Crab brittlegill or Stinking brittlegill

The cap is 5-15 cm across, hemispherical when young, becoming flat and spreading with a slightly depressed centre with age. The cap skin is matte, slightly sticky in wet weather, dry and matte in dry weather, and peels easily 2/3 of the way to the centre. It's wine-red, purple-violet, burgundy in the centre, paler toward the edge, fading to pinkish-grey and ochre. Mature caps have fine radial grooves at the edge.

The cap is 5–12 cm across, up to 15 cm or more in big specimens. In young mushrooms it is rounded and firm, with the margin pressed against the stem, which is why it looks like a fist. It then becomes convex, later flat, with a shallow dip in the centre.

The colour is honey yellow, ochre or yellowish brown, often blotchy, and old caps develop reddish-brown to almost black spots. The surface is shiny, very slimy in wet weather and sticky as it dries. The margin carries deep radial grooves and small bumps, more pronounced the older the mushroom.

The gills are attached or free from the stem, moderately crowded, fleshy and brittle. They're cream-white when young, becoming ochre-yellow to yellow-brown with age as the spores mature. Spore print yellow-ochre to yellow-brown.

The gills are cream or dirty white, turning yellowish with age and developing rusty and brown spots. They are brittle, free or narrowly attached, with short gills in between. In young mushrooms and after rain they often carry clear droplets that dry to brown dots.

The spore print is cream to pale yellowish. A brown print means it isn't a stinking brittlegill and could be the poisonous poisonpie.

Stem 5-10 cm tall, 1.5-3 cm thick, firm, fleshy, cylindrical, hollow inside in old mushrooms. It's white when young, with a characteristic pink or wine-coloured tint, and where pressed or cut it slowly turns yellow, then brown, a diagnostic feature. Surface smooth with fine lengthwise wrinkles. No ring.

The stem is 5–10 cm tall and 2–4 cm thick, cylindrical or barrel-shaped, white, spotted brown with age, especially at the base. It starts solid, but chambers with a dirty brown lining soon form inside, and an old stem is hollow and crumbly.

There is no ring and no volva at the base.

Flesh firm, brittle, white; it slowly turns yellow when cut, then brownish over time (especially in the stem), a characteristic reaction of the species. The smell is distinctly fishy and briny (smoked herring, shrimp, fish) and is the main diagnostic. Taste mild, nutty, with no bitterness or acridity.

The flesh is white and firm, later brittle, and either doesn't change colour when broken or slowly browns. The taste is bitter and burning, the gills most of all.

Distinctly fishy and briny: smoked herring, cooked shrimp, fish. A diagnostic feature of the species, easy to notice when you cut it and still there in the finished dish.

The smell is strong and unpleasant: rancid oil, and rotting fish or herring in old specimens. Some people compare it to a chlorinated swimming pool, others to raw potato. Similar brittlegills that smell pleasantly of bitter almonds are different species.