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What is the name of the mushroom that produces smoke? Mushroom raincoat. How to feed the whole family with one mushroom. Mushroom soup with puffballs

Wolfsbane or puffball mushroom is one of the most common mushrooms. Mycologists have calculated that about 60 species of raincoats grow on earth, of which about 20 species grow in our country. Among them are spherical (round), pear-shaped, spiny, sessile, bigheads, etc. The most common are round or pear-shaped puffballs and bigheads with a spherical head on a cylindrical stalk (the head and stalk make up a single fruiting body of the mushroom). The pulp at a young age is white, with a pleasant smell, quite elastic, and easily separated from the skin. The leg of the spherical and pear-shaped raincoat is not clearly expressed; it reaches a height of 5-12 cm with a thickness of 3-4 cm. Raincoats belong to category IV.

As it ages, the pulp of the puffball darkens and turns into greenish-brown dust (spores), which easily scatters when exposed to wind or mechanical contact with the mushroom. IN autumn time large raincoat can scatter up to several billion spores. They are sometimes called "wolf tobacco", "grandfather tobacco" or fluff.

These strange mushrooms can also be eaten taste qualities no different from porcini mushroom, at the same time they are forest healers, and some of them are capable of being windsock mushrooms. Raincoats in the forest are like weather vanes for orientation in unfamiliar areas. On an ordinary day in the forest, without a compass, a lost mushroom picker or hunter can determine the direction with the help of a raincoat. Knowing the direction of the wind in a given area, even in the stillness of the forest air, shaking off the fruiting body of a dry raincoat, a person will accurately know the direction of the outwardly imperceptible wind. Interesting is the use of “smoking mushrooms”, or puffballs, by North American Indians and tribes of African spearmen when hunting. When approaching an animal - bison, rhinoceroses, lions - they, even in complete calm, were able to determine the inconspicuous draft of air by the behavior of the puffball spores and approached the animal from the side where it could not feel the approach of the hunter. Ancient tribes of hunters used masses of spores of these mushrooms to blind the animal, which they then attacked.

IN old times Raincoat spores were used as a hemostatic agent and were called magic powder. For this purpose, barbers kept the skins of puffballs in jars. In its dried form, raincoat was used for medicinal operations in veterinary medicine: it was used to sprinkle cut bloody veins and wounds, since it has “compressive and drying” powers. Russian literature indicates that it is enough to apply to the wound a white pulp from the pulp of a young kolobok or the inner shell of an old puffball when the “tobacco” has flown out of it, and the blood coagulates and the pain subsides. This hemostatic property of raincoats was previously widely used in partisan practice in the absence of other medicines.

Naturalists have determined that mature raincoats can be successfully used in gardening to control aphids and other pests of trees and shrubs. To do this, it is enough to set fire to the dark green filling of a ripe raincoat and fumigate the garden with acrid smoke. After a week, the procedure must be repeated.

Among raincoats there are many species that have a unique fruiting body shape. Thus, a bird’s nest with eggs resembles the fruiting body of Nidularia. The round, large fruiting body of the bighead resembles a soccer ball, with rays like those of a star; the fruiting body of earthen stars is shaped like a pear, and the fruiting body of the pear-shaped puffball is shaped like a pear. Some round-shaped puffballs are called hare potatoes. Often in meadows, fields, pastures, gardens, parks and forests, the flask raincoat grows, which received its nickname for its oblong fruiting body tapering downwards. In search of porcini mushrooms, mushroom pickers often avoid these edible mushrooms. It is no coincidence that A. Cheremnov mentions them in the lines of his poem:

“The distance is transparent. The air is fresh and clean,
But the pensive blue one is pale...
From the sleepy swamp all around
It smells of pine needles, dampness and rot.
A raincoat touched by a boot
It gives off dry, green dust.”

This mushroom is found from May to late autumn in clearings, meadows, along roads, in squares and on lawns; it settles on various soils and even on rotten wood. Appears after warm rains. It grows very quickly, “by leaps and bounds.” Amateur mushroom pickers noticed that giant raincoats gained up to 5 cm in diameter per day. And usually they are up to 20 cm in diameter and weigh 300-400 g.

In 1977 in Estonian Museum nature demonstrated a raincoat weighing 11 kg 150 g, the diameter of its fruiting body was 188 cm. The raincoat, found in the same year in the vicinity of the city of Frunze, reached a circumference of almost 1.5 m with a mass of 11.6 kg. In 1967, a raincoat weighing 12.5 kg with a diameter of 63 cm was found in the Moscow region, and in 1984 on the bank of the Setunka River - with a diameter of 160 cm and weighing 7.3 kg. Some mushroom pickers found families of giant puffballs. For example, in 1988, near Kemerovo, a group of 8 raincoats with a total weight of about 2 pounds was found, and in 1984, near Narva and in 1989 in Tataria, groups of 6 mushrooms, among which the largest reached 4 kg.

