Stinking brittlegill: is it edible, and how is it cooked?

The stinking brittlegill — valui, or “bychok” and “kulak” (“fist”) in folk speech — is a mushroom every village forager used to know: it was salted for winter in bulk. It's a relative of the brittlegills with a characteristically round cap and a bitter taste, which is why it isn't eaten fresh. Today people pick it less often, but this common mushroom is worth knowing.

Let's look at how to recognize the stinking brittlegill, where it grows and how to prepare it properly.

How to recognize the stinking brittlegill

• Cap round in young mushrooms (hence “fist”), later spreading out with a dip in the center; yellow-brown, slimy when wet, with a grooved margin.
• Gills whitish, yellowing with age, often with brown droplets.
• Stem white, swollen, becoming hollow and browning with age.
• Flesh white, brittle, with a sharp unpleasant smell and a bitter, burning taste.

The sharp smell and bitterness are the stinking brittlegill's main features, the ones that give it away among brittlegills.

Where and when it grows

The stinking brittlegill grows in broadleaf and mixed forests, often under birches and oaks, in damp spots. The season runs from July to September, often in large groups. It's one of the most common forest mushrooms of midsummer.

Is it edible, and how to cook it

The stinking brittlegill is conditionally edible: it isn't eaten fresh because of its bitterness and sharp taste. The traditional method is salting:

1. For several days, the mushrooms are soaked in cold water, changed often, to remove the bitterness.
2. Then they're boiled, draining the water.
3. And only then are they salted.

Pick mainly young, firm “fists”: old stinking brittlegills go soggy and are almost always wormy.

What to watch out for

• Don't eat it fresh. Without soaking and salting, the mushroom is bitter and can cause an upset stomach.
• Pick young ones. A round, firm cap is the sign of a young stinking brittlegill.
• Don't confuse it with the death cap. Always check young whitish mushrooms: the death cap has a bulb and a sac-like volva at the stem base, which the stinking brittlegill doesn't.

Sources

• “Key to the Fungi of Ukraine” (Kyiv, Naukova Dumka publishing house).
• Russula foetens in GBIF, the Global Biodiversity Information Facility.
• Russula foetens in MycoBank, the international fungal nomenclature database.
• Russula foetens on Wikipedia.