Giant talker (Clitocybe giganteus)
A lamellar mushroom, rarely found, although it bears fruit annually. Grows from late August to October. Collection places: edges and clearings of all types of forests, pastures. Placed in groups that form so-called witch circles. In the classification of edible mushrooms according to nutritional value, it belongs to the fourth group. The cap of young mushrooms has a convex shape, later taking on the appearance of a funnel with thin curved edges. On average, its diameter reaches 12-15 cm, although there are giants with a cap diameter of about 30 cm (hence the name of the mushroom).
The surface is matte, silky, sometimes finely scaly. The color varies from snow-white to the color of coffee with milk. The spore-bearing layer consists of descending plates, often forming bridges. Their color changes over time from beige to ocher. The dense white leg reaches 5-10 cm in height and 3-4 cm in diameter. The flesh is elastic, fleshy, and white. It has a weak powdery odor, and with age it acquires a bitter taste. It belongs to the category of conditionally edible mushrooms; its consumption is possible only after preliminary boiling. The pulp of this mushroom contains an antibiotic that is destructive to the tuberculosis bacillus - clitocybin A and B.
Wash the mushrooms, add 1 tbsp. spoon of oil and simmer until half cooked, then pass through a meat grinder along with onions and bread (soaked in milk). Then mix with sour cream, eggs, salt and pepper and place the resulting mass in the refrigerator for 25-30 minutes. Form small cutlets from the minced meat, roll them in flour and fry in hot oil on both sides. For 600 g of fresh mushrooms - 2 eggs, 150 g of onions, 2 tbsp. spoons of sour cream, 100 g of bread, 50 g of milk, 50 g of flour, 3 tbsp. spoons of vegetable oil, ground pepper, salt.
Of course, at poultry farms, chickens are kept in cages and not free-range, but, on the other hand, they receive proper nutrition, are kept in strict hygiene conditions, and are vaccinated against salmonellosis and other diseases destructive to humans.
No one is protected from diseases carried by birds, but it is easier to check this at a special enterprise, and not with an unknown grandmother in the yard.
Giant talker (Leucopaxillus giganteus) – This mushroom is considered conditionally edible category 4. Pickling these mushrooms is popular. In addition, they are very tasty when eaten fresh. Ripe ones have a slightly bitter taste, so they are either dried or boiled before cooking. Young mushrooms can be dried; after boiling, they are eaten salted and boiled.
This type of mushroom is included in the genus Leucopaxillus, being part of the family Tricholomataceae. She is part of a family of pigs, not talkers. But these two genera belong to the same family.
Other names: giant white pig, giant white pig, huge leusopaxillus.
Where does it grow?
This mushroom grows in mixed, coniferous and deciduous forests. Also found in pastures, clearings and forest edges. They are collected in the Caucasus and the European part of Russia.
Basically, these mushrooms can be found in large quantities, as they grow in groups.
Every year, the giant talker is capable of providing a large harvest, but the mushroom picker does not encounter them too often. When growing, the giant talker mainly makes up “witch’s rings”.
These mushrooms can be collected from August to October.
Young mushrooms have spread-convex caps with a depression in the center. Over time, the caps transform into funnel-shaped caps with a thin edge curved downwards. The shades of the caps are usually yellowish, creamy, snow-white, and sometimes take on a “coffee with milk” hue.
The size of the mushroom cap reaches 10-15 cm and even 30 cm in diameter. The pulp has a floury smell and practically no taste. It is dense and white.
The plates descend to the stem, being descending. They are narrow, light ocher in color, tightly spaced.
The leg is white, up to 4 cm wide and 8 cm long.
This mushroom is conditionally edible, and for this reason it should be boiled first, and only then start cooking.
The pulp of the mushroom contains: clitocybin A and B and an antibiotic that destroys the tuberculosis bacillus. Cliptobicin is extracted from mushrooms, which is an antimicrobial agent used to treat tuberculosis of bones and skin.
