Sooty head ✦

Petit-gris

What it is

It comes up when the ceps have finished, after the first hard frosts, and the cold is said to improve it — in the Landes pines the pickers go back for it in December. Grey cap streaked with darker radiating fibres, flesh firm and faintly yellowed, where most late tricholomas have gone soft.

In the kitchen

Its grip on sand is total, so wash it — this is the exception — and dry it hard in a cloth before it meets the pan. Cream muddies it; take it with garlic, parsley and a little duck fat instead.

Goes with

Garlic Parsley Duck fat Potato Olive oil Shallot Egg Walnut oil

Same species

Matsutake

In season alongside

Borlotti bean Brussels sprout Butternut squash Cauliflower Earth chestnut Jerusalem artichoke

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