Beefsteak fungus ✦

Langue de bœuf

What it is

It grows on living oak and sweet chestnut, and the wood it colonises turns a deep russet that cabinetmakers sell at a premium as brown oak. Cut the bracket and it bleeds a red juice; the flesh under the skin is sour with tannin rather than savoury.

In the kitchen

Take only young, soft brackets and slice them paper-thin across the grain for a raw salad - the acidity replaces the vinegar. Cooked whole it turns tough and inky; if you cook it at all, blanch it once and discard the black water.

Goes with

Walnut oil Grey shallot Parsley Lemon Olive oil Hazelnut Butter

In season alongside

Woodcock Snipe Hind Blackberry Blackcurrant Bloody milk cap

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