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amanita Caesarea?


Cedric

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That is what it looks to me. Yellow gills and stipe. Not much smell and sweet taste. In the Raleigh area under a mix of pines and deciduous trees. Smaller and more pointed than in Europe but everything else fits. Any similar species I should be aware of before eating?

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Hi Cedric, I am glad to see you were able to get out and do some mushroom hunting. I am not well versed in amanita species enough to be comfortable eating them yet. I believe what you have there is the american counterpart to amanita Caesarea which I believe is called amanita jacksonii. This is supposed to be a good edible and will be the first amanita I will collect for the table when I become a little more comfortable with its identification. Of course you already know not to confuse it with amanita muscaria.

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The true A. caesarea is not known to occur in North America. A. jacksonii is an NA species that resembles A. caesarea. There is not a lot of agreement about the quality of this type as an edible. Some people like it, others say it has a disagreeable fishy taste. I think age of the mushroom affects the flavor. A. jacksonii is not common in my area. Most people who have eaten the European A. caesarea say that it is better than any of the American Caesars.

There are a few other reddish Caesars that occur in NA.

A. arkansana is a southeastern species.

http://www.tullabs.com/amanita/?Amanita+arkansana

A. cochiseana is a Rocky Mountain species.

http://www.tullabs.com/amanita/?Amanita+cochiseana

I think there's another reddish one that occurs in Georgia and/or Florida. But the species name escapes me.

Here in PA I find a yellowish-orange to brownish Caesar, A. banningiana.

http://www.tullabs.com/amanita/?Amanita+banningiana

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Thanks for all the details. I will explore this genus further. In terms of taste, I would agree it is less strong that the European one, but then again the European one has a very delicate taste and the texture is very distinctive, and actually identical to this one. Not a bad one in my opinion.

Regarding the fishy taste, I would tend to agree. Some of the ones I found were slightly older, yet still with a pretty good texture, but a strong fishy smell. In the European one, the fishy smell is also present, but only when the mushroom is clearly too ripe.

Cheers,

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Well, we ate them. I prepared them in the same way as I do in Spain. Raw, thin slices, with olive oil, salt and pepper. It is smaller that the A. Caesarea, but very similar in taste: excellent.

I did eat a small quantity the first day by myself, and only the next day the rest.

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I would advise exercising plenty of caution when eating raw amanitas. As previously mentioned, NA species are often different than Euro species. Some amanitas contain toxins that cook away but are dangerous if consumed raw. Perhaps A. jacksonii is okay raw...? But there are other NA caesars other than A. jacksonii.

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