Another season has come and gone now. My supply was drawing thin from the last few seasons of little luck. But early fall rains drenched the forest floors encouraging a small flush of porcini – Boletus edulis – to crawl forth from the timbered duff. Out into the forests, I went, combining a quick visit to waterfalls with a myvological hunt. Six bags of dried little pigs later, my mushroom supply has replenished.
THE MUSHROOM
Better known as porcini – plural for porcino, the boletus edulis can be found widely across the Northern Hemisphere. While the mushrooms from different regions appear to be the same, only in recent years has microbiological analysis discovered differences and similarities not known before. The North American distribution of the porcini, also known as the King Bolete, ranges from the Alaskan Panhandle to Mexico, with the major area of concentration centering on Northern California north to British Columbia. In Europe, the kings range from northern Scandinavia to Greece.
Porcini comes from the mushrooms longstanding popularity in Italy going back to at least Roman times and probably before. Porcino translates to porcine having to do with pigs fondness for the fungi or the resemblance of young fruiting bodies to piglets. The mushroom goes by many names over its vast area of distribution – Steinpilz, cep, penny bun, Herrenpilz, panza are just a few.
LOCATION AND TIMING
In Oregon, you can find the king in many forests in the western part of the State and in some of the mountains of the east, as well. Unlike other popular mushrooms, like the chanterelle, porcini tend to pop up singularly though you can sometimes find several appearing near each other at times. They can be found in both deciduous and coniferous forests, though here, Boletus edulis seem to prefer coniferous. Carefully note the type of trees you find the mushroom under or near for future sleuthing.
Timing and weather is everything when it comes to finding the king. In the mountains here, during a warm summer, a couple days of good rains – thunderstorms – can trigger massive appearances. On the Coast, they begin to appear, especially after good soaking early autumnal rains. If the year is dry, the king will definitely hide away underground waiting for another season to make his appearance. The first frost usually puts an end to the short picking season.
WHY THE EXCITEMENT?
An excellent reason to pick the king comes from the ability to dry the mushroom for later use. Flavors intensify from the drying process. Reconstitution is easy performed by simply soaking the dried porcini in hot water for twenty minutes or so. The mushrooms plump back up and the soaking water can also be used for cooking to further intensify the mushroom cooking experience. Drying tends to further the mushroom’s aroma as well.
Another great reason for drying is the mushrooms then can literally last for years stored in an airtight jar or simply a zip-lock plastic bag. The kings can dry in an oven, on a string in the kitchen near the ceiling or easiest in my experience, in a food dehydrator. Bring them in from the field, give them a quick brush and slice them up thinly. After placing the slices on the dehydrator racks, in my dehydrator, it takes six or more hours to dry them out. That can vary, so check every hour or two. Once dried, store them away for that next risotto or stew.
PORCINI IN THE WOODS
Mushrooms are mycorrhizal in their relationship with the forests in which they live. Growing among the roots of the trees, nitrogen and other nutrients bound up by the fungi exchange with fixed carbon from the trees. Other benefits have been shown to come from the mutual relationship, as well.
A relationship between the king and Amanita muscaria also seems possible. Fruiting bodies of each often occur in close proximity to each other.
Being an ectomycorrhizal fungus, Boletus edulis need specific trees to grow alongside. The hyphae of an ectomycorrhizal does not penetrate individual cells of the plant root. A larger majority of mushrooms do not need a symbiotic host to grow alongside. The common button mushroom, Agaricus bisporus, for example, are saprotrophic meaning they feed on dead or dying organic matter. This gives humans the opportunity to cultivate them. With boletes – and other ectomycorrhizals – you need the specific trees adding a much greater level of difficulty.
THE MUSHROOM CAP – PENNY BUNS
The only part of the mushroom you see is the fruiting body – the sporocarp. They represent the sexual phase of the life cycle of the fungi. Sporocarps growing above ground – versus underground mushrooms such as truffles – are epigeous. The sporocarp represents a very tiny portion of the entirety of the fungus whose mycelia stretches out in the soil over surprisingly large areas. It is the sporocarp by which the mushroom type is identified even in academic mycology.
For Boletus edulis, the sporocarp consists of the brownish cap – this led to the English name of penny bun – taking on a convex shape, normally. Little holes in the cap demonstrate that not only humans enjoy the bolete. Beneath the cap is the hymenium. This is a spongy mass of tubules pointing downward from the cap. This is also where spores are produced. The hymenium starts out white in young sporocarps, changing in color to green-yellow with age. Spores play a role in the dispersal of the species either dropping to the ground, getting dispersed by rain or wind or being eaten by insects or animals. The spores have been shown to withstand a journey through the gut without problems.
Beneath the sporocarp is a thick stem which can be very thick and bulbous. The color tends to be creamy white gaining a bit of brown up near the cap. Cutting into the stem, the flash is white not changing color when cut or bruising like other mushrooms.
