Wild mushrooms
NORTHERN MILK-CAP
Lactarius trivialis, L. utilis
Distinguishing characteristics:
Northern milk-caps are rather large, gilled mushrooms with a slimy surface. The cap colour is greyish brown. The stem is a lighter colour than the cap and is hollow. The gills are white and exude a characteristic white latex when damaged. The latex of milk-caps may change to a greyish-green colour when cooked. The northern milk-cap (L. trivialis) has dark zones or blotches, sometimes with a violet hue, and is darker than the “pallid” northern milk-cap (L. utilis), which is the colour of pale leather and does not have dark zones. The flavour is acrid.
Look-alikes:
The grey milk-cap is smaller than the northern milk-cap and can be identified by its latex, which turns a grey colour. The latex of L. uvidus stains violet when the mushroom is bruised. Both of these mushrooms can be eaten. The fenugreek milk-cap (L. helvus) is thought to be mildly poisonous, so it is not to be harvested for consumption. It can be identified by its clear latex and liquorice-like odour; when dry, its surface has a brown colour resembling chamois leather. A careful mushroom hunter can distinguish the milk-caps from their look-alikes based on size, sliminess, hollowness of the stem, and whether the latex remains white.
Habitat:
Milk-caps grow in mesic, boggy and herb-rich forests near spruce or birch. They are common in Finland, including Lapland, where they are found in mountain birch stands.
Harvest season:
The height of the season is August through September.
Use:
The milk-cap is Finland’s second most important commercial variety of forest mushroom after cep, and one of the edible mushrooms most frequently used in homes. Milk-caps have an acrid flavour when unprocessed, so they must be boiled before they are preserved or used in foods. After boiling in water for approximately 5 minutes, the compounds that cause the acrid flavour decay or dissolve and the mushrooms become usable. No food should be prepared with the water in which milk-caps were boiled.
Milk-caps are traditionally preserved in salt. Before the preserved mushrooms are used, they should be soaked in cold water overnight in the refrigerator in order to remove the salt. Milk-caps can be used in mushroom salads, meat loaf, pastries, sauces and soups, or as a pizza topping. They can be added to foods immediately after boiling as well. Milk-caps can also be preserved in the freezer after boiling, which eliminates the need for salt.