Foraging for Blewit Mushrooms

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blewits in grass
Photo by Hank Shaw

I present to you Lepista nuda, also known by the homey name blewit, which sounds like you just missed a great opportunity. And you would, if you passed up a chance to eat these mushrooms.

Blewits are a worldwide species (also known as Clitocybe nuda, with a cousin Lepista saeva in Europe) that likes trees and fallen leaves or other decomposing duff. It is pretty easy to identify and worth taking home, if only for the vivid lilac-to-lavender color.

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I walked right by some blewits on a recent mushroom foray. Yes, I “blewit.” But I made amends by returning to that spot a week later, where I picked 2 pounds in 15 minutes. I also found some blewits near Folsom Lake two days ago, so they are popping now.

group of blewits
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Here’s what you need to know about gathering blewits:

  • They are, in general, a cool weather mushroom, arriving in the Northeast and Pacific Coast around October and persisting all winter long — so long as there are no extended frosts.
  • Blewits have a standard “mushroom” shape: simple cap, a thick, stocky stalk, tight gills. There will be no ring or veil around the stalk.
  • The cap should be smooth, almost suede-like. It will have leaf litter stuck to it from time to time, but it will never be slimy or viscid. Blewit caps are often beige to mauve. As the mushroom ages, the edges of the cap will get wavy.
blewit cap starting to turn tan
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

 

  • Look for the lilac or lavender color underneath the cap. The color on a blewit is concentrated on the gills, although the cap and stalk will be a little purple, too. The gills are close together.
  • Blewits like company, both their own and with other mushrooms. It is rare to find just one blewit, and they will often pop up in loose arcs or rings. Chanterelles are often around them, too.
  • Here in California they seem to like to hang around oaks. But they can grow in any pile of decomposing stuff. Blewits will return year after year in the same spot if there is a fresh supply of litter, mostly fallen leaves.
  • When you do a spore print — cut the cap off a mushroom and place it, gills down, on a white piece of paper — the spores should light in color, a whitish dull pink to pinkish beige. Their poisonous lookalike, the Cortinarius, has darker, rusty-colored spores.
  • Blewits have a slight aroma, which I think smells like lilacs. David Arora in Mushrooms Demystified says they smell like frozen orange juice.
blewit mushroom upturned to show gills and stalk
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

There are a few other blue-to-purple mushrooms around, but none that meet all these requirements. If you have a mushrooms with a suede-like cap, stocky stalk, tight, vivid purple gills, a slight but pleasant aroma and that has light, pinkish-tan spores, you have a blewit.

Just keep an eye out for purple mushrooms with “cobwebs” around the veil of the cap — those are cortinarius, which are mostly a toxic species.

Sadly blewits don’t merit the praise and adulation that chanterelles, porcini or morels do. I found no author who detailed the pluses and minuses of particular cooking methods, and only hints at what other foods go well with blewits. Shallots, butter and cream for certain. One author says they like anise flavors, like Pernod or fennel. Another says they don’t like garlic.

The one recipe I did find repeated in various ways was, of all things, an English one; the English are notoriously fungi-phobic. Yet I found lots of versions of a blewit and chicken pot pie. Sounded good to me.

Only I did not want to bother with a pie crust, and I thought I might sex up the standard recipe with some French touches: thyme, shallots and Armagnac. I also skipped the chicken and went right for some pheasant breasts I had in the freezer.

pheasant with blewit mushrooms and cream
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

First thing I noticed is that blewits act a lot like the common cremini or button mushrooms you get in the store. They are thick, firm and full of water, which must be dry-cooked away before adding butter or oil. This is actually a good thing, because if you are not a mushroom hunter, you can easily substitute button mushrooms for blewits.

As a side note, the only thing you cannot do with blewits that you can with button mushrooms is eat them raw: Most sources say you must cook blewits before eating them. You won’t die if you eat raw blewits, but you will probably throw up and feel generally ill.

The second thing I noticed while cooking blewits was that despite what several authors say, they do not retain that lilac color when cooked. Or at least they didn’t after I dry cooked and then stewed them. Maybe they might keep the color if I gently steamed the mushrooms.

