Among the mushrooms popular in nature, rubella can be fully attributed, but it is not in high esteem among mushroom pickers, since it has a very narrow use in cooking and relates only to conditionally edible mushrooms. Meanwhile, this gift of nature is quite tasty and nutritious.
Appearance
Rubella mushroom belongs to the lamellar: the inner surface of the cap is covered with many plates. This is a representative of the Syroezhkov family of the Miller. You can recognize this resident of the forest by the following signs:
- Flat, fragile, medium-sized hat, no more than 6-8 cm in diameter.
- The shape is concave around.
- The edges are somewhat omitted.
- The outer part is smooth to the touch.
- In the central part there is a characteristic tubercle.
- The foot is also small - up to 5-6 cm in length and up to 1.5 cm in diameter.
- It has a cylindrical shape, you can see that it is slightly expanded.
- There is not much white or yellowish pulp.
The color is fully consistent with the name:
- The foot is pale pink. Color does not change throughout the life of the fungus.
- The hat is painted in a bright red-brown color. The plates located on the inside of the hat are painted in deep pink.
- The spore powder is pink or cream.
This description and photo of the rubella mushroom will help not to confuse it with other objects of quiet hunting. Also, the following names of the mushroom are common among the people: the lactifer is sweetish, sweet breast. The aroma of the mushroom has an unpleasant, similar to the smell of a crushed bug.
Places of growth
Where does rubella mushroom grow? It is quite picky, so it can grow almost anywhere. Most often, such mushrooms are found in moist forests, both coniferous and mixed. Deciduous trees love much less, but can grow under beech, birch or oak trees, in a soft carpet of moss.
Mushrooms are found almost throughout Europe, grow from the second half of summer until the first snow falls, most often in large groups, so it is not uncommon to find a mycelium with a hundred rubella. The collection is usually carried out from July to October, preferably after rains.
Cooking use
The bright mushroom rubella has found very limited use in cooking. So, his hats can only be salted, these conditionally edible mushrooms are unsuitable for frying or making soups. Legs are not good at all. To make the salted rubella tasty, they should be boiled in slightly salted water for at least two hours, putting the pan on low heat. After this, the mushrooms are salted in the usual way.
There is another recipe for cooking: hats are cut, placed in a pan and steeped for two days. Water needs to be changed every day, and a heavy load should be put on top so that the mushrooms do not float. This is how you can get rid of bitterness. Soaked rubella are washed, boiled in salted water for about 10 minutes, and then salted.
In the practice of folk healers, the mushroom did not find use, and therefore enjoys such low popularity, because you can only make one dish from it.
Differences from Doppelgangers
Among the popular counterparts of the rubella mushroom, bitter must first be mentioned. However, it differs by less bright colors in coloring. Also, the flesh of the double is painted white. To distinguish similar mushrooms will help not only the appearance, but also the taste: in young rubella, the milky juice is not bitter, while in a double with a characteristic name it is noticeably bitter. However, old mushrooms can be misleading: their juice is quite eater, so you should not collect them.
Rubella and euphorbia are very similar to mushroom. However, it is very easy to recognize - the cap of this mushroom is much larger in diameter, and when a break occurs, a plentiful amount of juice is released.
The rubella mushroom is a very beautiful and bright resident of the forest, characterized by unpretentiousness and able to grow in regions with a temperate climate until October. However, due to the narrow scope - solely as a pickle - it is not in demand, and mushroom pickers more often do not take such a rich red lactarius.