Bearded Tooth / Tree Hedgehog

[james81]

Bearded Tooth / Tree Hedgehog

My brothers own a tree service in the area and every once in a while they bring me some weird fungi. This one was from a few years back. One of the trees they took down was a big old silver maple that had a large hollowed cavity. This was found growing inside of the cavity.




At the time I just took pictures for identification at a later time, assuming it wasn't going to be an edible, and even if it was, my bets were that it was already getting old due to the yellowing. Sure enough, when I finally did pick up my books I found it listed as an edible. Has anyone here tried this mushroom yet? I'm curious to how it might taste. Hopefully I'll come across another sometime in the future.

[mushroommike]

Yup, it's delicious. Has the texture and taste of crab meat in my opinion. It is heavy on the water as most hericiums are, so you have to get it somewhat "boiled out" before you can really infuse it with any flavor. The one you got there is quite old, and I wouldn't recommend eating anything with the teeth that long. The younger the better, the more white the better...as soon as they start to yellow they are too old.

[rob]

a tooth from last fall.