Field mushroom

Rosé des prés

What it is

Agaricus campestris is a different species from the cultivated button, and it will not be farmed: it wants grazed pasture and the manure that comes with it. Its gills run bright pink and then chocolate where the cultivated one stays pale, and its juices blacken the pan and any cream they touch.

In the kitchen

Pink gills mean pick, white gills mean stop — white gills with a bag at the base of the stem is a destroying angel, growing in the same fields. Cook it apart from anything you want to stay pale, and do not wash it: it drinks the water and then refuses to brown.

Goes with

Butter Parsley Garlic Smoked cured pork belly Egg Thyme

Same species

Button mushroom

In season alongside

Bay bolete Bleu de Termignon Mallard Cavolo nero Huitlacoche Saffron milk cap

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