Foraging for Dinner: All About The Pheasant Back Mushroom

In the world of foraging fungi for food, the undisputed king of spring is the morel mushroom. Morels (Morchella sp.) get lots of attention, and rightfully so, they are delicious and, when present and visible, often come in abundance. Pheasant back mushrooms (Cerioporus squamosus) are something people usually find when out looking for morels.

But, in no way does that mean pheasant backs, also known as dryad’s saddle, are second-rate. They are a delicious springtime mushroom that is found throughout the Eastern US and Europe, as well as in Asia and Australia. The reason they may not get due attention is 1) morel mushrooms are almost mythical for their culinary prowess, and 2) poorly harvested pheasant back mushrooms aren’t very tasty.

When foraged correctly, though, the pheasant back has a pleasing firm (meaty) texture and a nutty finish common to wild mushrooms. If that sounds good, then maybe it’s time to learn a little more about how to find, forage and fire up these fun finds from the forest.

What Do Pheasant Back Mushrooms Look Like?

Source: Learn Your Land/Youtube

These mushrooms have two common names: Pheasant back and dryad’s saddle, with hawk’s wing being a lesser-used designation. Dryad’s saddle originates from Greek mythology, referring to woodland creatures who ride on these mushrooms.

• The pheasant back moniker is about the top of this mushroom, which has color patterns—yellowish-brown scales or “squamules”—suggestive of the feathers on a pheasant’s back.
• The underside of the mushroom has a creamy hue and, rather than the gills we often associate with store-bought mushrooms—has angular, honeycomb pores from which it releases spores.
• Pheasant backs are bracket mushrooms, protruding like little shelves off of decaying trees, stumps, or fallen logs and often appearing in clusters of up to 20 specimens.
• They have short, thick stems (stalks) that are off-center, connecting them to the wood from which they grow. The stem is black near the base.

All that said, a favorite identifying feature of pheasant backs isn’t its appearance at all. It’s the smell. A sniff at the underside of the mushroom will have a telltale resemblance to a cucumber or melon. No other mushroom smells like that.

Where and When to Find Pheasant Back Mushrooms

Pheasant back mushrooms, like morels, are forest mushrooms. In the United States, they are in every state east of the Rocky Mountains. They can grow on living—likely dying—trees as parasitic mushrooms, but they’ll more like work as saprotrophic fungi, breaking down dead wood. They are particular fans of elm trees (as are morels) but find homes on several other hardwood stumps: box elder, maple, ash, oak, etc.

As we’ve already established, pheasant backs start to and primarily appear in the spring, in correlation with morel mushrooms, as well as ramps and fiddleheads with which it pairs wonderfully. To a lesser extent, they hang around into the summertime, and they flush again in the fall.

How to Forage Dryad’s Saddle

Source: Learn Your Land/Youtube

The trick to foraging dryad’s saddle is to be age-ist and size-ist. The older and bigger the mushrooms are, the less useful they are in the kitchen. They become more or less inedible because they get so woody and tough. The larger mushrooms and tougher pieces can be dried, ground into powder, and used in soups. Ideally, though, the specimens we forage should be about two inches across.

When harvesting any wild mushroom, it is imperative to be 100 percent sure about what you’ve got before eating it. One of the great advantages of dryad’s saddle is that there are no look-alikes, so if all of the characteristics are there, then it’s a safe mushroom for beginners to forage. Nevertheless, beginners should always get help verifying what they’ve found.

How to Cook with Dryad Saddle

The trick to cooking with dryad’s saddle is to realize that it will dry out and become tough, particularly if cooked for a long time with high heat. While most mushrooms perform very well in oil alone, it’s a good idea to add some moisture to the mix with this one. That can be a bit of water, or, better yet, it can be cooked with onion and garlic (or garlic scapes, another good springtime harvest) with a lid on the frying pan. Most chefs recommend cutting the mushroom into thin, ¼” strips.

Always consult several sources when becoming familiar with wild food, checking and triple-checking before consuming the plant. Articles like this are meant to open the door to these possibilities, but they are not a substitute for due diligence on the forager’s part. Furthermore, it’s important to never forage in places where chemicals have likely been used.

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• 5 Ways to Grow Mushrooms at Home
• 12 Delicious Recipes Using Unique Varieties of Mushrooms
• How, When, and Where to Find Morel Mushrooms, Springtime’s Prize-Winning Fungi
• How to Forage, Cook, and Eat the Medicinal and Delicious Lion’s Mane Mushroom!

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