My favourite culinary species outside of chanterelles and morels. They have a much richer meat flavour than an oyster mushroom, very close in taste and texture to beef pot roast. They typically associate with conifers in wet high elevation (2000m~) forests, fruiting from now until Septemberish. These and Boletus edulis make good novice foraging targets because they’re easy to identify and the lookalikes are distinct.
I cut it into strips after soaking it to remove bugs and stripping the outer flesh, then sauteed them in olive oil with pepper/salt/garlic powder. It’s the only specimen I found today and weighed about 1kg.
If you get a proper field guide, pick an easy species to identify, learn what specific characteristics to look for, and what specific look-alikes to avoid & how differentiate them. Step by step It’s pretty straightforward.
-A lot of people start with Morels because they are easy to identify and their look-alikes aren’t all that similar. Plus, (when cooked) they are delicious.