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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Suillus Luteus

suillus luteus slippery jack

Take a look at how their caps shine, do they look sticky? They are.

This is the “original” slippery jack.

Original in that it really possesses to a T the characteristics associated with suillus species: slimy, sticky cap, and the presence of a veil covering the gills when young, which eventually leaves a ring around the stem.

Even though I had read about it for a while, it did take me at least two years to find my first ones of this particular species. I had to go to the pine forests and watch the Russians pick them to know truly what they were. I had seen other slippery jacks, such as chickenfat boletes, but this one was the big daddy, the one and only Suillus luteus, beloved by Eastern European mushroom hunters around the world. Chicken fat boletes are similar in that their caps can be a bit moist, but S. luteus is the absolute definition of slimy, in the surface of it’s cap at least.

Most of the time I see field guides simply label this slippery jack as “edible” or sometimes “edible with caution”. The caution part comes in because it must be peeled before eating, unlike the chickenfat bolete. If the mushroom’s slimy cap covering is not peeled off and removed, it can cause gastric upset, although this has never happened to me.

suillus luteus slippery jack

Underside of a cap next to some cute little buttons hiding in the grass

Habitat

These grow in the late fall in Minnesota from my experience, around the same time as other slippery jacks. Look to coniferous forests. When I am looking for these I usually notice other slippery jacks as well that are very easy to see, chicken fat boletes, for example.

The forest I most frequently see them around has a large number of eastern white, and Norway pine. When large and mature these will be even more intimidating in the kitchen, so you need to find fresh, young specimens. You will need to know exact trees they grow around to find tiny buttons, but once you know a spot they grow, keep checking it after rainstorms when they start start to fruit and you will find small, perfect keepers. They are really at their finest when the thin veil covering the gills is not yet broken.

Cooking

These can be a little tricky. If you don’t peel the caps and stems, inspect them for debris, and use them with due haste: you will probably hate them. The cap’s covering and sometimes it’s remnants on the stem are not good to eat, they must be peeled off, as one might the skin of a carrot. When peeled properly, you will be left with nice, firm mushrooms, as long as what you picked was young and pristine. These are not really mushrooms that I will sit down and scarf a plate of by themselves, they would much rather be utilized in some sort of preparation to add background interest, such as in a chicken soup, or in a sauce to compliment meat.

Preserving

As far as preserving them goes, drying is my first choice. After reconstituting, the mushrooms will still show a bit of their slipperyness, but it will not be as squishy and full of water as fresh specimens are. Another reason to dry them too is that slippery jacks, like most boletes, have a shorter shelf life than many other mushrooms. In addition, when dried, they transform and take on an aroma that is very different than when fresh, it’s rich and woodsy, like a bolete, but different. Dried Slippery jacks tend to develop an immediately recognizable scent that is pretty strong- I would describe it as a bit of an “acidic” tone to the nose, S. Luteus is a perfect example, as is the chicken fat bolete.

Recipes

Recipes I’ve made especially for slippery jacks, or where they can be easily substituted. The escargot and homemade ricotta cheese with slippery jacks are my favorite with these.

  • Slippery Jack Escargot
  • Wild Mushroom Conserve
  • Wild Mushroom Duxelles
  • Dried Wild Mushroom Duxelles
  • Fresh Bolete Butter
  • Fresh Boletes With Radish Snaps and Peas
  • Fresh Bolete Julienne
  • Baby Chicken With Bolete-Wine Sauce
  • Mixed Wild Mushrooms With Persillade
  • Cream of Bolete Soup With Black Walnut Pesto
  • Shrimp With Bolete Infused Soy-Brandy Cream
  • Dried Bolete Infused Soy Sauce
  • Porcini-Pike Bolognese
  • Dried Bolete Crusted Pheasant
  • Shortribs With Dried Boletes and Root Vegetables
  • Beef Commercial With Dried Boletes
  • Dried Bolete-Cheese Fritters
  • Homemade Ricotta Cheese With Dried Slippery Jacks
  • Dried Bolete Gnudi Dumplings
  • Fresh Boletes Cooked In Sour Cream

Related

Previous Post: « The City Page’s Iron Fork Competition: 2013
Next Post: Slippery Jack-Cabbage Soup, For An Old Russian Man »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Peter Bregman

    November 20, 2013 at 11:54 am

    Hey Alan,

    About a month ago I found a flush of Suillus americanus in prime condition (they were all bright yellow and firm, but slimy). After not really knowing what to do with them, I ended up dehydrating them and later using them in a risotto with some meadow mushrooms (almost cheating since most mushrooms taste good in risotto). They turned out to be delicious! Really nice, rich mushroom flavor, almost shitake-esque. The slippery jack family is definitely under utilized.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      November 21, 2013 at 10:52 am

      Hey Peter, there were lots of S. Americanus out this year, I even found a different variation up north. I don’t eat them fresh generally, but they totally transform when dried. I bet they made a killer rizzo! Their smell is so strong in fact, that I employed the nose of our sommelier to try and pin point what sort of scents were going on, they told me stuff like: musk and blue cheese. The blue cheese on the nose I especially notice. I am perpetually fascinated by the transformation boletes undergo after drying, one I found last year smells like chocolate and coffee.

      Reply
  2. Zoran Tasovac

    October 29, 2017 at 5:48 am

    Hi Alan;
    I am a little confused about how to dry slippery jacks.
    The question is are you supposed to peel and clean stalks before drying or not?

    Thanks in advance

    Best Regards
    Zoran

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 29, 2017 at 11:36 am

      I haven’t found a need to ever peel them before drying. I would trim the stalks down until they’re free of debris.

      Reply
  3. richard T.

