cauliflower (Sparassis radicata)

poswted by PM 11/12/12 - - - - - Scroll Down for Descussion

PM: We found this on a decaying stump in a coniferous forest.
Can you help us verify our ID?

Mike P: It sure looks like it to me. How big is it?

Paul W: Be sure to save a dried slice and some spores for the research guy.
I let my sparassis sit on tinfoil for 24 hours to collect spores.
Then I wrapped the dried slice in the spored tinfoil and dropped it off at Sava’s house

Yours looks pretty clean – maybe because it’s a small one???
This is good because some sparassis are tedious to clean.

Paul W: Recipes for sparassis were hard to come by.
For example, Jack Czarnecki’s books raved about sparassis but had no recipes.
I tried cooking it several ways and my favorite was to chop it up,
saute with shallots and garlic, add to a tomato sauce and pour over pasta.
The sparassis flavored the tomato sauce and gave the impression of
ground beef on the palate.