Is this a puffball?

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Is this a puffball?
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Treacodactyl
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 25795
Location: Jumping on the bandwagon of opportunism

Posted: Mon Aug 15, 05 7:18 pm Post subject:
Never found a giant puff ball down here. Tried some of the small ones last year and wasn't that impressed but would love to try a gaint.

mrsnesbitt

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 1576

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 7:48 am Post subject:
Well I am still here! must say the nicest mushroom I have ever tasted. In the end I cookes it in some light olive oil & pepper. Would have loved to have tried Cab's recipe but we're off to France next week andI need to get into my bike leathers! 3000 miles....need to be comfortable! especially on the back of one of these....

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 7:59 am Post subject:

Bernie66 wrote:

Just bought "food for free" and the bacon fat idea sounds very familiar

Off to woods at eight o clock. Am hungry!

Oh, I should imagine that most of the books on the subject say fry it off with bacon fat, it's a great and easy way of cooking slices of giant puffball.

It's also good cubed up in stews (blended with a little boletus of some sort and some horse or field mushrooms this is THE combination for a beef stew), baked (either slice it and pack it into a dish with olive oil and meat between the layers, or hollow it out, chop the innards and add them back with minced beef and thyme, leaving a thick layer of mushroom around the sides to stop it collapsing, cover in a big stewpot and cook all day on a low heat), as a layer in a giant club sandwich, fried and then used as an extra kayer in lasagne... You can tell I've had some puffball gluts in the past, cant you?

Bernie66

Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Posts: 13967
Location: Eastoft

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 3:39 pm Post subject:
Do they freeze? I only ask as i am sure that the kids won't eat them, my better half will take alot of convincing and i could not bring myself to throw away anything foraged. It goes against the principles of foraging almost.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 5:59 pm Post subject:

Bernie66 wrote:

Do they freeze? I only ask as i am sure that the kids won't eat them, my better half will take alot of convincing and i could not bring myself to throw away anything foraged. It goes against the principles of foraging almost.

Once cooked in somethng they freeze fine. I have found that freezing slices of them doesn't come out too well, gets a bit damp. Some other mushrooms freeze really well.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45421
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 6:01 pm Post subject:
There's a bright yellow (with orange tinges) fungus growing on my mum's plum tree what could it be?

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 6:01 pm Post subject:
Oh, and drying them isn't for the feint hearted. Took days for the smell to clear. You have to slice them thin, using only young specimens, and dry them fast. If they even think about changing colour to yellowish or greenish in drying you've lost them. The dry slices can be squished into dry jars, and the powder thus formed is a wonderful ingredient in soup, gravy and stews.

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 6:04 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

There's a bright yellow (with orange tinges) fungus growing on my mum's plum tree what could it be?

Could be chicken of the woods. Is it a bracket or what? I've never seen it on plum, but I've had it from cherry.

Picture would help old chap.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45421
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 6:05 pm Post subject:
It's a frilly bracket, almost fluorescent yellow, took a piccie on the mobile gawd knows how to get it from there to somewhere else...

cab

Joined: 01 Nov 2004
Posts: 32429

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 6:08 pm Post subject:
Two obvious ones are chicken of the woods and cinnabar polypore, most likely the former.

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45421
Location: Essex

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 6:12 pm Post subject:
Definitely not a cinnabar (https://www.rivernen.ca/fungi_5.htm) I reckon it's got to be a CoW

Bugs

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 10744

Posted: Tue Aug 16, 05 7:03 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

It's a frilly bracket, almost fluorescent yellow, took a piccie on the mobile gawd knows how to get it from there to somewhere else...

You should be able to send it as a MMS or somefink message, to your own email address, and thence do with it what you will. I'm sure you have a snazzier phone than mine and I can do that...it's about 30p a bash on PAYG so you wouldn't want to use it too often!

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