Welcome to the Celtnet guide to wild foods. As this recipe site has grown it has become obvious that to allow people to replicate some of the more ancient recipes on this site (especially from the Ancient, Roman and Medieval periods it is necessary to list modern alternatives but also to produce a guide so that the curious can find the original (often wild) ingredients for themselves. These pages are an attempt at bringing all these potentially useful and often forgotten wild foods together into one place. To use this guide simply click on the first letter of your term above or below. Alternativey why not just browse through the terms. You may well find something that surprises you!

This page covers wild foods beginning with the letter 'Q' and includes both common and scientific names.

This is the description page for Brown Birch Bolete (Leccinum scabrum) and includes a description as well as an image, if available and a selection of recipes from this site that relates to the wild foodstuff: Brown Birch Bolete.

Brown Birch Bolete, Leccinum scabrum (also known as Rough-stemmed Bolete, Scaber Stalk and Birch Bolete) is an edible species of basidomycete fungus (filamentous fungi composed of hyphae that reproduce sexually) and is a member of the Boletaceae (Bolete) family of mushrooms with a snuff-brown spore print. It is widespread in Europe and much of the Northern Hemisphere and is the commonest species of Leccinium in Britian. It is always associated with birch trees and forms mycorrhiza with them. Typically it friuts from June to October (but is most common in September and October) and can be locally very common. It is always found in association with brich trees and this is one of its distinguishing features. The mushroom is medim sized (growing maximally to about 15cm tall) and the cap is brown, growing to 10cm in diameter and becomes sticky (but not slimy) when it rains. As it ages the cap becomes spongy and can split, revealing white scars. The pores are small and bruise brown. The stem is typically slim, white and covered with brown-black scales that are denser at the base. The base itself grows, maximally, to about 3cm in diameter. The cap is pale to grey brown, convex and firm, then flattening and becoming soft to the touch. There is no overhanging margin. Rather than gills, this mushroom has tubes on the underside, these are dirty white, almost free, with a moat of shorter tubes surrounding the stem. The stem tapers from the base, is white and covered with small brown-black scales that are sparser near the top. The flesh of the brown birch bolete is soft, white and unchanging (or sometimes prone to a very faint pinking) on cutting and has a pleasant smell

The brown birch bolete is an excellent eating species, but it is recommended that only young, firm-fleshed specimens are picked (older specimens tend to go spongy and are often maggot and slug infested) and that the tubes are discarded. Typically it is used in soups and stews and its is frequently pickled in vinegar or brine and is commonly added as a component of mixed-mushroom dishes. Unusually for mushrooms it can be steamed and when chopped can be added to steamed rice dishes. Like the majority of boletes, it dries and re-constitutes very well (for how to dry, see the dried mushrooms recipe).

The colour, shape, season of fruiting and association with birch trees means, in the UK at least, that there are no poisonous species with which it can be confused, though it is easy to confuse with a number of other Leccinum species (eg L variicolor has a bluish stipe. L oxydabile has firmer, pinkish flesh and a different pileus skin structure. L melaneum is darker in color and has yellowish hues under the skin of the pileus and stipe. L holopus is paler and whitish in all parts and L versipelle, which has a larger, orange, cap and an overhanging margin, but all these are edible). As always, however, if you are uncertain of the identification of a mushroom, do not pick it and, if you have not eaten a mushroom before, cook it well and only eat a small amount the first time, in case you are susceptible.

For other edible mushrooms, see the guide to edible mushrooms

Birch Bolete Pickle
Pickled Birch Bolete Mushrooms
Brined Birch Bolete Mushrooms
Old-fashioned Brined Birch Bolete Mushrooms
Birch Bolete Soup
Beef and Wild Mushroom Stew
Courgettes and Brown Birch Boletes Baked in Cream
Cauliflower Fungus, Bolete and Cheese Sturdel
Crispy Bolete Caps
Pickled Mushrooms with Sauce
Pickled Mixed Bolete Mushrooms
Brined Mixed Bolete Mushrooms
Mixed Bolete Soup
Beef and Bolete Stew
Pork with Boletes