DEER HORNS (HABRE CABBAGE) - SUCH MUSHROOMS GROW IN THE CRIMEA Description of the appearance and characteristics of the mushroom Seeing such a mushroom in the forest, not everyone will dare to pick it. This is due to its very unusual appearance. But it is worth noting that deer horns– an edible mushroom, and you can cook it different ways.
Description of the appearance of reindeer horn mushrooms One glance is enough to understand why “forest bread” has such a strange name. The mushroom grows vertically, expanding in width due to numerous branched processes. from the outside, they surprisingly resemble deer antlers or sea coral. Due to this, the mushroom also has other popular names: coral hedgehog, horned mushroom or coral. The color also adds similarity: light yellow, light brown, beige, deep orange or even purple. Pigmentation depends on the place of growth, characteristics environment and age.
It only takes a little effort to separate the tender pulp into several pieces. A fresh cut quickly begins to acquire a burgundy hue, so the horns should be collected as quickly as possible.
Places of growth, timing and characteristics of collection It is listed in the Red Book, so you can only find deer horns in some regions. These are Crimea, the Far East, Western and Eastern Siberia, and also Karelia and the Caucasus. Due to the characteristics of its growth, hedgehog is unpopular in the central part of Russia; most people do not even know about this type of “forest bread”.
But, despite its rarity, mushroom pickers often find places where the coral hedgehog forms large rows or voluminous rings. Prefers moist and dark places in deciduous or pine forests, this is where the most delicious specimens grow. It can also be seen on the stumps or roots of any trees, regardless of their species.
Corals or deer horns are collected in summer and autumn, and in the Caucasus and Crimea even in the winter months. You should choose small mushrooms of light colors. The older the cattail, the more inedible it is, as it acquires characteristic bitterness and hardness. You can judge the age by the shade of the mushroom: they show more orange pigment. It is rarely affected by worms, but the horns should be carefully inspected when harvesting to detect their presence.
About the edibility of deer horns It is interesting that because of these taste differences in adult individuals, some consider the mushroom to be poisonous, but this is not so. Properly prepared deer horns are quite unusual, but harmless and tasty. They belong to the fourth category of mushrooms (and inedible ones are not included in the classification at all). The fourth category is assigned to rarer mushrooms that are inferior in their taste qualities varieties from higher levels. They are preferred by gourmets or experienced mushroom pickers. But this does not mean that you should avoid the horns; you just need to better study the features of this mushroom.
Do you think that picking mushrooms in winter is fantastic? Not at all, it’s quite possible if we're talking about about perhaps the most unusual mushrooms are deer horns.
Similar to the most exquisite corals or branched deer antlers, they are completely edible and are even listed in the Red Book. Find such mushrooms - great luck, they taste like shrimp, for which they are especially valued among avid mushroom pickers.
So, coral-like, pink or flesh-toned, shrimp-flavored, it's all about staghorn mushrooms. I’ll tell you where to find them and how to prepare them in the article.
Unusual mushrooms, shaped like a small bush without leaves, prefer to grow in coniferous and deciduous forests, especially pine forests.
Deer horns can be found in the forests of Siberia, the Caucasus, Far East and in Karelia.
Although I mentioned that deer antlers are listed in the Red Book, it is quite possible to find them in almost any forest.
Unusual mushrooms prefer to settle on the floor of destroyed stumps and trees; they are much less common on the ground; this is rather an exception.
If there is a lot of moss in the forest, which covers not only the soil, but also the trees, this is sure sign that deer antlers can also grow in it.
Interestingly, the taste of mushrooms directly depends on the place where they were collected. So, in a shady and extremely humid place where birch or oak trees grow, the taste of cooked deer antlers will resemble chicken or shrimp. Found in open areas, reindeer horns will taste similar to traditional mushrooms.
You need to go on a “quiet hunt” for deer antlers from mid-summer until the coldest weather. These mushrooms last quite a long time, and all because they are not damaged by worms, like chanterelles.
In regions with a mild climate, reindeer antlers are collected when the first snow has already fallen and lay like a carpet. It's nice to walk through the snowy forest and fill a basket unusual mushrooms, because you don’t need to look for them under the snow, it’s enough to inspect the tree trunks, which makes collecting them convenient and enjoyable in any weather.
