’ve saved t 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Last entry. I’ve saved the smallest, fern gulliest plant for last. 

False Mermaid Weed (Floerkea proserpinacoides) is a good little plant Sam Thayer showed me. It’s tiny, as in all the photos are from me on my belly, in a wet ditch. It’s so small it’s hard to get the camera to even focus on it (see pic with my finger for scale). 

Mermaid weed likes wet areas, like ditches and spots that hold a bit of water (perfect mosquito habitat😁). 

Like chickweed, Floerkia greens are like nature’s Microgreens. They’re in the Limnanthaceae, (a new-ish group of brassicas) and like the Toothwort form earlier this week, you’ll taste a strong mustard-family flavor in a mouthful of their tender stems. 

They’re literally wild mustard sprouts, and, unlike other wild sprouts (garlic mustard 🤬) they stay sprouts, and, they actually taste good. 

It has a wide range over much of the eastern and western U.S., and is listed as secure globally, but is endangered in some states and shouldn’t be disturbed in those places. 

I’m lucky enough to have some large colonies near me so I do clip a few handfuls each year-my annual reward for removing some of the garlic mustard nearby, that, along with atvs, dirt bikes, and contamination from local water pollution, is one of the biggest threats to this tiny green. 

#floerkiaproserpinacoides 
#wildsprouts #mustardsprouts #ferngully #tiny #foraging #mermaid #🧜‍♀️
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Virginia Bluebells (Merten 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are one of the most beautiful harbingers of spring I know, as well as one of the most delicious. 

They’re in the Borage family, along with the namesake plant, Comfrey (which I only eat a few flowers of occasionally) and Honeywort. 

The flavor of the greens, like borage, has a rich flavor some people might describe as mushroomy or fishy, but after a just a few moments of cooking (30-60 seconds) they get mild and delicious, with a subtle bitterness. It’s a good bitter though-nothing like dandelions or garlic mustard that aren’t fit to be in the same basket, let alone on the same plate. 

The shoots are sweet and delicious, much more mild than the greens. As they can grow to be over a foot long, they’re almost more of a vegetable than a leafy green, depending on when you harvest them. 

Bluebells love moist, rich soil, but you don’t have to go to the woods to get them. Many people know Virginia Bluebells as a garden plant, and they can make a great edible addition to your landscape.

#virginiabluebells #foraging #ephemerals #springwildflowers #wildfoodlove #mertensiavirginica
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Narrow-leaved Wild Leek / 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Narrow-leaved Wild Leek / White Ramp (Allium burdickii) 

If you’re in a ramp patch you might occasionally see some with white stems (pic 1,2). These are a cousin to the more common variety with much larger leaves and red stems (pic 3,4,5)

Allium burdickii is not as common as the red-stemmed variety, and in every ramp patch I’ve been in, the white ramp is heavily outnumbered. 

Where I harvest, I like to leave them alone, and mark the areas where they grow with sticks or middens on the ground so I can go back in the fall and help them spread their seeds. I also try and remove garlic mustard when I see it-a much more imminent threat in my mind to ramps than foragers out to gather some leaves. 

2020 was a banner year for ramp seeds, and you can still help the plants right now (pic 7) as some seed heads are still full and would love for you to give them a shake as you walk by. 

#alliumburdickii #ramps #ephemerals #foraging #spring
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 #4: Erythronium leaves E 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

#4: Erythronium leaves 

Erythronium (Trout Lily) are another ephemeral that I see widespread in my ramp patches, there’s at least 32 species world-wide, with at least one endangered species in MN (Dwarf Trout Lily). 

They’re a beautiful, delicious plant I eat every year, but I can’t recommend serving them to the general public. Plenty of people say these are edible, but also emetic if eaten in “quantity”. 

I can tell you, at least with E. albidum and E. americanum I’ve eaten, that some people are much more sensitive than others, so if you want to make a salad to serve people, make sure they’re comfortable eating it, and use a few leaves as a garnish. 

Funny enough, I didn’t learn about these from a foraging book. Like knotweed, I learned about them from one of my favorite chefs: Michel Bras, one of the most influential chefs of the turn of the 21 century. 

Any chef that works with wild plants owes a debt to Bras. His book, although a little dated now, still teaches me new things all the time. While flipping through the book I also caught a recipe using tansy flowers 😳 that I’d probably pass on. 

The whitefish crusted with sunflower seeds is a dish of mine from 2012, and an example of how I eat the leaves: a few at a time, as a garnish. 

#troutlily #erythronium #michelbras #ephemerals #foraging
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Plant #3: Cutleaf Toothwor 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Plant #3: Cutleaf Toothwort (Cardamine concatenata) is another beautiful spring wildflower that loves to grow in the same habitat you’ll see ramps and spring beauty. 

Its small at first, but grows to a worthy size for eating as it flowers. It’s related to cabbage and mustard greens (Brassicaceae) and eating just a few leaves will give you a potent, spicy pop of mustard-family flavor reminiscent of horseradish. 

Eaten in combination with other things, like in a salad, the flavor becomes submissive and you’ll barely know it’s there. 

Some people eat the spicy roots shaped like canine teeth, but for the work I hardly think they’re worth it. 

A great wild spring green for the salad bowl-eat them leaves, tender stem, flowers and all🤤. 

#cutleaftoothwort #cadamineconcatenata #ephemeral #springedibles #foraging #wildfoodlove
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Plant #2 is Virginia water 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Plant #2 is Virginia waterleaf, and, I’m cheating a bit as it’s semi-ephemeral. The plant comes up in spring and goes to flower, but gives a second harvest of fresh growth in the fall, where other ephemerals I know do not. 

This is a great starter wild green-easy to recognize with the splashes of white on the leaves that may or may not be present. After you learn it though, don’t be surprised if, like me, you eventually pass it up for more delicious greens nearby. 

The plant gets tough quick, and the flavor is..meh, so I usually have small amounts of very young greens in blends of blanched and sautéed mixes. 

My favorite part is the wee flower buds, that, if you get at the right time, can be harvested in decent quantity and are good steamed as they’ll soak up oil sautéed. 

#hydrophyllumvirginianum #waterleaf #foraging #fueledbynature #weedeater
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.