Third thing was in the eating. Blewits taste good enough — pretty standard mushroom flavor — but they can be a little slippery in texture. Not nasty-slimy-okra-slimy, just a little slippery. Took four or five bites to get used to it.

blewit in grass closeup
Photo by Hank Shaw

On the plus side, blewits are firm and chewy in a good way. It’s that squeaky, almost crunchy texture that you either love or hate with mushrooms. They can definitely stand on their own in a vegetarian dish, if you so desire.

For me, I loved the play between the texture of the mushrooms and the meaty pheasant breast, which is just gently cooked in cream and pheasant stock. And of course the butter, brandy, cream and shallots didn’t hurt, either. I’d make the recipe for blewit and pheasant again, and, if I chopped everything up small, I might even put it in a pie.

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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63 Comments

  1. UPDATE: That day picking nothing but purple corts (and the subsequently revealing spore print) was the best education I could’ve had. Since then my ID skills have improved immensely, and I’ve picked blewits on several occasions and enjoy them very much – in fact they’ve become one of my favorite mushrooms.

  2. Here in the UK, we have a lot of the wood blewitts, but even more of the purple corts. The purple corts here are edible, although not as tasty as the blewitts. I find our purple corts work in a mushroom risotto, with a number of other mushrooms (oysters, hedgehog, honey, blushers). That is not to say you shouldn’t be wary of the purple cort in the States……….

  3. Hank, just a heads up on the purple corts- I’ve picked and eaten many a blewit and enjoy them when the chanterelles are scarce, but last season around about December, I found a group of 3 – 4 beautiful young blewits near one of my chanterelle patches in the Oakland area (unfortunately vacant on this foray). Were it not for the more experienced buddy I was out picking with, I would have taken them home for dinner. It was only due to the texture and odor that he was able to recognie that what I had were actually genus Cortinarius (species ?). I didn’t bring any home so I missed the opportunity to properly key them out, but I can tell you that they were a dead ringer for blewits. I suppose the spore print would have prevented any harm, but I doubt I would have bothered with a spore print to be honest because I thought that blewits in our area don’t have any real look alikes. Just something to be aware of.

  4. I just “discovered” blewits last year. I was way slow on the uptake cause I have them all over my property here in Plumas County (mixed black oak and conifer). They start with the first cool weather (early Oct and last until the snow comes). Very tasty and easy to find. Seem to be overlooked by most casual mushroom hunters (like myself). I didn’t realize they were edible until a much more experienced mushroom hunter pointed that out.

  5. Steph: Good to know about the corts in SoCal, thanks! Funny, though, I have never noticed a strong flavor with our blewits. Just a slight lavender taste. I wonder if you are actually eating blewits – or if I am? 😉

  6. Hank- Re not finding violet corts in CA:
    I’ve found purple colored corts (or mushrooms that are *to me* clearly corts, they might be some other mushroom that looks like a cort, with brown spores and the cortina) here in LA, including some that I’ve been sure were blewits until I saw the spore print!

    As for cooking blewits I’ve had no luck… they seem to have a very strong flavor! Like california bay mixed with bitter orange. Maybe I’m burning them out of worry about eating them undercooked… (These are ones found under oak) or maybe the ones I cook are all a little old due to waiting to get a spore print on *every* *single* *mushroom* … (though I give honey mushrooms similar paranoid treatment and never had trouble with them)

    Steph

  7. I have heard that blewits are having a banner year this year in your area. Lucky you! I haven’t found blewits in years and rather miss them. Enjoy your prize!

  8. Hank,
    I’ve cooked with them many times, and I’ve found they lose their somewhat slimy texture if you sear them in oil before putting them into your main dish.
    On another note, even commercial mushrooms ( Agaricus bisporus) can cause stomach upset in some people if not cooked (me, for example).
    I also agree with Dave in that they (blewitts) smell (almost exactly) like frozen orange juice to me. YMMV
    PS- They’re really good with wild turkey (meat, not beverage).
    -lcc

  9. Blewits are on my “bucket list” of mushrooms I want to pick. I’m positive I’ve passed them up, but my favorite spots tend to have a lot of Cortinarius, so I was just being careful.

    Thanks for the detailed and excellent set of I.D. prompts.

    Bp

  10. Dorian: I like the idea of grilled blewits – I think it would be a good match for their texture. But maybe they need to be slowly barbecued? Smoked blewits, anyone?