When dried, rainflowers do not lose their whiteness, are stored well in dense plastic containers, and are easily ground into powder, so they can be successfully used for preparing broths and sauces. In winter, this inconspicuous-looking mushroom can compete even with boletus mushrooms with its gastronomic qualities.

When collecting, it is necessary to keep in mind that more or less spherical mushrooms from the genus of false puffballs are also similar to puffballs. True, at a young age, the latter are characterized by a very dense crust-like shell, and not a thin-film or soft-crust shell, like that of raincoats. Thus, it is very easy to distinguish them, and this must be done, since false puffballs are suspected of causing, albeit minor, poisoning.

In a number of countries Western Europe puffballs are considered a delicacy and are compared to champignons. Italians consider young raincoats to be one of the most best mushrooms. When picking mushrooms in the forest, do not pass by unfairly neglected, but very attractive and tasty mushrooms.

Mushroom raincoat: useful information for beginner mushroom pickers.

grandfather's tobacco
wolf tobacco
gypsy powder
flutter
damn apple
hare potatoes and many others

They meet different sizes: the size of a pea, the size of an apple, and even the size of a huge pumpkin. The nutritional components of the pulp are not inferior in their merits to the porcini mushroom and are highly appreciated by connoisseurs. Just like porcini mushrooms, after heat treatment or drying, they remain beautiful white. Their main advantage is considered to be their healing qualities - the mushroom gleba, attached to a cut, stops bleeding, disinfects and promotes instant scarring.

Puffball mushroom: edible or not, what does it look like?

One type of mushroom

The most common types edible raincoats, to which this popular name can be applied include:

Pear-shaped puffball (Lycoperdon pyriforme). It is small in size, about 5.5 cm in length and width. Young body pear-shaped, covered with a double shell, from which extends a small false stalk with small veins of light mycelium. Outer layer white, slightly covered with cracks, scales or spines. In an adult mushroom, this layer cracks and an internal gray-brown or yellowish shell is exposed, covering the spores, which leak out after ripening through holes at the top of the fruiting body.
Puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum). Covered with pronounced cone-shaped spines. The color is snow-white or cream with a mesh pattern. Has a fragrant smell. Gleba is dense.
Langermannia gigantean. The huge size of the mushroom reaches 8 kg of weight. Covered with smooth, slightly flaky skin. As it matures, the color of the gleba changes from white to dirty green. The skin of mature mushrooms is similar to parchment paper. The pulp is crumbly, similar to homemade cheese.
Elongated loggerhead (Calvatia excipuliformis). It looks like an inflated bubble, contracted at the bottom. It is covered with imperceptible thin and delicate spines, which makes it almost smooth in appearance. Gleba (pulp), in a newly emerged mushroom, is white, in an adult it is dark steel, sometimes almost black. The combination of a pronounced deficiency of pseudopods and needles, which are not characteristic of puffballs, but are characteristic of false puffballs, gives reason for inexperienced mushroom pickers to confuse them with false individuals.

False puffball mushroom: what does it look like, can it be eaten?

Main differences

False puffball (Scleroderma citrinum) in Russia it is considered inedible or poisonous. In the West, it is only recognized as inedible, specifying that they replace truffles when making sausages. Despite the possibility of using false puffball as a spicy seasoning for meat dishes, if you consume large quantities of mushrooms, there is likely to be a health hazard.

This species is not difficult to distinguish from edible mushrooms. In young pseudo-puffballs, in contrast to genuine ones, the fruiting body is smooth and has a whitish, whitish-gray or yellowish color. Further, as it grows, it acquires stains in the form of cracks, growths or scales of a dark ocher color. A ripe mushroom bursts, but the spores do not spill out, but accumulate in the depths of the cracked cavity.

Important: The main difference between the false puffball and the edible bigheads is the presence of a hard skin and a lilac-brown hue of aging flesh, with a rich, unpleasant aroma.

Scleroderma citrinum often grows in clumps.
To prevent a false raincoat from falling into the basket of an inexperienced amateur mushroom hunting, it is necessary to cut the fungus and check its suitability by the presence of snow-white gleba and the absence of the appearance of the harsh spirit of rotten raw potatoes.

