Bloody milk cap

Lactaire sanguin

What it is

Break the flesh and it bleeds deep wine red where the saffron milk cap bleeds carrot orange — the same test Catalan and Provençal markets have used for generations to price one above the other. This is the rovelló proper; the orange one is the pinetell, and it fetches less.

In the kitchen

Never wash it — the flesh is a sponge and it will never colour afterwards. Grill it gills up over embers, salt it, and spoon a garlic-and-parsley picada into the cup as the juices gather.

Goes with

Garlic Parsley Olive oil Thyme Chorizo Lard Egg

Same species

Candy cap Saffron milk cap

In season alongside

Reindeer Bagnoli truffle Woodcock Snipe Beefsteak fungus Hind

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