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Harmless🍽️ Edible

🍄 Charcoal burner

Russula cyanoxantha · Russulaceae

🌳 Temperate Europe🏔️ Mountains🍁 North America
🧠 To remember it“It bends, it doesn't break” — the single tactile test that identifies the charcoal burner among dozens of russulas.
Charcoal burner — Russula cyanoxantha

🔍 Identify it without mistakes

One of the easiest russulas to identify with certainty thanks to a unique tactile test for the genus: its gills are greasy and FLEXIBLE to the touch, bending without breaking — whereas almost all other russulas have brittle, chalk-like gills.

  1. cap 6-15 cm, highly variable colors (purple, lilac, olive green, gray, often variegated with several shades on the same cap), smooth surface slightly slimy in wet weather
  2. gills white to cream, FLEXIBLE and GREASY to the touch — they bend under your finger and spring back instead of snapping clean (decisive test for the genus Russula)
  3. stem white, firm, cylindrical
  4. flesh white, brittle, mild taste (never acrid or peppery)
  5. spore print white
  6. grows under broadleaf trees, especially beech
Sizecap 6-15 cm, stem 4-10 cm
Floweringsummer-autumn
Habitatbroadleaf forests, especially under beech trees

⚠️ Not to be confused with

Other russulas with acrid or peppery taste (not deadly but indigestible raw) (genre Russula)some russulas cause digestive upset if consumed raw or in large quantities, none are deadly in Europe

To tell them apart: taste a tiny fragment of raw cap (then spit it out): the charcoal burner has a mild taste, never acrid or hot; any russula with a peppery/acrid taste should be discarded from your harvest, even if it is not dangerous in small amounts

🍽️ Eating it

Partscap, stem
Seasonjuin-novembre
Tastemild, subtle nuttiness

Preparation : always cooked; one of the few russulas recommended even for simple pan-frying with garlic and parsley, thanks to its firm flesh that holds up well during cooking

Sources (3)

No entry replaces a certain identification in the field, or medical advice. When in doubt: don't eat it. If ingestion is suspected: poison control or 112/911.