My youngest daughter

I taught her what I knew about mycology (the study of fungus) and she took it and ran with it. She texted me tonight with a pic of her bright smiling face holding a boletus edulis, aka the king bolete. I'm waiting for her permission to post that pic here, but I'm so tickled I have to brag! Picture to follow if she grants me permission. She's turned into quite the mycologist.

OK, she sent me a second one where she stripped the Metadata out of it. She's a pretty sharp kid.

That’s impressive! It’s edible, I presume?

My ‘skills’ extend only to puffballs, morels, and what you buy at a grocery store. Also, I can damage the mushroom stock at a good steakhouse.

That’s impressive! It’s edible, I presume?

My ‘skills’ extend only to puffballs, morels, and what you buy at a grocery store. Also, I can damage the mushroom stock at a good steakhouse.

The king bolete is considered to be one of the best edible mushrooms. At first glance they're similar to the suillus family which are all edible but very bland tasting. Iirc, there is one species in the boletus family which has red pores that is poisonous but I don't recall the name. The boletus are subject to getting larvae in them but unless they are completely filled I've just dehydrated them (killing the larvae) and use them for soups and sauces. All of our flour contains a small amount of bug parts, but we don't think about it.

That’s impressive! It’s edible, I presume?

My ‘skills’ extend only to puffballs, morels, and what you buy at a grocery store. Also, I can damage the mushroom stock at a good steakhouse.

I assume you already know, but while all puffballs are edible, immature amanitas look like puffballs before they burst out of their sack. Many amanitas are edible, but the most poisonous mushrooms also are found in the amanita genus. The way to eliminate this possibility is to cut the puffballs vertically. True puffballs will be homogeneous while amanita eggs will show a mushroom shaped outline in them. Best to use a sharp knife while doing this for limited distortion.