Content
Red mushroom is an edible and very tasty mushroom. It does not contain toxic substances in its composition, with proper processing it will be a good addition to many dishes.
Where do red mushrooms grow
Red mushroom belongs to the Syroezhkov family and is not very widespread in Russia. Most often it can be found in coniferous forests and mountainous areas, and it usually grows in small groups of several fruit bodies. Fruiting season is late summer and early autumn, in the period from August to September it can be seen in greatest quantities.
What red mushrooms look like
A mushroom from the genus Mlechnik has a cap from 3 to 10 cm in diameter, flattened in young fruiting bodies and funnel-shaped in adults. The edges of the cap are slightly curled up; the skin is moist and sticky to the touch. On the underside, the cap is covered with thin plates of pinkish, ocher or deep red, depending on age. The plates themselves can go down quite deeply along the leg. The color of the cap itself is usually reddish-orange, occasionally there are blood-red mushrooms with a barely noticeable greenish tinge.
The red mushroom does not rise much above the ground, its stem reaches an average of 6 cm. Towards the base it tapers slightly, and its surface is often covered with a mealy bloom. A photo and description of a red mushroom show that the color of the leg is usually pinkish-orange or purple-lilac, in young mushrooms it is dense and fleshy, and in adults it is hollow from the inside.
If you break a red mushroom, then you can see a dense and fragile beige flesh with red spots. At the site of the break, a reddish milky sap is released.
Is it possible to eat red mushrooms
The forest product belongs to the first edible category. This means that it is allowed to eat it, and even long and careful processing is not required - no toxic substances are present in the pulp.
Taste qualities of mushrooms
The red mushroom has a very pleasant taste and a good dense texture. In cooking, it is customary not only to salt it, but also to boil it, pickle it, and fry it. Red mushroom is suitable for drying, in this case it can be stored for a long time and enjoy its beneficial qualities and taste a few months after harvest.
Benefits and harm to the body
Red camelina has a rich chemical composition that includes vitamins, trace elements and antioxidant compounds. For human health, he is able to bring great benefits.
Red mushroom allows you to:
- improve digestion - the product helps to remove toxic substances from the body;
- strengthen immunity, vitamins in the composition make a person more resistant to viral and infectious diseases;
- improve the condition of the skin - the beneficial substances in the composition contribute to the renewal of epidermal cells, it is not for nothing that the product is used to heal cuts and burns;
- increase overall endurance, red mushroom contains a lot of proteins and amino acids, therefore it is considered a very nutritious product.
Especially worth noting is the substance lactarioviolin in the pulp, this natural antibiotic has anti-tuberculosis properties. Lactarioviolin is used by official pharmacology to create drugs aimed at treating a serious illness.
Of course, in some cases, the red mushroom can be harmful to the body. It is not recommended to use it if you have a tendency to constipation, with chronic problems with the gallbladder, or with severe liver damage. Stale specimens can bring great harm - before use, you must make sure that they are of high quality, especially when it comes to a purchased product.
False doubles
It is almost impossible to confuse a red mushroom with a dangerous poisonous one. However, it has a strong similarity with other representatives of its genus, so it is important to study the photo of the red cap mushroom and its counterparts.
Real mushroom
Pine, upland or real camelina is a completely edible mushroom with excellent taste. With red, it is very similar in structure, it also has a mucous red or white-orange cap with a depression in the center and a cylindrical leg.
But at the same time, the real saffron milk cap is usually larger in size, and lighter in color than red. In addition, the real mushroom is much wider and grows in coniferous forests throughout Russia from the European part to Siberia.
Spruce mushroom
The spruce mushroom is another delicious edible specimen that can be confused with red. It also has a cap, convex at a young age and funnel-shaped in adult mushrooms, the diameter of which can reach 8 cm.The skin on the spruce's cap is slippery and sticky, the leg rises above the ground by an average of 6 cm.
The color of the spruce tree is usually red-orange, and in this way it looks like a red mushroom. But in the spruce mushroom, you can notice a pronounced greenish tint. The spruce tree is found everywhere in the forests and is far from being as rare as its red counterpart.
Collection rules
Most of the red species appear in coniferous forests closer to autumn - in late August and early September. It is better to go for mushrooms after rainy days - in wet weather they grow especially quickly and abundantly. When looking for red saffron milk caps, you need to carefully look under your feet, due to the orange color, mushrooms often merge with falling autumn foliage.
It is necessary to collect the red species in clean forests, located away from noisy highways, railways and industrial facilities. Since mushroom pulp easily accumulates toxins that grow in a disadvantaged area, fruiting bodies can be harmful.
How to cook red mushrooms
The culinary use of red saffron milk caps is very wide; they can be eaten in almost any form. Since mushrooms do not have a bitter taste, they do not need to be soaked before processing, it is enough to peel and rinse under cold water:
- Most often, red mushrooms are boiled - this process takes 15 minutes after boiling salted water. Boiled mushrooms are added to salads or used as an appetizer with salt.
- They can also be fried and stewed with meat and vegetables, added to soup or even pie filling.
- Sometimes they are used together with apples - the combination turns out to be unusual, but pleasant.
- The classic recipe is red mushrooms with potatoes and sour cream.
Salting and pickling of red mushrooms is popular - this treatment allows you to save them for the winter.The collected mushrooms can be dried and used after a long time for culinary or medicinal purposes.
Conclusion
Red mushroom is a rather rare, but very tasty noble mushroom. It practically does not harm health, but the benefits from it can be very great, especially if the norms of use are observed.