How to properly collect deer antlers
Deer horns have a branched structure, which is connected downwards into a single stalk, with the help of which the mushrooms are attached to tree trunks. When picking mushrooms, cut them off at the base and place them in a basket.
Deer legs are collected exclusively in wicker baskets, otherwise they will turn into mush after transportation.
When picking mushrooms, only young specimens are chosen; older mushrooms will no longer have such a refined taste and will develop an unpleasant bitterness. If mushroom picking occurs during hot weather, it is better to cover them with grass or fern leaves on top so that the sun does not burn them on the way home.
After the mushrooms are collected, you need to consider the following points:
- It is advisable to process the collected mushrooms within the next few hours; do not leave them in the basket for more than ten hours;
- It is not advisable to wash or soak mushrooms in water. Garbage is removed from them using a knife or blown off;
- If it is necessary to keep the mushrooms for several days before processing, I clean them of forest debris, place them in a perforated bag and put them in the refrigerator; it is advisable to leave the bag slightly open.
If you plan to keep the mushrooms in the refrigerator, they are divided into parts or placed whole in a bag.
Mushrooms deer horns: recipes
Thanks to their exquisite taste, deer horns have found widespread use in cooking. Made from mushroom pulp delicious soups, preparing original salads, make filling for dumplings, pies and meat rolls, and also fry, stew, can, salt and freeze.
The pulp of reindeer mushrooms is frozen for the winter. To do this, the mushrooms are first cleaned of dirt, separated with a knife or torn into fragments and placed on a tray, which is then placed in a strictly horizontal position in the freezer drawer.
A day later, the mushrooms are taken out and placed in bags, which are again placed in the freezer. It is advisable to label the bags indicating the name of the mushrooms and the date of freezing. Such frozen mushrooms can be stored for no more than a year.
The mushroom salad with reindeer horns is also unusual. This is how they prepare it. Cut the onion into rings and pour one spoon of apple cider vinegar into it. Boil the mushrooms, to prepare the boiled salad you need 200 grams of pulp, chop the mushrooms finely and combine with the same amount of finely chopped fresh carrots, add two cloves of chopped garlic, salt and pepper to taste, stir and pour in a spoonful of apple cider vinegar. Then mix the salad with onions and add a couple of spoons olive oil. Finally add finely chopped greens.
The soup made from reindeer horns mushrooms also has an interesting taste. They do it like this. Boil half a kilo of mushrooms and finely chop them. Potatoes, onions and carrots are cut into cubes and placed in a pan when the water boils in it. When the vegetables are cooked, place the mushrooms in the pan, add salt, pepper, a can of green peas and a spoon sunflower oil. The soup is boiled for another fifteen minutes, after which finely chopped herbs are added, covered with a lid and left for ten minutes, then served. Finely grated solid soup is placed in soup bowls and the soup is poured. If desired, you can add a spoonful of cream.
Even an experienced mushroom picker, the “deer horns” mushroom can be perplexing. At first glance, you can’t even tell that this is the object of a “quiet hunt.” Rather, the structure resembles coral, which, by some quirk, grew in the middle of the forest. Because of their exotic appearance, few people realize that “deer horn” mushrooms are edible. Meanwhile, not only will they not cause harm to the body, but they will also bring pleasure to the eater - however, if young specimens are collected. The old ones begin to taste bitter, although this can be fixed (if, of course, you know how to do it).
What are "horns"
This is the second name by which the “deer horns” mushroom is known. It is also often called coral, and it’s clear why. It can grow to weigh up to a kilogram, so it can feed an entire family on its own. For some reason, worms avoid "horns", so you shouldn't expect any disappointments on this side. Their smell is quite attractive, with the exception of very old “individuals”. There are no poisonous imitators of the mushroom in nature, which is also nice. It is impossible to confuse them with something unsuitable for food - for this we must thank the non-standard appearance that “deer horns” have. How to cook mushrooms is also not difficult to understand: all the recipes for the bulk of their forest counterparts are also suitable for “horned mushrooms”.
