Shaggy ink cap ✦

Coprin chevelu

What it is

Within a day of picking, its own enzymes dissolve the cap into black liquid — genuine ink, once boiled up with cloves for scribes and mapmakers, and legible on some sheets centuries later. That autolysis is why no wholesaler will touch it: it does not survive a night in a crate.

In the kitchen

Cook it within the hour and only while the cap is white and still closed; once the gills show pink underneath it is already going. It is almost all water, so no washing and no crowding — a wide pan and high heat, or you make soup.

Goes with

Butter Cream Egg Chives Parsley Shallot White pepper Potato

In season alongside

Boudin blanc Brousse du Rove Fresh walnut Acacia honey Albacore Japanese tilefish (amadai)

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