Help needed with ID

[hiraeth]

Spotted this fungi while out yesterday, the photo does not show its colours well sorry. It is a very bright yellow and orange, so much so it stood out across the field. The fungi was growing at the base of a large burl on an old oak tree if that helps. Have checked in a book i have and can not id it. Any help gratefully recieved, thanks.

 

[hiraeth]

Oops,sorry, pic came out on its side dont know what happend there.

 

[Matt Weir]

Initial thoughts are Chicken of the Wood but you need to follow up with some more checking and research.

 

[slowworm]

Looks like a chicken-of-the-woods to me as well, a young specimen and if it's left it'll grow much bigger. When I found my first one a few years back it certainly stood out through the woodland.

 

[spamel]

I'd go with the general consensus just from the look of it and the fact that it is growing out of an oak. I must take some pictures of the shrooms I found today, they may be St Georges', but as I don't know them I couldn't say for sure!

 

[hiraeth]

Looks like a chicken-of-the-woods to me as well, a young specimen and if it's left it'll grow much bigger. When I found my first one a few years back it certainly stood out through the woodland.

It certainly did stand out, any advice on when to try it, should i let it grow or is it best small.
And welcome to the site slowworm.

 

[fungi2bwith]

It is chicken of the woods. There is not much you can mistake it for. If you are going to eat it, pick it while still young. There is lots of chicken starting to grow in my area, this is what I picked today (with a solitary morel).

 

[slowworm]

It certainly did stand out, any advice on when to try it, should i let it grow or is it best small.
And welcome to the site slowworm.

Thanks for the welcome, been lurking for ages. This might help confirm the id and has some cooking instructions at the end if you're sure you've identified it.

http://www.rogersmushrooms.com/gallery/DisplayBlock~bid~6237.asp

Also worth noting is the tree often will have flushes of COTW for years to come.

 

[chickenofthewoods]

Someone mention my name?

Yep. That's a lovely young chicken of the woods, it'll have a really good soft texture when it's young like that - not unlike oyster. Left to get older, it'll become more and more like roasted chicken flesh in both taste and texture (seriously, I kid you not!) making it rather good for meaty textured veggie curries. However, leave it too long and it'll become woody and tough. Basically the more vibrantly coloured it is, the younger it's likely to be.

One small word of caution - if you've never had it before try only a small amount at first. Not everyone gets on with it and it can give some folks a slight case of the squits (not to put it too finely!).

 

[Galemys]

Hi all,

near my work there is a giant COTW growing right now. Is it possible to store pieces of the fungus to eat them later in the year? I tried drying last year but it didn´t work out. Can I just put them in the freezer or will this effect the texture/taste?

Cheers,

Tom

 

[slowworm]

It's often recommended you blanch CotW is salted water for a few minutes to remove bitterness. So, when I froze some I blanched it, cooled in a basin of cold water, drained and then froze in bags. Seemed to freeze well and, if used in stews etc I don't think the texture was harmed too much.

 

[Galemys]

It's often recommended you blanch CotW is salted water for a few minutes to remove bitterness. So, when I froze some I blanched it, cooled in a basin of cold water, drained and then froze in bags. Seemed to freeze well and, if used in stews etc I don't think the texture was harmed too much.

Thank's for that slowworm.

I cleaned the Chicken of the woods yesterday evening, cut it in thin strips than baked half of the collected fungi in butter. The other half I dried (in the oven this time), for 2 hours at 60 degrees. I initially wanted to dry the strips longer but it was time to go to bed and they looked and felt dry enough to me. I put both batches in the freezer and will see how they taste in a few weeks time when I take it as food to one of the Dutch bushmoots. The freshly baked ones tasted perfect yesterday!

Cheers,

Tom

 

[slowworm]

I thought it might be helpful to post up a few other pictures. I went out for a quick evening forage last night there's plenty about round here.

They ranged from a small single bit on a log, probably oak or ash but too rotten to positively identify:

To a large outcrop, about 4 foot long and 3 foot high, on an huge old beach tree:

The large one was still young and I managed to pick some very tender pieces, a bit too tender for me as the texture was like raw flesh even after cooking, a bit like a firm jelly. I found the most on a couple of fallen cherry trees. In the past I've also found it on yew (although I wouldn't pick it from such a poisonous tree), willow and sycamore.

I must track down some other recipes as it's very common round here and also one you can inoculate logs with.

 

[Galemys]

"and also one you can inoculate logs with"

Interesting!
So how does one inoculate a log?
Collect spores and rub them in? Any particular type of log or the same as the host tree?
I have only seen them growing on willow and black poplar so far.

Cheers,

Tom

 

[slowworm]

"and also one you can inoculate logs with"

Interesting!
So how does one inoculate a log?
Collect spores and rub them in? Any particular type of log or the same as the host tree?
I have only seen them growing on willow and black poplar so far.

In the UK you can buy inoculated dowels which are pushed into holes drilled in your chosen log or stump. I don't know anyone who's tried it but I know people have success with other fungi like oyster mushrooms and shiitake (Just pop "chicken of the woods dowels" into google and you'll find plenty of sites selling them).

I think you can also collect spores yourself and try and inoculate a log, I quite fancy trying that myself one day. There should be info online and I know there are books on the subject.

As for trees it seems to like a wide range such as oak, cherry, willow, beech etc so I'd guess whatever you have in that list. It seems to prefer dead or dying tree stumps whenever I've found it although I've also seen it on logs.