For starters: mushroom soup
So, suppose you brought “deer horns” mushrooms from the forest. Cooking dinner will begin with preparing them. The collected “corals” (a third of a kilo) are washed several times, always under running water, since due to their tortuous structure, dirt and debris are reluctant to leave them. Afterwards they cook for half an hour in a not too large saucepan. The broth is poured out because, despite all efforts, it still contains a certain amount of dirt. The mushrooms are washed again and poured clean water, and the cooking is repeated, but for only a third of an hour. We repeat all the manipulations, and finally, the “deer horns” mushroom is, to a first approximation, ready for further processing. IN cold water sticks of two potatoes are lowered, followed by circles of half a large carrot. A laurel leaf - and on the fire. When the vegetables are half cooked, add mushrooms and add a small piece butter. After ten minutes, add chopped onion and a couple of garlic slices. After boiling, the soup is seasoned with salt, pepper, and herbs, and the fire is almost immediately extinguished. The soup, which is based on the “deer horns” mushroom, is good both hot and cold. And if you add a spoonful of sour cream to a plate, you can actually swallow your tongue!
For the second course: potatoes with mushrooms
Your favorite tubers will go both fried and as a puree. For both side dishes, the “deer horns” mushroom, washed as thoroughly as possible, is cooked for no longer than five minutes in gently gurgling water. If it boils strongly, just bursts forth, the “corals” will become sluggish and will crawl away. The strained “hornets” are cut into random shapes and fried with onions in butter. Then you can go in different ways:
- Fry the potatoes in another frying pan until almost ready, add the almost finished “deer horns” mushroom to it and simmer a little under the lid.
- Traditional puree is made - with milk, with butter, fluffy. It is laid out on plates, and mushroom frying is laid out on top, brought to final readiness.
Both are amazingly delicious!
For appetizer: salted mushrooms
Few people will refuse pickles during the cold winter months. And mushrooms remain unsurpassed in this quality! You can easily pickle the “deer horns” mushroom. It is advisable not to wash it before salting, so as not to saturate it with excess moisture. Usually, brushing is enough to remove debris. Afterwards, the rather coarsely chopped cattails are tightly placed in a fairly spacious container with layers sprinkled with salt (forty grams for every kilogram of “corals”). Next, the bucket is covered with pure gauze or thin cloth, and a heavy oppression is placed on top. Spices will be unnecessary - they will kill the pleasant natural mushroom aroma. Store the pickling directly, in the refrigerator or, for the lucky ones, in the existing underground.
Let's spice it up: mushroom sauce for all occasions
Gravy, sauces and ketchups can turn even the most miserable dish into a masterpiece. If you like offal, boiled meat, and prefer to complement eggs with pleasant substances, you should like the sauce, which is based on the “deer horns” mushroom. 200 grams of cattails are boiled according to the rules already described. The same amount of flour is fried in three tablespoons of melted butter until golden brown. Next, with intense stirring, pour in milk (one and a half glasses). After obtaining a fairly thick but homogeneous mass, add another half a glass of milk, in which two yolks and a glass of broth (I would like mushroom broth, but you can also use meat one) plus spices and salt are added. After boiling, the sauce is removed from the heat and added with half a cup of milk and chopped mushrooms. A quarter of an hour of simmering, adding a spoonful of butter - and the sauce will conquer you forever.
These strange mushrooms in the Primorsky Territory they are no less popular than “ordinary” mushrooms. Among the Deer horns there are practically no poisonous mushrooms, although a number of not tasty and not entirely edible mushrooms are represented quite widely. Find bright ones in the forest beautiful mushrooms- Deer antlers, or as they are also called Coral mushrooms, are quite simple. Like most tree mushrooms, deer antlers prefer rotten wood from fallen trees. By the names it is easy to guess on the wood of which tree this or that mushroom grows.
Although deer horns in taste are close to the most delicious mushrooms, they are not cultivated; they are grown in artificial conditions mushrooms are less demanding and more productive.
In the forest, on fallen trees, you can easily pick up bags of mushrooms in a matter of minutes. Deer antlers form whole clusters on the trunks, and the ease of collection makes harvesting these mushrooms simply a pleasure. .
There is a widespread opinion that these mushrooms are not suitable for classical cooking and the recipes for preparing these mushrooms are complex and not varied. This is fundamentally wrong. The author believes deer horns the most convenient mushroom for preparing and preparing dishes.
You can easily get acquainted with my recipes by clicking on the link right under the description of the mushroom.