LIFE CYCLE OF THE FRUITING CAPS
The life of Boletus edulis sporocarps is about a week. The earlier you find them, the more compact they are and, of course, the harder to find. Shelf life for the mushrooms is similarly short. There is a constant race to first, find them before the flies do – certain fungal files are adept at finding and laying eggs in the stems at the base. The larvae go on to eat their way through the stem of the mushroom.
Getting them at the store for very expensive prices is easier than foraging through the woods – except for the pocketbook. But you better use them immediately or dry them because they do not last long. Other preservation methods include pickling, stewing, and freezing.
HUNTING BOLETES
Porcini are not hard to identify. There are very few mushrooms appearing like the porcini that are not good. Remember, no gills under the cap – spongy spores – and while the cap is a little slippery, they are no way as slippery as some wannabe Russula varieties which are truly slimy. These are not like trying to find button mushrooms in the wild which do have other not-so-good varieties than can cause serious harm.
Remember, timing is everything. You need rain to fall first. And then wait. How long? A story relayed by David Arora, author of All the Rain Promises and More: A Hip-Guide to Western Mushrooms, who asked a local Italian American farmer in northern California, “When do the porcini start coming up?” The response, “Three weeks after the first inch of rain.” “But when do you start looking for porcini?” The farmer replied, “Ten days after the first inch of rain.”
EQUIPING THE HUNT
There are groups of people who forage for a livelihood. They start south in California and make their way north through Oregon, Washington and British Columbia following the porcine flush. Not all is about porcini either. There are plenty of other mushrooms to find in the woods along the way to augment their earnings. The same could be said when you go out. Mushrooms like lobster mushrooms, lion’s heads, chanterelles, hawk wings, and others. For mushrooms more fragile, use a separate bag or risk a fungal mess as the big porcinis crush their smaller cousins.
For a bag to collect the mushrooms you find, use an open mesh bag or wicker basket. Don’t use a plastic bag. The more open bags allow mushroom spores to continue to drop off the collected caps as you wander about your day.
Also, when finding a mushroom, clean it where you find it – a mushroom knife is very handy for this with its little brush. Sweep the dirt and then cut rough and entrenched parts of soil away from the base. If you wait until you get home, the process is much harder. Plus, the dirt not cleaned off gets onto the other mushrooms. Gilled mushrooms like chanterelles are especially hard to clean if you leave the process too long. When you do get home, don’t use water to clean the mushrooms. Reserve the tap water to work with chanterelles just before dry sautéing.
LOCATING THE MUSHROOMS
Boletus edulis are ectomycorrhizal meaning they are found near a species-specific tree – shore pine, spruce are good places to start with. In Oregon, a good bolete year sees them popping up all along the Coast in the forests near the sea. You can even find them walking around the local towns. State parks can offer a good starting place – Fort Stevens, Cape Lookout., Cape Disappointment in Washington.
They also can be found on the east side of the Cascades and in the mountains of eastern Oregon, usually a little earlier. There is also another porcini, the Spring King – Boletus rex-veris, which come up after the snowmelt. Spring rains and the snowmelt offer plenty of moisture for the mushrooms to pop up before the onset of the long, hot summer. Heavy rainstorms during the summer can also produce flushes of mushrooms. Learn the trees and the weather.
Remember, also to keep your bearings in the forest. It is very easy to lose your way with your head tilted down to the ground peering through the underbrush in search of mycological gold.
EATING THE BOLETES
As fun as hunting in the woods for Boletus edulis, eating them later is probably more so. There are lots of recipes which include porcini in the process. In Cynthia Nim’s Wild Mushrooms entry for the Northwest Homegrown Cookbook Series, she presents three porcini-specific recipes, but the bolete could figure in twenty-one other recipes which simply call for “wild mushrooms”. Maybe one of the best-known recipes involving porcini would be for mushroom risotto, certainly a classic. This recipe from the New York Times calls for dried porcini. Fine enough, but fresh mushrooms from the field take it up a notch. There is also this “classic” take on the dish.
MORE SOURCES
A few books come to mind regarding further information for the budding mycologist. First, for cooking the little pigs. As noted above, Cynthia Nims, a Seattle-based food writer and chef offers up Wild Mushrooms from the WestWinds Press Northwest Homegrown Cookbook Series.
Next, there is an “older” classic by David Arora, an important earlier writer who helped wild foragers get their bearings in the hunt, first with Mushrooms Demystified and later with the aforementioned All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip-Guide to Western Mushrooms.
For me, Daniel Winkler, a transplant to Washington State from Germany, has one of the best books regarding mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest, Fruits of the Forest: A Field Guide to Pacific Northwest Edible Mushrooms. Daniel also runs a travel group focused on eco-friendly tours around the world – Mushroaming.