A useful property of this mushroom is that giant talker contains physiologically active elements used as producers of growth and antibiotic substances.
Talkers are beneficial for the body, as they provide prevention of infectious diseases. Digestion is improved thanks to enzymes that help the human body get rid of toxins and the functioning of the stomach improves.
In addition, talkers reduce the amount of cholesterol in the blood. In folk medicine they are used to treat urolithiasis and respiratory tract diseases, as well as to heal wounds (ointments and decoctions).
Contraindications: there is information that when combining talkers with alcohol, a person may experience body poisoning.
Recipes
Govorushki should be boiled before salting, drying or pickling. During the pickling process, a strong marinade with acetic acid and sterile containers are used. These mushrooms are best consumed together with fried and boiled vegetables. For pickling, take young mushrooms, which first need to be boiled for twenty minutes.
- Vinaigrette with talkers
Boil beets, potatoes and carrots and cut into cubes. Then mix all these ingredients with pickled mushrooms, fresh onions and canned peas. Season with salt, lemon juice or sunflower oil. - Marinade salad
Pickled talkers are mixed with salted or pickled cucumbers, seasoned with salt, olive or sunflower oil. You can also add spices, pickled garlic and cold boiled potatoes.
Video
Edible mushrooms are often easily confused with very similar inedible or even poisonous (sometimes deadly) mushrooms, so learning to recognize them is essential. This is especially true for talkers - the family of these mushrooms has about 250 species, some of which are very poisonous.
Talker mushroom (Clitocybe) is a genus of mushrooms from the family of mushrooms (Tricholomataceae). Saprotrophs living in the soil. The caps of this species of mushrooms are of very different sizes, mostly funnel-shaped and dry. Legs without ring, cylindrical. The plates are light, descending onto the stem, clearly converging. The spore powder is white, sometimes with a creamy tint. Spores are elliptical, smooth. Some species contain toxic substances that affect the nervous system.
Fungi are found throughout the temperate zone of the Northern Hemisphere– Europe, North America. In Russia in Siberia and Primorye. They grow in forests, pastures, and on roadsides. The fruiting body is formed in summer and autumn.
Govorushka is a genus of mushrooms from the row family.
Description of taste qualities and nutritional value of talkers
Govorushki belong to the fourth category of mushrooms, so there is no need to talk about their outstanding culinary features. As a rule, even edible representatives of the species are bitter. They smell like flour, sometimes dust. Actually Mushrooms of this species are difficult to classify as valuable.
However, they have one important feature. Some species contain a biologically active compound called clitocin, which has antibacterial activity against a number of bacteria pathogenic to humans, such as Bacillus cereus and Bacillus subtilis. A number of studies have shown antibiotic activity against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, typhoid fever (Salmonella typhi), and bovine brucellosis (Brucea abortus). Clytocin is thought to stimulate apoptosis (cell death) in cancer cells. Talkers also contain phenols and flavonoids, which have antioxidant activity.
Gallery: talking mushrooms (25 photos)
Where to collect talkers (video)
How to distinguish talker mushrooms from false species
Among the mushrooms growing in the world there are many species suitable for consumption. In practice, however, only a very few species are collected, those known to be tasty and safe. Many mushrooms are edible, but have no practical value, since they are either tasteless, very small, or very rare.
Talkers are dangerous because they are very similar to each other. It is easier to distinguish a poisonous mushroom from an edible one in the forest than at home, so you should be especially careful when picking mushrooms . The stem of an edible mushroom, unlike a poisonous one, exudes a milky liquid when cut.
Govorushkas contain phenols and flavonoids, which have antioxidant activity.
Edible talkers
Despite the fact that most talkers are of no interest or are simply dangerous, these mushrooms have fans. The following mushrooms are usually collected.