Video: False puffball (Scleroderma aurantiacum) - description.

Puffball mushroom: medicinal properties

Treatment with mushroom spores finds its use in classical and home treatments.
Mushroom gleba contains elements of calvacin, characterized by antibacterial and anticancer properties.

Products made from mushroom pulp are actively removed from the body:

radionuclides
heavy metals
toxic fluorine and chlorine compounds
toxins as a result of helminth infection or hepatitis, dysbacteriosis, severe kidney inflammation

Mushroom chaff compresses serve as an excellent remedy for the treatment and pain relief of deep cuts and malignant wounds resulting from cancer

Infusions and broths from young powders are used:

to reduce temperature
for the purpose of relieving inflammatory processes: for chronic tonsillitis, throat bumps, for severe kidney ailments
to slow down the growth of malignant tumors and the progression of leukemia
to reduce blood viscosity
at high blood pressure, angina pectoris
for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases
to strengthen the immune system

Pharmaceutical products made on the basis of mushroom mycelium help with problems:

in lymph nodes and sarcoidosis
with endocrine processes: goiter formation, diabetes, adrenal gland dysfunction
With respiratory system: disease with tuberculosis, pneumonia, bronchial asthma

What can be prepared from puffball mushroom: recipes

Porkhovik with potatoes in sour cream sauce

Products:

Mushroom harvest - 1 kg
Fresh potato tubers - 0.5 kg
Onion - 1 head
Cream or sour cream - 250 g
Sunflower oil - 1/2 tbsp.
Young sprigs of dill - 5-6 pcs.
Salt - to taste

Preparation:

We free the caplets from the prickly skin and wash them
Boil in salted water for 5-7 minutes
Then rinse in a colander under running water cold water, let it drain a little
Place in a hot frying pan and cook over medium heat until all the moisture has evaporated.
Add oil, turn up the heat, fry with constant stirring
Mushrooms are considered ready when they begin to crackle in the pan.
Add thinly sliced potatoes to the prepared mushrooms and salt
Fry until half cooked, sprinkle with finely chopped onion
Continue cooking the dish until the potatoes are fully cooked.
5 minutes before readiness, pour in sour cream, season with chopped dill, cover with a lid.
Turn off the stove and keep it covered for another 10 minutes.

Roast with mushrooms and potatoes

Mushroom schnitzel

Products:

Giant bighead - 0.7 kg
Full fat milk - 0.6 l
Flour - 90 g
Fresh egg - 1 pc.
Sunflower oil - 3 tbsp.

Cooking steps:

Wash the mushrooms and cut them into medium-thick slices
Blot excess moisture with a paper towel
Sift flour into a cup
Make a hole in the center, pour a little salt into it, break the egg, stir
Dilute the resulting mass with milk to the consistency of thick sour cream.
Dip mushroom plastics in batter, fry on both sides in hot vegetable oil

Golovach in batter

Mushroom soup with raincoats

Ingredients:

Young fluffers - 7 pcs.
Potatoes - 3 pcs.
Onion - 1 head
Small carrots - 1 pc.
Butter - 50 g
Bay leaf - 2 pcs.
Ground black pepper, salt - depending on preference

Let's prepare it like this:

We clean the raincoats from prickly skins and forest debris, wash them, cut them into cubes
Pour 1.5 liters into the pan. cold water, add mushrooms there
Boil for 10-15 minutes, skim off foam periodically
Peel the potatoes, chop them into even cubes, add them to the broth with mushrooms
Cook until potatoes are half cooked
Cut carrots and onions into small squares, sauté for butter, put in soup
Salt and cook until potatoes are done
Serve with sour cream

Soup with fluff

Scrambled eggs with raincoats in Hungarian style

Ingredients:

Green onions with small heads - 3 pcs.
Mushrooms - 0.4 kg
Fresh eggs - 5 pcs.
Grated cheese - 90 g
Butter - 50 g
Cream - 1/2 tbsp.
Parsley, salt and ground sweet red pepper - to taste

Technological process:

Wash the mushrooms and cut into slices
Then simmer in a hot frying pan until the juice has completely evaporated.
Next add 1 tbsp. oil, add chopped onion, fry a little
Remove the pan from the stove, pour cream into the mushrooms, stir
Transfer the onion-mushroom mixture to a baking sheet with high sides
We make 5 holes in it, break an egg into each
Salt, sprinkle with grated cheese and parsley
Bake for 10-15 minutes

Hungarian dish with golovachs

Italian raincoat roast

To prepare you will need:

Grandfather's tobacco - 1 kg
Onions - 2 heads
Cream 15% - 1.5 tbsp.
Butter - 100 g
Salt, pepper - to taste

Main stages of the process:

Cut the vegetable head into half rings
We remove the raincoats from the top skin and cut them into pieces
First fry the onion half rings in cow's butter, then add the mushrooms
When the released mushroom juice has evaporated by half, add cream in a thin stream.
After boiling, add spices and salt, simmer over low heat for 15 minutes
Before serving, sprinkle with lemon juice and sprinkle with herbs.

