"Grandfather's tobacco", or puffball mushroom. How to cook it?

2025 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2025-01-23 12:50

Surely when you go out into the bosom of nature you have met in groves, forests or even meadows peculiar porcini mushrooms in the form of balls ranging in size from tennis to baseball. There are also larger specimens.

They are called raincoats. A characteristic feature of these mushrooms is that they have the ability to explode. No, there is nothing dangerous in this, just if you touch a mature raincoat, it will burst, releasing a cloud of spores - this is how they multiply, and it was this feature that gave rise to their popular name - “grandfather tobacco”, “wolf tobacco”, “dust duster”, or just a raincoat mushroom. Few people know how to cook it, as experienced mushroom pickers from central Russia look at the raincoat with contempt, considering it third-rate. By the way, there are reasons for this - this is how the mushroom encyclopedia characterizes raincoats. But on the other hand, they are highly valued abroad. Not like truffles, but at the level of champignons. And this mushroom should be paid attention not only to those who live in the “non-mushroom” zone, but also to avid lovers of “silent hunting.”

Besides purely culinary qualities,the raincoat also has an excellent hemostatic property. It is enough to attach a cut of the fungus to the wound, and it will almost instantly stop bleeding.

How to cook puffball mushroom

It tastes like champignon, as it is its close relative, but has a more pronounced mushroom smell and taste. If it is dried and crushed, then the resulting powder is perfect for dressing soups, and when fried, it turns out just a meal, not a dish. Especially if you put out raincoats in sour cream.

Mushrooms of any size are suitable for frying, the main thing is that the fruit body is elastic and dense. If the core is dark, then you have a false representative of this family, and if it is white, a real raincoat mushroom.

How to prepare it for frying? Yes, just like all other mushrooms: first wash, then cut into pieces, boil and fry in hot butter or sunflower oil for about seven minutes. Then the dish needs to be s alted, lightly peppered, pour sour cream and simmer for a couple of minutes. You can skip pre-boiling if you are sure that the area in which you picked mushrooms is environmentally friendly. The fruiting bodies of mushrooms have the ability to collect all the toxic emissions of our civilization, and the puffball mushroom is no exception in this regard. How to cook it and not get poisoned? This is why it is recommended to pre-boil the entire collection.

If you have heard something that you need to throw an onion into boiling water with mushrooms fordetermination of toxicity, then forget this advice. He has no basis whatsoever. So mushrooms are not tested for edibility. As for raincoats specifically, even its false varieties are not very poisonous. The maximum that threatens you is indigestion and a mild allergic reaction.

The soup made from "grandfather's tobacco" is also very tasty (as mentioned above, this is what the people call the puffball mushroom). Soup recipes are found in many cookbooks, and here we will talk about how to whip it up.

You will need:

• handful of vermicelli;
• one potato;
• one bulb;
• s alt;
• spices;
• puffball mushroom.

How to cook soup from one mushroom? With "grandfather's tobacco" this trick may well pass, as it is able to grow up to 20-40 cm in diameter. Enough for a three-liter pot of light soup.

My mushrooms and cut into small pieces. We throw in boiling water, boil for a couple of minutes and drain the water. Then we throw the mushrooms into the pan again, fill with fresh water and put on fire. Quickly fry the onion in vegetable oil, peel and cut the potatoes into cubes. We send potatoes with onions to the boiling broth and bring it to half-cooked. Now it's the turn of the vermicelli. S alt, bay leaf and spices should be added at the end of the preparation of the soup. You can eat it immediately after the end of cooking, and the next day. It is very tasty even when cold, and perfectly replaces the traditional okroshka in summer.