Giant talker
A large mushroom with a cap up to 40 cm in diameter with a thickness of 1 to 1.2 cm at half the radius. Juveniles appear as bulbous caps, but with age the cap flattens out and eventually becomes shallowly funnel-shaped. The surface is smooth, white with a creamy tint, but with age it can become covered with brown spots and circular cracks. The cream-colored plates are narrow, densely spaced, fall along the entire length of the leg, and with age they darken to the color of dark skin. The stalk is milky white with reddish-brown fibers, measures up to 4.5-6 cm in height and from 1.5 to 3 cm in thickness, without a ring on the stalk. The base of the stalk is usually thick white. The flesh is firm and white. Spore powder is white.
The mushroom is edible. Grows from summer to late autumn. Mature mushrooms are fragile and difficult to harvest without breaking.
Giant talker
Gray talker
The cap is 5-25 cm in diameter, first convex, then flat and slightly concave, the surface is smooth and matte. The edge of the cap is wavy, strongly turned up. The color is blue-gray, ash-smoky, sometimes brownish. The plates are whitish and light cream in color. On the stem, fused, cascading. Densely arranged, 3 to 6 mm wide. The stem is the same color as the cap, but brighter, thicker, widened at the base, club-shaped, with thick white mycelium. The surface is longitudinally fibrous. The pulp is whitish, fleshy. The taste is light, slightly earthy, the smell is strong, mealy-rancid. Spore powder is creamy.
It grows, like other talkers, from late August to late autumn, singly, in groups, sometimes forming “witch circles”. In forests of various types and thickets. Edible.
Gray talker
Red talker (bent)
The cap is 8-25 cm in diameter, initially convex, bell-shaped, becoming funnel-shaped with age. The edge is thin, rolled up. The colors are pale ocher, beige, pale flesh. The plates are first white, then whitish with a beige tint, dense, thin, extending far onto the stem. The leg is the color of the cap, thick, cylindrical, thicker at the bottom, as a rule, longitudinally grooved and massive. The pulp is whitish to beige. At the break the color remains unchanged. The pulp is hard, cartilaginous in young mushrooms, and fibrous with age. The smell is intense, aromatic, sweetish, reminiscent of almonds, the taste is mild. Spore powder is white.
Grows in light coniferous and deciduous forests, meadows and pastures. Especially on calcareous soils and in damp places.
What does an inverted talker look like (video)
Inedible and poisonous talkers
Among the talkers there are inedible and deadly mushrooms. And if the former are simply, to put it mildly, useless, then the latter can be fatal. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt to find out their description.
Waxy talker
The cap is 3-8 cm in diameter, convex, flat with age, slightly later concave, funnel-shaped. The edge is curled and turned up. The color is whitish, with a gray-cream tint, darker along the edges. Sometimes covered with dirty pink spots. The plates are whitish in color, creamy with age, and dirty yellow in old mushrooms. Quite dense and very narrow, poorly matching. The leg is whitish to dirty ocher in color, cylindrical, sometimes curved. A young mushroom is dense, but with age it becomes empty or “cotton-like.” Mycelium grows densely at the base. The pulp is white or off-white, elastic, hard. The smell is woody, floral, slightly aniseed.. The taste is soft, indefinite. Spore powder is creamy with an orange tint.
It is often found in coniferous and deciduous forests, often under spruce, pine, beech and oak trees, from summer to autumn. Grows in groups on leaf litter. The mushroom is deadly poisonous. Muscarine poisoning.
Waxy talker
Reddish talker
The cap is 2-5 cm in diameter. At first it is convex in shape with curled “brims”, later flat, then a depression is formed in the center, sometimes with a small tubercle at the bottom of the depression. In a young mushroom it is white, as if covered with frost, later with concentric zones of flesh-colored, under a layer of frost, usually pale flesh-colored, smooth. Indistinct spots on the cap are very characteristic of this species. The plates are first white, then dirty white, dense, densely spaced, directly fused. They meet quite low on the stem. The stem is 2-4 cm high, 4-6 mm thick, cylindrical, full, slightly fibrous (in the longitudinal direction). Whitish color with a flesh-colored tint. The pulp is white, elastic, and does not change color after being damaged. The taste is vague, the smell resembles freshly ground flour or a recently cut tree. Spore powder is white.