Italian mushroom delicacy

Video: Puffball (mushroom) fried with garlic

How long does it take to cook a puffball mushroom?

Young harvest can be prepared without prior boiling
Adult raincoats, before frying, boil for 6-7 minutes
When using boiled mushrooms, for complete readiness, cook for at least 15 minutes

Raincoat mushroom: how to cook for the winter?

1 option

Fresh mushroom harvest is cleared of debris
Without washing, cut crosswise
Place on a baking sheet in one layer
Dry in the sun (in hot weather) or in an oven, as follows:

First set the temperature to 50 °C
After 1-2 hours, increase the degrees to 70-80 °C
Then lower it to 55 °C, keep it for about 2 hours
Don’t forget to periodically stir the preparations and remove dry mushrooms

Important: When white drops (protein substances) appear on the mushrooms, lower the temperature and remove the baking sheet from the oven. After the temperature drops, we send the raincoats for further drying. Otherwise, the workpiece will take on a black, unsightly appearance.

Dried golovach

Option 2

Prepare in advance:

Raincoats - 1 kg
Salt - 1.5-2 tbsp. l.
Vinegar 6% and water - 1/2 tbsp.
Sugar - 1 tsp.
Black pepper - 6 peas
Carnation - 2 stars
Bay leaf - 2 pcs.

Let's move on to the preparation process:

Clean and sort the mushrooms
Pour the marinade into an enamel pan, add the mushrooms, bring to a boil
Cook stirring for 15-20 minutes
When cooked, mushrooms release juice and everything becomes covered in liquid.
Remove the foam with a slotted spoon
Ready mushrooms sink to the bottom, the marinade becomes transparent
Next, place the mushrooms tightly in jars and fill them with sunflower oil.
Cover with plastic lids

Pickled raincoat

Video: Drying raincoats. Rules for quality processing.

Puffball mushroom: why people call it hare potato: interesting information

Most often this is what I call young mushrooms. When they appear above the ground, they are shaped like new potatoes.

So, based on the above, it becomes clear that there are a lot of benefits from a raincoat, and it is in vain that some mushroom pickers underestimate it.

Video: Puffballs - delicious mushrooms. Where do they grow and how to collect?

As it ages, the pulp of the puffball darkens and turns into greenish-brown dust (spores), which easily scatters when exposed to wind or mechanical contact with the mushroom. In autumn, a large raincoat can scatter up to several billion spores. They are sometimes called "wolf tobacco", "grandfather tobacco" or fluff.

These strange mushrooms can be eaten and do not differ in taste from porcini mushrooms; at the same time, they are forest healers, and some of them can be windsock mushrooms. Raincoats in the forest are like weather vanes for orientation in unfamiliar areas. On an ordinary day in the forest, without a compass, a lost mushroom picker or hunter can determine the direction with the help of a raincoat. Knowing the direction of the wind in a given area, even in the stillness of the forest air, shaking off the fruiting body of a dry raincoat, a person will accurately know the direction of the outwardly imperceptible wind. Interesting is the use of “smoking mushrooms”, or puffballs, by North American Indians and tribes of African spearmen when hunting. When approaching an animal - bison, rhinoceroses, lions - they, even in complete calm, were able to determine the inconspicuous draft of air by the behavior of the puffball spores and approached the animal from the side where it could not feel the approach of the hunter. Ancient tribes of hunters used masses of spores of these mushrooms to blind the animal, which they then attacked.

In ancient times, puffball spores were used as a hemostatic agent and were called magic powder. For this purpose, barbers kept the skins of puffballs in jars. In its dried form, raincoat was used for medicinal operations in veterinary medicine: it was used to sprinkle cut bloody veins and wounds, since it has “compressive and drying” powers. Russian literature indicates that it is enough to apply to the wound a white pulp from the pulp of a young kolobok or the inner shell of an old puffball when the “tobacco” has flown out of it, and the blood coagulates and the pain subsides. This hemostatic property of raincoats was previously widely used in partisan practice in the absence of other medicines.

