Saffron milk cap

Lactaire délicieux

What it is

Cut it and it bleeds orange latex that slowly turns green — alarming, and entirely normal. It appears in Roman frescoes at Herculaneum, making it one of the few mushrooms with a two-thousand-year-old portrait.

In the kitchen

Catalonia grills them whole with garlic and parsley and nothing else. They are too firm to benefit from a sauce.

Goes with

Garlic Parsley Olive oil Lard Thyme Black pepper Egg Potato

Same species

Bloody milk cap Candy cap

In season alongside

Acorn Artichoke Brussels sprout Camus de Bretagne artichoke Cavolo nero Kuwai

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