Edible
Saffron milkcap
Lactarius deliciosus and relatives
The character that does the work
Orange milk that turns green. The milk is the test: cut a gill and wait thirty seconds.
The specimen sheet, in examination order
01Cap
4 to 15 cm, orange with concentric darker zones, depressed at the centre, often greening with age or bruising.
02Underside
Crowded orange decurrent gills that BLEED ORANGE MILK when cut, the milk slowly turning green.
03Stem, and the base
Short, stout, orange, often pitted with darker spots.
04Flesh, cut
Pale orange, staining green.
05Spore print
06Where it grows
Under pine and spruce, from soil.
When to look
Typically Aug to Nov in the northern hemisphere. Fruiting swings by weeks with rainfall and by a month or more with latitude, so this is when to look rather than when it will be there.
Europe, North America and introduced with pine plantations worldwide.
What is worth knowing about it
One of the great mushrooms of Spanish and Catalan cooking and cultivated deliberately in plantation pine in the southern hemisphere. The rule that keeps the genus safe is simple: orange milk that greens is fine, WHITE milk is a different question and several white-milk species are seriously acrid or toxic.
Confused with
- Woolly milkcap, which has white milk and is toxic
- Other Lactarius species
In the kitchen
Grill or roast rather than fry. The texture is granular and slightly squeaky and it does not soften into a sauce well. Salt, oil, high heat, garlic at the end.
The techniques, and why they workThis page tells you what to check. It does not tell you the mushroom in your hand is that species, and it cannot. If you are not certain, do not eat it. If you have already eaten something and feel unwell, contact a poison centre and keep an uncooked specimen.
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