In 1977, a raincoat weighing 11 kg 150 g was demonstrated at the Estonian Museum of Nature, the diameter of its fruiting body was 188 cm. A raincoat, found in the same year in the vicinity of the city of Frunze, reached a circumference of almost 1.5 m with a mass of 11.6 kg. In 1967, a raincoat weighing 12.5 kg with a diameter of 63 cm was found in the Moscow region, and in 1984 on the bank of the Setunka River - with a diameter of 160 cm and weighing 7.3 kg. Some mushroom pickers found families of giant puffballs. For example, in 1988, near Kemerovo, a group of 8 raincoats with a total weight of about 2 pounds was found, and in 1984, near Narva and in 1989 in Tataria, groups of 6 mushrooms, among which the largest reached 4 kg.

In a number of Western European countries, raincoats are considered a delicacy and are equated to champignons. Italians consider young puffballs to be one of the best mushrooms. When picking mushrooms in the forest, do not pass by unfairly neglected, but very attractive and tasty mushrooms.

Many mushrooms of the family Raincoats (Lycoperdales) are often collectively called “raincoats”, although among them there are not only raincoats ( Lycoperdon), but also flutters (powder flasks, Bovista), golovach (Calvatia) and some other types. Any mushroom picker has seen a variety of raincoats many times: with a smooth surface and with growths, warts and needles. These mushrooms also differ in the shape of the fruiting body: spherical, pear-shaped, ovoid, etc. The white balls of some mushrooms lie on the ground, while others rise on a false stalk.

Puffballs grow in forests and parks, appear in steppes, agricultural fields, pastures and manicured lawns. If you trample a ripe mushroom, it will release “smoke” with spores.

Mushroom pickers often trample raincoats to release a cloud of “smoke.”

There are a few folk names raincoats: “grandfather’s gunpowder”, “dust duster”, “wolf tobacco”, “devil’s tobacco”, “hare potato”, “mushroom egg” and “forest egg”.

Variety of species

Even an experienced mushroom picker does not always navigate the complex taxonomy. This applies to many mushrooms, including puffballs.

At first you call all the mushrooms “wolf tobacco”, then, having learned that these are puffballs, you will call them puffballs, and then you will understand that puffballs are different: just a puffball, a prickly puffball, a pear-shaped puffball, a needle-shaped puffball, a blackish puffball, a round bighead, bighead oblong. (V.A. Soloukhin).

Raincoats, fluff and golovach belong to the group gasteromycetes (« nutrevikov"), because their fruiting bodies remain intact until the spores mature. The shell then ruptures, releasing “smoke” containing the spores. These mushrooms are classified as saprophytes, because They need rotted organic matter for nutrition.

Let's bring short description several mushrooms, which we call “puffballs”. They are all very tasty. They are harvested young while their fruiting bodies are firm and filled with white pulp.

Raincoat spiny (Lycoperdon perlatum) is covered with clearly visible conical needles. If you peel off their white or creamy skin, a more or less noticeable mesh pattern will remain on it. The smell of mushroom is pleasant. This type of raincoat can be safely placed in the basket while the mushroom is young and strong, and its flesh is white and elastic. The mushroom often grows in groups.

Raincoat pearl (Lycoperdon perlatum) prefers manured pastures, although it is also found in forests. Pearl puffball grows (usually in waves) from May to mid-November. This mushroom has a white, pear-shaped fruit body that turns yellow as it matures, then turning grey-brown. Old mushrooms are filled with spore powder inside. A skin with small growths or non-prickly spines, which are sometimes found only in the upper part.

It's very beautiful and delicious mushroom(photo from Wikipedia)

Golovach oblong (Calvatia excipuliformis) in some reference books is called a variety of spiny puffball. However, the bighead is taller, its spines are more delicate and thinner, and it is edible at a young age. Sometimes the mushroom resembles the shape of a bubble, which was inflated with air and pulled from below (sac-shaped, or bladder-shaped, capitol). These mushrooms often grow in pastures.

Amazing appearance raincoat giant, or Langermannia gigantic (Langermannia gigantean). In some publications it is classified as a golovach. This is a huge mushroom. It grows in forests (deciduous and mixed), meadows, fields and pastures. There is a better chance of finding it from the end of summer (August - October). The huge “soccer ball” can weigh up to 8 kg and is 40 cm in diameter. There are individual record-breaking specimens that weighed almost 20 kg and had a fruiting body diameter of 30 cm!!! There is a better chance of finding a gigantic one-kilogram raincoat the size of an average head of cabbage.