The mushroom is widespread in Europe, but is also found in North America. Fruiting bodies appear from mid-summer to late autumn, in thickets of grass, in cultivated meadows, pastures, fields, near the road or on the edge of a mixed forest, also under bushes in parks. Can grow alone or in small groups.
Just like waxy talker, it is highly poisonous (muscarine poisoning). Contains quite a lot of muscarine, a poison that affects the nervous system. Symptoms occur 1/4-4 hours after eating. Symptoms: severe sweating, lacrimation, blurred vision, vomiting, colic, gastrointestinal disorders. Severe poisoning can lead to death. The mushroom is extremely dangerous for people with pulmonary insufficiency or heart disease. The first symptoms of poisoning appear within 15-30 minutes after eating mushrooms, and often disappear within 2 hours. Atropine is used as an antidote.
Latin name: Leucopaxillus giganteus
Giant talker or huge leucopaxillus (Leucopaxillus giganteus) belongs to the department of Basidiomycetes, class Agaricomycetes, order Agarikov, family Oryadovkov, genus Leukopaxillus or Belosvinushek.
Leucopaxillus comes from the Greek word Leuco, meaning "white", and Paxillus is the generic name of the slender pigwort, which the goblika resembles in appearance. The epithet “giganteus” does not need explanation, since sometimes this mushroom reaches truly gigantic sizes.
It is found mainly in autumn, from late August to October, and in warm weather until mid-November. Experts classify it as a conditionally edible mushroom, which, if desired, can be used after preliminary cooking and subsequent change of water. For culinary purposes, only young specimens should be collected. Govorushki are consumed salted and pickled, and dried for future use.
hat
Young mushrooms have an ivory-colored cap. Shape – convex or flat with a finely velvety surface. With age, the silky texture is lost, small circular scales form from the center to the edge, and cracks may develop around the circumference. The color acquires a darker shade, with individual brownish or ocher spots. The cap gradually becomes concave, fully justifying the English name of the mushroom - Giant Funnel (in Russian “giant funnel”).
Most mature leusopaxillus grow to 15–30 cm across. However, there are record holders that reach 45 cm with a thickness at the base of the cap of about one and a half centimeters.
On the lower side there are dense plates descending to the stem, some of which are fused and bifurcated. Over time, they change color from beige to yellowish and are easily separated.
Leg
The leg is smooth, without a ring. At the base there is dense, white mycelium. Typically the diameter of the leg is 2–6 cm and the height is 5–10 cm. The structure is dry, fleshy, consisting of small whitish fibers that darken as they grow.
Pulp
The flesh of the fruiting body is dense and elastic when pressed. When cut, it does not change color, remaining white. The tissues of the legs are quite tough. They try to use only the caps for food, although in adult specimens they are fragile and it is very difficult to keep them intact.
It is noteworthy that the giant talker contains the biologically active component clitocine, which has antibiotic activity against Koch bacilli and salmonella. Also based on it, drugs have been created that are used in the treatment of diabetes and epilepsy.
Taste and color
Leusopaxillus has a faint odor comparable to the aroma of freshly ground flour. The taste of young fruiting bodies is assessed as neutral. Some people find it in common with boiled fish. The pulp of older specimens becomes unpleasantly bitter. The color of the mushroom is dominated by light, almost white tones - cream, beige.
Controversy
The spores have a smooth surface. Individually they are hyaline (translucent), but as a mass they are white. The shape is ellipsoidal, closer to ovoid - there is a pronounced, widely rounded apex and a narrowed base. The spore size is 6–8x3.5–5 microns.
