Inveterate mushroom pickers must have met in the midst of summer an inconspicuous mushroom called a pig. Thin mushroom (or Paxillus involutus) grows in both coniferous and deciduous forests, as well as in parks, along roads, in landfills, on bare ground and even in the middle of anthills. This explains his name that has taken root among the people. Pigs - unpretentious and illegible mushrooms in the choice of place of growth.
Fruits long enough - from mid-June to October. It grows in large groups, sometimes lining peculiar paths and creating chains and rings. Externally, the porcini mushroom is a dense meaty hat with a short leg. The hat resembles a funnel with downward curved edges. It can reach a diameter of up to 20 cm, but averages 10-12 cm. Initially, it is flat, but as it grows it becomes funnel-shaped with a depression in the center. The hat is not always the correct round shape, often with torn edges or irregular shapes. Color - from light brown to dark brown. The surface of the whole fungus is rough, felt-velvet. It seems very dense, but quickly turns into dust, especially at the bottom of the basket.
Porcini mushrooms (photo above) are lamellar. The color of the plates is dirty yellow, when pressed, dark marks remain, fragile dry partitions quickly crumble. The foot rarely grows more than 9 cm, diameter - from 1.5 to 2 cm, is located in the center, very often moves slightly to the edge of the cap. The pulp is dense, yellow on the cut, then brown, often affected by worms.
Much less often, you can meet another species - Paxillus atromentosus, or the mushroom of the beef is thick, and only in coniferous forests on tree stumps. Her edibility is doubtful due to an unpleasant bitter taste. Yes, and it looks strange - always a side leg, a hat with uneven edges, asymmetric, odorless and with very hard flesh. Undoubtedly, this mushroom is at the very end of the list of culinary preferences.
Despite this, the taste of the mushroom of the pig is thin, many people like it (unlike the thick one). From ancient times in Russia, this species was eaten - cooked, salted, fried. To this day, there is debate about edibility, as the mushroom has good taste, especially young sows. However, scientists found in them the presence of toxins and poisons. Each organism individually reacts to these poisons, someone has acute poisoning at once, and someone does not experience any pain. Muscarin - poison contained in fly agaric, is also found in sows. In addition, with constant and repeated use, the destruction of red blood cells in the blood is observed.
Experts say that the pig is a kind of time bomb. If the poisoning did not happen the first time, then the further consequences can be very different - up to hallucinations and death. This mushroom should be completely excluded from the diet of children. It is known that if some poisons and toxins disappear during heat treatment, the accumulated radioactive isotopes of copper and cesium remain in the pulp of the fungus. The main signs of poisoning are weakness, nausea, dizziness, and pain in the liver. It was also recorded several acute poisoning with the most sad outcome.