The skin of this puffball can be either smooth or slightly flaky. As it grows, the color of the flesh changes from white (or slightly yellowish) to greenish-brown, then to dirty brown. In old mushrooms, the skin dries out and resembles parchment. The edible pulp is often loose, reminiscent in consistency of homemade cheeses. As the mushroom grows, it becomes lighter and noticeably loses weight. The mycelium of the giant puffball is durable and can live up to 25 years.

Raincoat pear-shaped (Lycoperdon pyriforme) refers to small species (maximum up to 5 cm in height). It often grows on rotting wood, tree trunks and stumps. The shape of the fruiting body is pear-shaped, resembling a white ball narrowed downward, which has a short false stalk with sparse light threads of mycelium. This very tasty mushroom is fried and boiled (in soups), unless it is overripe. The degree of maturity can often be determined not in the forest, but in the kitchen, because When ripe, the mushroom does not always quickly change the color of its skin.

False puffball (Scleroderma)

False raincoat (scleroderma) should not be collected. In most books Soviet period this mushroom is considered inedible or poisonous. Western authors only call it inedible, specifying that cooks sometimes add pulp to sausages instead of truffles. They all warn that puffballs can be hazardous to health if eaten in large quantities.

I have not tried this mushroom, so I can only refer to the opinions of authoritative mushroom experts. I quote them verbatim.

The false puffball, which they scare us with in all the books about mushrooms, is not at all poisonous, even in its raw form. It is simply tasteless, and according to the rules it should be classified as inedible mushrooms. Moreover, young false puffball (when the flesh is white when cut) has a sharp, spicy taste and can serve as a piquant seasoning for meat and poultry dishes. This is how it is used in Europe, especially in Slavic countries.
The final inedibility of the false puffball occurs from the moment when its flesh ceases to be pure white when cut. (M. Vishnevsky).
Let me remind you once again: false puffballs are poisonous, however, only if you eat them in large quantities. In the Czech guide to mushrooms of J. Klan it is written that “for the sake of a strong spicy taste, young mushrooms are used instead of roots in the preparation of soups and sauces.” These are truly inscrutable human whims! For the sake of an exotic taste, sacrifice the health of your stomach? (M. Sergeeva).

We conclude: the degree of poisoning by false puffballs depends, first of all, on the number of mushrooms eaten.

False raincoats are easy to distinguish from edible species. U false raincoats usually warty-scaly, dense skin of a yellowish-ochre color, which may have small cracks. In older mushrooms, the skin dries out, breaks, and no longer holds the spores underneath.

False raincoats often grow in nests (photo from Wikipedia)

The color of the flesh of young mushrooms, according to most authors, is yellowish or light olive even at a young age. A marble pattern with white veins can be seen on it. central part The false raincoat darkens as it matures, becoming first gray-violet, then almost black. The pulp of even adult puffballs retains its density. Everyone notes an unpleasant, pungent odor.

Mushroom pickers who have not collected puffballs before should not take risks and not collect mushrooms with elongated false legs that grow in nests. To be on the safe side, it is better not to take raincoats with clearly yellow or brown skin. Especially when it is covered with rough growths and has noticeable cracks. The unpleasant smell should also stop.

Which raincoats taste better?

Edible puffballs are eaten while they are young. They then have tasty, dense white flesh, which is located under the skin (smooth or with growths). In an adult mushroom, the pulp changes its quality and color. It becomes looser, often sticky, gray or greenish-yellow. Old mushrooms are filled with spores. The shell of their fruiting body becomes thin, dries and is easily broken. Then the mushroom becomes dusty, releases a cloud of spores and settles on the ground. It is worth saying that raincoats grow up quickly.

As you know, a young raincoat is hard and strong to the touch, and when cut, it is white as sour cream. At this time, you can, without any doubt, put it in the frying pan. The roast will be fragrant with an excellent mushroom aroma. With age, the pulp of the puffball begins to turn slightly yellow, becomes watery, when pressed with a finger, it does not spring back and does not try to straighten out. At this stage, raincoats should no longer be taken. (V.A. Soloukhin).

Few people find a ripe raincoat appetizing.

How to prepare a raincoat?

Puffballs are a great addition to any mushroom mixture. When prepared separately, raincoats will not be to everyone's liking (due to their specific taste). Another thing - giant raincoat. One such mushroom can be the reason for a separate party! (A. Schwab).

I love this mushroom. True, I only take smooth young white “balls”. A skillet of fried puffballs is a delicious and satisfying meal. This mushroom tastes a little like something between mushrooms, scrambled eggs and... chicken meat. The flavor of the protein is enhanced when the puffball is fried with butter or ghee.