    June 10, 2018 at 11:14 am

    I have been gathering and eating Sullus granulatus for 25 years in the rocky mountains at 5000 ft. They are the same as S. luteus only with no ring. The key to getting good ones is to go out every day, because once they emerge they are infected with small worms within 24 hours that eat their way up the stem and tunnel all through the cap. I have always peeled them top and bottom and discarded the stem. They are so sticky on top that when they emerge they trap all the leaves and dirt on top and it is almost impossible to remove except by peeling, which is easy to do. The way I have always preserved them was to sauté them up with butter and garlic, just as if I was going to consume them. Then I pack this into meal sized containers and freeze it. They can keep very well for several years this way, and when thawed out are in very good shape. Trying to freeze the uncooked mushrooms results in a mess when thawed. I will have to try drying.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      June 11, 2018 at 6:03 pm

      This is good info, thanks for sharing. And thanks for agreeing that mushrooms shouldn’t be frozen raw! Not only do they take up too much space in the freezer, but the flavor is no good, and depending on the genus, the texture can be very off putting.

      Reply
  4. NancyLee

    November 27, 2018 at 11:05 am

    Hi Alan,
    Always find your writing interesting and informative.
    I just harvested a batch of boletes (non-staing$ which smell distinctively of garlic, and have a reddish or rusty-brownish spore print.
    Any clue what this one is? My google search just keeps looping me back to the “garlic mushroom”, which is gilled, and clearly not what I have here.
    Any insight or assistance identifying this delicious smelling bolete would be appreciated!
    Nancy

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      December 1, 2018 at 8:02 am

      It is incredibly difficult to try and help with ID without images. Send some to alanbergo3 AT gmail.

      Reply
  5. Rachael

    March 28, 2020 at 10:15 pm

    I’m drying my slippery jacks, peeled and cut into quarters, in a slow oven for3 hours. Still a bit moist, softish flesh.
    I’m leaving them in there now that I’ve turned off the oven. But should I freeze them if they are not fully ‘paper, dry?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      March 29, 2020 at 6:27 pm

      Hi Rachael, I wouldn’t freeze them, I would dry them completely, until cracker dry, and store in a cool dark place. Technically you could freeze them if they aren’t fully dry, but I don’t really see the point in that. Alan.

      Reply
  6. Claire

    October 10, 2020 at 1:48 pm

    I live in suburban Seattle, and here we have Fat Jacks (Suillus ponderosus). I find them at a local park and dehydrate them for risotto. The smell they create as they are drying is heavenly…I can only describe as mushroomy…as I do not have the nose of a sommelier. They look horrific….really dark brown. But just fantastic flavor.

    Reply
  7. Gregory White

    October 21, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    My wife and I just moved to Nova Scotia and discovered a few days ago that the back part of our yard is covered in slippery jacks. We have too many to eat and we just bought a dehydrator so we’ll dry some. So you wouldn’t suggest peeling the caps before drying? Just put them in the dehydrator slime and all?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 21, 2020 at 7:30 pm

      Peel them if you can, certainly.

      Reply
  8. Jacqui

    October 25, 2020 at 3:04 pm

    This year I hit Suillus paydirt by being in the right place at the right time.
    My favourite preparation was hard fried to dry them out and carmelise them a bit then cooked together with toasted buckwheat groats (kasha), then topped with crispy fried onions. I think this is a true an eastern European dish as you can get. They were, of course, also good in the barley soup.
    And then, because I still had way too many mushrooms, I dried about a kg, which filled my house with a toasty mushroom aroma with over/undertones of chocolate. Have you noticed that when drying slippery jacks? I really understand why the coffee complements them so well. But have you tried cocoa?

    Reply
    • Jacqui

      October 25, 2020 at 3:07 pm

      oops. Just noticed some older comments where, yes, you did notice the chocolate aroma. What about adding powdered slippery jack to a praliné?

      Reply
  9. Alan Bergo

    December 6, 2016 at 9:27 am

    Yes just enough to cover, it is a cheater confit, typically you make confit with lard and salted meat.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Bicolor Boletes says:
    November 6, 2014 at 9:57 pm

    […] also has a neat property of making some mushrooms more digestable. Some leccinum species or slippery jacks, have given me severe gastric upset fresh (leccinums if they’re under cooked, and some […]

    Reply
  2. Slippery Jack Gnudi With Ramps, Wild Rice, And Nettles says:
    December 13, 2014 at 10:47 am

    […] may need to peel the slimy layer off of the cap to make sure you don’t get an upset stomach. Suillus luteus is a perfect example of one to be careful with; it’s moist coating peels off very […]

    Reply
  3. A brief overview of the cuisine of The Salt Cellar Restaurant in St. Paul MN says:
    January 3, 2015 at 8:51 am

    […] lives under the greater family of Boletus. These Chilean mushrooms are a world apart from dried slippery jacks I pick […]

    Reply
  4. #160: Suillus luteus, the Slippery Jack – Fungus Fact Friday says:
    October 7, 2016 at 3:06 pm

    […] https://foragerchef.com/the-original-slippery-jack-suillus-luteus/ […]

    Reply

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Alan Bergo
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
Oh the things I get in the mail. This is my kind Oh the things I get in the mail. 

This is my kind of tip though: a handmade buckskin bag with a note and a handful of bleached snapping turtle claws. 😁😂 

Sent in by Leslie, a reader. 

Smells like woodsmoke and the cat quickly claimed it as her new bed. 

#buckskin #mailsurprise #turtleclaws #thisimylife #cathouse
Bluebell season. Destined for a Ligurian ravioli Bluebell season. 

Destined for a Ligurian ravioli as a replacement for the traditional borage greens. 

#mertensiavirginica #virginiabluebells #spring #foraging
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