    Jessa: The impostor has a very skinny stem compared to a real blewit. It also has gills that are more widely spaced.

    Peppergrass: Thankfully the violet corts do not live in California. But yes, the dark, rusty-looking spore print is the tipoff. At least if you eat a cort you won’t get too sick — or so they say. They were once considered edible, too.

    Carol: Blewits change flavor depending on which tree they are near. Try them again if you find them around oaks. They should be good.

    Perry: Good point on the cypress!

    Charlotte: The English are, in general, the most mushroom-phobic of any Western culture. But yeah, they eat blewits, porcini (penny buns) and of course button mushrooms.

    Cork: Thanks! I think a blewit would go well with a darker meat the same way button mushrooms in Madeira or Port go well with venison or beef. I’d try them that way. Still working on other cooking methods, though.

    Steph: Yep, “Blue hat.” Love it. As for the “cooked” versus “not cooked” thing, different mushrooms are different. Honey mushrooms need to be cooked at least 15 minutes, and that is a good rule of thumb for any of the “needs to be cooked” shrooms — which is most of them.

    The only raw wild mushroom I’ve ever eaten is a porcino, and even then people tell me that some will get a sour stomach from eating them raw. Does not affect me though.

  11. The idea of cooking and eating a mushroom that can’t be eaten raw still trips me out. Is there some sort of guideline for *how* cooked it needs to be? I guess I’ll get over the paranoia with time. 😉

    And apparently the word blewit is an Old-English contraction for the term “blue hat.” Interesting!

  12. What dilemmas I have now, Hank: because of your inspiring writing on fungi, I’m no longer just looking at deer, pig and bear tracks to find tablefare, but seeing where a string of mushrooms might lead me, lol!

    With all this great writing on the subject, me thinks the next great book from you might be one on gathering and cooking all these great finds…with an emphasis on variety of cooking as there’re so many on finding…

    Would the blewit work with a darker meat like duck/goose and how would you recommend preparing?

  13. Are the English fungi-phobic? What about wonderful mixed grill at breakfast? That usually has some lovely mushrooms.

    The first people I knew who gathered their own field mushrooms were all English (then I met Russians!)

  14. Nice Blewit primer! Been finding a lot of them this year in Sonoma county, in some areas they seem to be under every single live oak. I like to put them in nettle soup (sauteed separately and added when serving). They can taste a lot different depending on what you find them under, oak is generally good, ones under cypress can be really bitter. In general I appreciate them, give them a friendly greeting in the field and move on but they can be a welcome find if the chanterelles prove too tricky.

  15. Lovely photos. Blewits are quite common in the San Gabriel mountains (Los Angeles County), so I was extremely disappointed to discover that I don’t like their flavor! Can’t say why, just that they taste strongly mushroomy in a way that doesn’t agree with me…Going chanterelle hunting tomorrow, can’t wait!

  16. I’m still learning to tell these from Violet corts, which are a similar color and don’t always look slimy. I’ve so far found one blewit I can firmly ID (pink spore print), but the next day I collected a whole bad (from a different area) and am glad I did another spore print – all rust-colored this time (corts).

  17. I really like blewits. They can have a peppery flavor that is very mild, but is a lovely addition to a cream sauce. Last time we picked them (in some serious foot-deep acacia duff in the East Bay), we sauteed them with shallots, then added chicken, white wine, and cream. Tossed in a little lemon thyme and served over pasta. Easy, yes, but super tasty. I love their texture.

    There’s a not-so-good look-alike to the blewit that has a thinner, hollow stem. I forget what they’re called, but we found some of THEM last time we went out for chantarelles. Was a bummer: I picked one up and realized it was an impostor. Boo.

  18. Wonderful info — after reading this, I actually feel confident enough to go out and forage for some blewits on my own, and there aren`t many other mushrooms I can say that about! Too bad about the frost on the ground…I`ll have to wait until next year…Theresa

  19. When I was a kid we’d throw them on the grill – swipe the mushroom caps inside and out with a little butter and sprinkle with salt, toss on the grill until you can’t wait anymore, eat.

    Although that might explain why the only mushroom I ever got sick on was blewits – after doing that on and off all day, must have waited not quite long enough a time to two 😉

    ~M