I don't like raincoats boiled, but fried. They can be cut into pieces, slices or circles and placed in a frying pan with oil. Sometimes before frying, large slices up to 2 cm thick are rolled in flour or breadcrumbs. They can be salted and even peppered beforehand. Whole balls fried in oil are also tasty. First, fry on one side until beautifully golden brown, then turn over or roll over to the other side. This takes a little time. Especially if you fry the mushroom in a frying pan with a lid.

It is worth saying that almost all raincoats have a skin that resembles either a skin or an eggshell. It's better to remove it.

V.A. Soloukhin described in detail the condition of a man who always considered all raincoats toadstools:

I remember with what embarrassment I brought home the first raincoats, how my wife refused to fry them, and with what interest I tried them for the first time. And now for me this is the most common edible and tasty mushroom, of course, when there are no boletus, chanterelles or aspen mushrooms in the forest. But even when you have them, it’s a good idea to add some strong young raincoats to the pan for a bouquet.

Let us once again appreciate the culinary merits of the giant puffball while its pulp is pure white color. During this period, the mushroom competes with the noble mushrooms themselves. The “ball” is peeled and fried, soup is made from it and dried. Other raincoats, even pearl ones, are also suitable for drying.

V.A. Soloukhin quotes one of his readers, who not only describes the method of preparing raincoats, but also compares the methods of processing them:

I really love raincoats. When fried, they are actually a little inferior to white ones. To make the dish more tender, it is better to remove the rough shell of some of them. The golovach is oblong - gently crush it in your hands, and the shell cracks and comes off, like the shell from a hard-boiled egg. It is best to do this under the tap. In some spherical puffballs, the shell can be peeled off like peeling an orange. The best one - prickly - does not cause any worries at all: cut it into a frying pan. I dry them successfully. By grinding them into powder, you can make an excellent soup from them.

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Many mushroom pickers undeservedly bypass these mushrooms, and completely in vain. Young puffballs are very tasty and healthy mushrooms. And most often, they are one of the first to appear in the spring forest, so for lovers of just such gifts, the forest will be a pleasant variety in the diet after a long winter, when dishes from fresh mushrooms, collected in the forest, are still a rarity on the table.

Puffballs belong to the mushroom family. The fruiting bodies of these mushrooms different types They have a rounded pear shape, most often white. Many of them have a pronounced false leg, and their sizes can be medium or large (like those of giant puffballs).

In young mushrooms, the entire cap is covered with small growths similar to thorns, which fall off over time. The spores of this type of mushroom ripen inside the fruiting body; when they ripen, a hole opens at the top of the fruiting body through which the spores spread around the mushroom. The color of ripe spores can range from green with an olive tint to brown.

Common names for this type of mushroom:

bee sponge;
hare potatoes.

And raincoats, in which the spores in the fruiting body are fully ripe, are called:

flutter;
puffing;
dust duster;
grandfather's tobacco;
wolf tobacco;
tobacco mushroom, etc.

Puffballs belong to the mushroom family

Edible types of puffball

The following common groups of mushrooms are classified as puffballs:

true raincoats;
bigheads;
flutters.

Typical raincoats are small in size (height - 5-6 cm, radius - 2.5-3 cm). Their fruiting bodies are closed; in young individuals they are covered with a double shell. The outer layer of the fruit body shell may be covered with cracks, small scales or spines. As the mushroom ages, the outer layer falls off, exposing the inner - brown or ocher - layer, which covers the ripening ones.

Gallery: puffball mushrooms (25 photos)

Where do raincoats grow (video)

Meadow, pear-shaped and pearl raincoats

All of the above types of true puffballs are the most common category 4 mushrooms in the central regions and middle lane our country. They are very similar to each other, and the pearl type is also called real, or edible. It is covered with large spines, which makes it look like a bighead mushroom.

Golovachi

Mushrooms of this genus are similar to puffballs; some mushroom pickers often confuse them. The main differences between bigheads and raincoats:

larger sizes (at least 7 cm in height and 3.5 cm in radius);
The fruiting body of these mushrooms, after the spores ripen, ruptures much more strongly than that of ordinary puffballs.

Otherwise, they look about the same as raincoats. The most commonly encountered species of bighead are described below.

Golovachi

Baggy golovach

Common names for this type of raincoat:

Bladderhead;
The golovach is round;
Sac-shaped golovach;
Rabbit raincoat;
The golovach is pot-bellied.

