In common with all peppery Lactarii the present species loses the quality in cooking. The edible qualities then depend upon texture, substance, flavor. The species is coarse but meaty and of fair flavor.
L. velle´reus Fr.—vellus, fleece. Pileus 2–5 in. broad, compact, at first convex and umbilicate, then expanded and centrally depressed or subinfundibuliform, the whole surface minutely velvety-tomentose, soft to the touch, white or whitish, the margin at first involute, then reflexed. Gills distant or subdistant, adnate or decurrent, sometimes forked, whitish becoming yellowish or cream-colored. Stem .5–2 in. long, 6–16 lines thick, firm, solid, equal or tapering downward, pruinose-pubescent, white. Milk white, taste acrid. Spores white.
Woods and open places. Common. July to September. Peck, 38th Rep. N.Y. State Bot.
Spores white, nearly smooth, 7–9µ. Peck; 4×8µ W.G.S.
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey. Woods and open places. July to October. McIlvaine.
Poisonous according to some authors. Cordier. Edible. Leveille. Eaten it for eighteen years. McIlvaine.
This common, very acrid species is characterized by the downy covering of its cap.
It is a coarse species, but meaty. Its acridity is lost in cooking, when it makes a fair dish.
L. involu´tus Soppitt.—involved. Every part white or with a very slight ochraceous tinge. Pileus 1–2 in. across, flesh about 1½ lines thick, equal up to the margin, compact, rigid, convex, soon becoming plane or slightly depressed, margin strongly and persistently involute, extreme edge minutely silky, remainder even and glabrous. Gills very slightly decurrent, densely crowded, not ½ line broad, sometimes forked. Stem ⅔-1 in. long, 2–3 lines thick, equal, or slightly thickened at the base, glabrous, even, solid, very firm. Milk white, unchangeable, not scanty, very hot. Spores obliquely elliptical, smooth, 5×3µ.
Very firm and rigid, resembling in habit L. vellereus in miniature. Most nearly allied to L. scoticus, but known at once by the exceedingly narrow, densely-crowded gills and the smooth, elliptical spores. Massee.