Antler mushrooms bear fruit already from mid-summer, but it has been noticed that it is in the fall that these mushrooms acquire a truly magnificent taste. I personally like grown reindeer antlers. on fallen old oak trunks, these mushrooms have a pleasant sweetish taste and do not spoil for quite a long time during transportation. Mushrooms grown on linden or poplar are more juicy and fleshy, and deer horns growing on rotting wood of pine and cedar trees are much less tasty; they are not considered medicinal mushrooms and are used in traditional folk medicine as a remedy for worms, hypochondria, and even for rheumatic joint diseases.
Although it is difficult to make mistakes when picking antler mushrooms, always be careful! Most cases of mushroom poisoning occur due to illiteracy and negligence, when an inexperienced mushroom picker takes poisonous mushroom for edible. Sometimes poisoning occurs with ready-made salted, pickled or canned edible mushrooms due to improper preparation or storage. It should be remembered that some edible mushrooms consumed raw (or undersalted or undercooked) can also cause mild poisoning. We should not forget that some people have an individual intolerance to mushrooms.
Mushrooms “deer horns”, or coral-shaped hedgehog mushrooms, are also known to many mushroom pickers under the names coral mushrooms, coral-shaped hericia or lattice-shaped hedgehogs. Latin name this edible mushroom from the genus Hericium or Hericium – Hericium coralloides.
Botanical description
Full description Hericium coralloides can be found in the Red Book of Russia, where the coral-shaped hedgehog is listed as a rare species. “Deer horns” have a very beautiful exotic appearance. In the coral-shaped hedgehog it is difficult to distinguish the cap and stem, therefore, when characterizing and describing this species, we can only talk about the fruiting body as a whole. The fruiting bodies of Hericium coralloides look a bit like coral branches.
The above-ground part of hericia is very decorative, multi-branched, snow-white in color. Relatively long spines 10-20 mm high, thin and quite brittle, cover the branches of the fungus almost to the very base, most often located on the lateral side. The average diameter of the fruiting body does not exceed 25-30 cm.
Pulp initially white, but as the fungus grows and develops it acquires a characteristic yellowish color. Elastic in its raw form, after culinary processing she becomes harsh. There is no pronounced mushroom aroma. Fruiting occurs from June to October.
Deer horn mushrooms: description (video)
Where does it grow?
Most often the fungus grows on trunks, branches and hollows deciduous trees, as well as on stumps. Most often it can be found on aspen, oak or birch. In the territory southern regions The hedgehog prefers to colonize the wood of elm, oak and linden. In temperate latitudes it is most often found on birch and aspen. In our country, “deer horns” can be found in almost any forest zone, except for the forests of the most northern regions.
Poisonous or edible
The mushroom of the species Hericium coralloides belongs to the category of edible mushrooms. The fruiting bodies are so unusual appearance that are inedible and poisonous doubles Hericia does not have them. Nutritionally and chemical composition, as well as pharmacological value, Hericium coralloides is highly similar to the relatively common combed hedgehog.
100 g of raw pulp contains:
- potassium – 254 mg;
- phosphates – 109 mg;
- sodium – 8 mg;
- calcium – 6.7 mg.
In addition, the composition of the mushroom pulp is enriched with all free amino acids, except methionine and tryptophan, and also includes significant amount ketones, lipid substances, phytoagglutinin and sterols.
Hericium coralloides is widely used in traditional Chinese medicine, where it is used in the treatment of stomach and gastrointestinal diseases, as well as to improve the function respiratory system. Pronounced antitumor and immunostimulating effects are noted, as well as antigeriatric effects and hypoglycemic activity of mushroom pulp.
Cooking methods
The vast forests of our country abound with all kinds of mushrooms. However, not every lover of quiet hunting is lucky enough to encounter a coral-shaped hedgehog. From " deer antlers"can be prepared very a large number of very tasty and incredibly healthy dishes.
You can cook in completely different ways. Dried coral hedgehog can be soaked and then boiled or fried in batter. A very tasty and aromatic mushroom dish is obtained if fruiting bodies“Reindeer horns” are marinated in a sauce made from oil, balsamic vinegar, sugar, as well as salt and lemon juice.
Mushrooms: varieties (video)
According to experienced mushroom growers and amateur mushroom pickers, the coral hedgehog does not have a pronounced taste, therefore, regardless of the cooking method, the culinary impression of it is quite mediocre. The main advantage of “deer horns” is their extraordinary beauty.