Fruiting body such a bighead can be from 10 to 20 cm in diameter, round in shape, slightly flattened on top, fine-grained inside, tapering downward. Young bigheads are light milky in color and become brown with gray tint. Cracks run along the fruiting body of an adult bighead, and tubercles similar to warts will also appear. Old mushrooms open up at the top, becoming like bowls with torn parts.

This mushroom belongs to the 4th category; only young bigheads are used for food.

Baggy golovach

Golovach oblong (extended raincoat)

Synonyms – bighead marsupial. This species has a fruiting body of a peculiar shape - pin-shaped or club-shaped. The pseudopod is elongated, the apex looks like half a ball. The height of the fruiting body together with the pseudopod is from 8 to 14 cm, in rainy and warm weather can grow even more. The thickness of the upper part of the pseudopod is about 4 cm, and the lower part is about 6–7 cm. But different sources indicate different values for these indicators.

Young mushrooms are white in color, which over time becomes yellow and then brown. There are spines along the entire surface of the fruiting body. The flesh of young mushrooms is white, but over time it becomes yellow, withers, and then turns brown. The upper spherical part of the fruiting body opens and brown spore powder falls out. The young elongated bighead is quite edible.

Golovach oblong (extended raincoat)

Giant golovach

This mushroom is the largest among all varieties of bigheads. Some of its specimens can grow up to 0.5 m in height, and their weight reaches 18-20 kg. It is this representative of the bighead genus that is considered the most delicious of all representatives of the genus. But, unfortunately, giant bigheads always grow alone and do not appear in one place, and this is considered their main drawback.

How to assemble raincoats (video)

Poisonous false puffballs

But in the family under consideration there are also inedible species, some of which are also mildly poisonous.

False raincoat warty

This mushroom belongs to the category of inedible mushrooms from the genus False puffballs of the Scleroderma family. Usually grows in "families" in deciduous forests and groves (especially on the edges or forest clearings), found in grass meadows and on roadsides. Growth period is from the first ten days of August to mid-October. The fruit body is 3–5 cm in diameter, tuberous in shape, the color of the outer shell is brownish. The outer shell is leathery, corky, leathery.

False raincoat warty

Common false raincoat

The fruiting body of this mushroom is tuberous in shape, 5–6 cm in diameter, the shell can be smooth or covered with small scales. The color of this raincoat is dirty yellow. When the shell cracks, small warts appear.

Medicinal properties of puffball mushroom

Not all mushroom pickers know that raincoats have unique medicinal properties. They are able to stop bleeding and also have a healing effect. In case of a severe cut, you can simply break this freshly picked mushroom and apply the pulp to the wound - the bleeding will stop very quickly. Similarly, it can be used to treat other skin diseases:

severe burns;
poorly healing purulent wounds;
acne;
urticaria, etc.

Raincoats have unique healing properties

Decoctions are prepared from mushrooms, which are used to treat inflammatory processes in the upper respiratory tract:

bronchitis;
tuberculosis;
laryngitis

The giant bighead has the ability to prevent the growth of malignant cells, so the medicine calvacin was made based on this mushroom, which helps in the fight against malignant tumors in different parts human body.

To this healthy mushroom was always at hand, it is prepared for future use (pickled, dried).

Places where puffball grows

Varieties of puffballs can grow in different places. The baghead is usually found from the last ten days of May to mid-September in open sunny places - forest edges or clearings, in shallow ravines, and in pastures. Most often it grows singly.

The elongated raincoat appears in forests, on the edges or forest clearings from the second ten days of July. The last mushrooms of this species are found in mid-October.

How to cook puffball mushrooms (video)

Options for preparing puffball mushrooms

Only young mushrooms should be used for cooking. They can be fried, stewed, or prepared as first courses.

Stuffed zucchini

Peel the young zucchini, cut into rings 2.5-3 cm thick. Remove the middle (along with the seeds), boil in salted water until half cooked, place in a colander to drain. Then roll in flour and fry on sunflower oil. Pass young mushrooms through a meat grinder along with onions and fry in sunflower oil. Fill the zucchini with the prepared mushroom mince.

Vermicelli casserole

Vermicelli is boiled in salted water and drained in a colander. The raincoats are finely chopped and fried in butter until cooked. Then the fried mushrooms are mixed with vermicelli and raw eggs, put in a mold greased with oil and sprinkled with crushed breadcrumbs and put in an oven heated to 170 - 180 degrees for 1/3 hour. Pepper is added to this dish to taste.

Although raincoats belong to category 4, you can use them to prepare a lot of tasty and healthy dishes. Fried young mushrooms are especially tasty.