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Foraging and Cooking Mushrooms, Wild and Obscure Food

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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
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

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