Place of growth
The giant talker grows only in the Northern Hemisphere, in the temperate zone. Prefers to settle on the edges, clearings of mixed and coniferous forests, roadsides, grazing areas, and park areas. Also found in mountainous areas. Leusopaxillus are so unpretentious that they are even grown in garden plots. Mushrooms form groups in the form of arcs or “witch rings”.
Mycorrhiza
Govorushka is a humus saprotroph, quite sensitive to the composition of the soil. These fungi grow in various phytocenoses, participating in the decomposition of litter and contributing to the processes of humus formation.
Of the many varieties of talker mushrooms, the edible giant talker mushroom, which has an interesting appearance and a number of positive features, deserves special attention.
Description and photo of the mushroom
The giant talker (according to the scientific classification Leucopaxillus giganteus or huge leusopaxillus) belongs to the genus Belosvinushka and is part of the Rowadovaceae family. Popularly known as the giant pig and the white pig.
Did you know? Science has long proven the fact that mushroom kingdoms existed 400 million years ago along with giant ferns. But the latter, unlike mushrooms, were significantly crushed over so much time.
External characteristics of the giant talker:
- the cap resembles a slightly curved funnel, the bladed edges of which have the appearance of waves. The diameter ranges from 10-30 cm. The top can be yellowish-cream, snow-white, and even (rarely) coffee-milky;
- the almost tasteless dense whitish pulp emits a faint floury smell;
- narrow, densely spaced plates descending onto the stem of the mushroom, the same color as the cap;
- the leg itself, which matches the color of the cap, is dense and bare, its cylinder is very large (with a height of 3 to 8 cm, it has a thickness of 2-5 cm);
- smooth spore ellipses (6-8 x 3-4 µm) collectively give a white powder.
Is it possible to eat giant talkers?
The giant talker is conditionally edible, that is, according to the appropriate classification (according to nutritional, nutritional and taste parameters), this lamellar mushroom is classified in category 4. 
Yes or no?
White pig can be used as a dish; it does not contain deadly poisons. But immediately before use, the product must be well boiled, and then prepared from it into pickles, marinades and added to first and second courses.
Possible consequences
As noted above, you cannot be poisoned by a giant variety of talkers, and you can safely prepare many dishes from it. 
However, in people with weak stomachs, the mushroom often causes severe upset. Therefore, it is better not to neglect proper heat treatment and use only the freshest, youngest specimens.
Where to find mushrooms and how to collect them
Giant talkers can be found in coniferous, mixed, mainly mountain forests growing in the Crimea, the Carpathians, the Caucasus and throughout the Russian space east of the Urals. Sometimes these mushrooms are found in clearings and pastures in the form of so-called “witch’s rings.”
The mushroom is usually harvested from the end of August to October, but if at the end of autumn the weather is warm and sunny, the mushroom will bear fruit well in November.
Govorushki, like all mushrooms, are capable of accumulating various toxins and heavy metals in the pulp. Therefore, it is impossible to use talkers collected near industrial enterprises and highways for food, as this can lead to food poisoning. 
Can it be confused with other mushrooms?
Since talker mushrooms have several varieties, some of which are weakly and even highly poisonous, it is very important to learn to distinguish them from each other, so as not to have to deal with the serious consequences of poisoning.
Here are a few characteristics that distinguish the most common varieties:
Mushroom talker: recipes
There are a lot of special features for preparing talker mushrooms. But some of the most original and loved by both gourmets and beginners are vinaigrette and marinade salad.
Important! The giant talker is enriched with a natural antibiotic - clitobicin A and B, which has a fatal effect on the Koch bacillus that causes tuberculosis.
Ingredients:
- juice ;
- pre-pickled giant talkers.
Cooking process:
- Beets, potatoes and carrots must be boiled and cut into small cubes.
- Then mix with pickled mushrooms, peas, and fresh onions.
- Season to taste with salt, lemon juice or vegetable oil.
Marinade salad
The only non-marinated ingredient in this dish is potatoes. It must be boiled in advance and cooled; 1-2 tubers will be enough.
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