Dishes with birch boletes — 8 delicious homemade recipes

These mushrooms grow, as you can tell from the name, in close proximity to birch trees. In different parts of the world, birch boletes are called differently. In some places it is the gray mushroom, in others the black mushroom, elsewhere an obabok or birch bolete.

As a rule, all birch boletes can be considered true growth record-holders. If you do not gather them in time, these mushrooms age very quickly: their caps start soaking up moisture like sponges, while the stems, on the contrary, turn tough. Birch boletes are very fond of water, so a wet summer-autumn season is the ideal time for them. Finding these mushrooms in the forest is fairly easy, since they are not in the habit of hiding away in thickets of grass. Birch boletes grow in open spaces and favor the edges of forest paths, clearings, and ravines.

If you look at birch boletes from a culinary standpoint, many home cooks like to dry these mushrooms, as they say, taken apart. The stems of birch boletes are the best suited for drying. And since the stems of these mushrooms are quite long, it is good to cut them into smaller pieces. When it comes to pickling birch boletes, it is important to avoid just one of their varieties — the marsh birch bolete. It is simply that, once boiled, these mushrooms literally fall to pieces. All the other kinds — including the common birch bolete, black birch bolete, gray birch bolete, tough birch bolete, and so on — can safely be pickled and salted.

To sample the taste of these wonderful mushrooms, be sure to try pickled birch boletes , a decoration for the festive table in any season.