How to tell Porcini from Deadly webcap

The cap is 7–30 cm across, round or hemispherical when young, then cushion-shaped and flattening with age. Its colour ranges from light brown to dark chestnut or reddish brown. Dark reddish-brown ones under pine often belong to a separate species, Boletus pinophilus.

The surface is dry, smooth or slightly wrinkled, and may turn a little sticky in wet weather. The margin is even or slightly wavy, and rolled under in young caps. The skin doesn’t peel.

The cap is 3 to 8 cm across. It starts conical or bell-shaped, then becomes convex and flattened, but keeps a bump in the middle. The bump is often pointed but can be blunt, so it isn't a reliable feature.

The colour is tawny orange, fox brown or reddish brown. The surface is dry, finely felty and fibrous, sometimes finely scaly towards the margin.

Underneath are tubes that come away easily from the cap flesh. They start white, then turn yellow, and in mature mushrooms become yellow-green or olive. The pores are small, round and evenly coloured, and they don’t change colour when pressed.

The gills are true, thin and broad, fairly widely spaced and attached to the stem. In young specimens they're ochre to cinnamon-orange and hidden by a cobweb-like veil stretching from the cap edge to the stem. As the spores ripen, the gills turn rusty brown.

The spore print is rusty brown. Those true gills are what separate it from chanterelles, which have only thick, forked ridges underneath.

The stem is massive, 5–20 cm tall and 3–10 cm thick: bulbous or club-shaped when young, more cylindrical later. It’s whitish to light brown and covered in a distinctive white or cream net pattern, clearest near the top.

There’s no ring and no volva, and the stem base is often swollen.

The stem is 5 to 12 cm tall and 0.5 to 1.5 cm thick, cylindrical, slightly thickened or tapering at the base. It's the same colour as the cap or paler, with a fibrous surface.

The key feature is yellow to golden bands or a zigzag pattern left by the veil, clearest on young specimens. On old ones they can almost disappear.

The flesh is dense, juicy and white, and it doesn’t change colour when cut or bruised. That sets porcini apart from some boletes that turn blue, but it proves nothing about safety: the death cap’s flesh is white and unchanging too. In old mushrooms it turns spongy and yellowish.

It tastes mild, nutty and slightly sweet. The flesh in the stem is denser and more fibrous than in the cap.

The flesh is yellowish to orange-yellow, rusty brown at the stem base, and doesn't change colour when cut.

The smell is pleasant and gentle: mushroomy, with a light nutty note. Cooking and drying bring it out, giving it a deep, rich, woodsy character. Dried porcini are the reason cooks prize this mushroom so highly — no other dried mushroom has such a strong flavour and smell.

The smell is faint and slightly radish-like. It won't help you identify it. Never taste it, not even a small piece: the toxin works in small amounts.