Imagine a family dinner at which your mother-in-law serves mushroom soup that she prepared herself. Earlier, while your mother-in-law was not looking, a mushroom from the photograph was secretly added to the soup. Everyone tastes the soup, and suddenly it turns out that the dish has a bitter taste.
Scenario 1: Tactical retreat
After tasting it, everyone at the table will immediately criticize the soup, and it will consequently be poured away. In a theatrical gesture, the mother-in-law will put down her spoon and give a speech about how “it’s not actually that bad, but there’s something wrong with it.” Then she will either turn it into a joke or take offense for at least a week, and the soup will become an excuse for silence.
Scenario 2: Putting on a brave face over bad soup
The soup will nevertheless be eaten despite its noticeable bitterness. Everyone will “put on a brave face,” meaning that during the meal their expressions will look as if they were watching the film “Home Alone” with a new dub. No one will say a word despite the unpleasant taste. As a result, however, such family dinners will be abandoned for some time.
Scenario 3: An investigation in the kitchen
The soup will not be completely eaten and an investigation will begin. There will be an inquiry into the cause of the bitterness: “Could it be the fault of some ingredient? Perhaps a spice? If you do not admit to secretly adding the mushroom from the photograph, you must reckon with the fact that your mother-in-law will almost certainly take offense, while the further consequences are difficult to predict.
With a wink
What you have read above is, of course, a joke, which we nevertheless do not recommend trying in real life. The main point was to draw attention to and remember the mushroom that is appearing in large numbers this year in the forests near Bolesławiec. The mushroom shown in the photograph and mentioned above is the bitter bolete.
This mushroom is not poisonous, but it is inedible because of the bitterness it contains. According to experts, the bitter bolete can effectively ruin any dish.
Some people have also tried to remove the bitterness from this mushroom. However, even prolonged cooking produced no results. It was as bitter after cooking as it had been before.
We do not recommend picking bitter boletes
Bitter bolete looks almost like a Leccinum or a porcini, but it is an inedible mushroom. Some people call the bitter bolete “Satan,” although this is an unjustified and incorrect name. “Satan” is the devil’s bolete. This mushroom is not only inedible but also poisonous, causing food poisoning.
Returning to the bitter bolete, it grows on the ground, and sometimes also on trunks and stumps, as its mycelium can develop on decaying wood as well. It produces fruiting bodies from June to the end of October in coniferous forests and prefers acidic soils. It forms mycorrhiza with pine.
How can you recognize it?
As we mentioned above, it closely resembles a Leccinum or a porcini. What distinguishes it?
Under the cap it has white tubes (the hymenophore), but the older the fruiting body is, the more clearly it can be seen that the white changes to a rusty or brownish color. The stem is yellow-brown. A fine reticulation is visible on it.
However, the surest way to recognize that you are dealing with a bitter bolete is simply to break off part of the cap and touch the exposed section with your tongue (the so-called taste test). If you taste bitterness, it is a sign that it is a bitter bolete.