"The first time I experienced the gift of Boletus rubriceps-more commonly known as porcini mushrooms -was, fittingly, on my birthday. It was late August, prime porcini season at 10,000 feet in Colorado's Rocky Mountains. Thanks to a generous monsoon season, the woods were flush with plump, red-capped fungi. Giddy with the excitement of a successful foray, I plucked the large specimens straight from the earth and piled them into my backpack until the zipper could barely close."
"The porcinis tumbled onto the kitchen counter in a sorry state. In my rush, I hadn't trimmed the soil-crusted stems or brushed off the dirt and pine needles. Stacking them on top of each other had only spread the grit into the spongy pores beneath the caps, speeding up their decay. It took over an hour to clean and trim the fungi before they were ready to cook, and I still had to toss a few bruised, dirty ones."
"On subsequent trips through the mountain spruce groves, I learned my lesson: I packed a pocketknife for trimming. But it wasn't until a friend got me an Opinel No.8 Mushroom Knife -another birthday gift-that I realized field dressing my fungi wasn't just a practical processing time-saver. It was a chance to slow down and appreciate the strange, wondrous gift in my hands. Not quite plant, not quite animal; delicious and wild and rare."
A first porcini foray produced abundant mushrooms but poor field care, resulting in gritty, bruised specimens and extensive cleaning. Stacking mushrooms spread dirt into cap pores and accelerated decay, requiring over an hour to clean and discard damaged pieces. Subsequent outings introduced a pocketknife for trimming, and a gifted Opinel No.08 Mushroom Knife transformed field dressing into an efficient ritual. The Opinel's short, curved blade enables precise trimming of thick-stemmed porcinis and delicate species, reaches tight spots, and produces clean cuts. Proper field dressing saves processing time and fosters deliberate appreciation of wild fungi.
Read at Bon Appetit
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