BoletarPorcini Field Guide
Look-alikes not to eat
Some boletes end up in the basket as porcini by mistake. The sources below class them as poisonous or not for eating. For comparison, typical porcini descriptions give pores that are white when young and later yellow-green, and flesh that does not turn blue.
Educational field guidance only. Boletar does not identify mushrooms or determine edibility.
Rubroboletus satanas · Satan’s bolete
Classed as poisonous
Careless collectors take this stocky bolete for a porcini. The Swiss article reports colic, vomiting and diarrhoea two to three hours after eating it, and Rouen classes it as toxic. Descriptions give a whitish to grey cap, pores that are yellow when young and soon red-orange, a robust yellow stipe with a red net or red middle zone, flesh that turns blue and an unpleasant smell. It grows in broadleaf woods on calcareous soil.
(External website) Université de Rouen Normandie / Smart Champignons · Boletus satanas · Description, Comestibilité (External website)Tylopilus felleus · bitter bolete
Classed as not for eating: very bitter
The Swiss article names it first among porcini mix-ups; young, firm specimens with white pores are the easiest to mistake. It is not described as poisonous, but it is very bitter, and the Swiss article notes that a single one can make a whole porcini meal inedible. Descriptions give a coarse brown net on the stipe and pores that turn pink as the mushroom matures. It often grows under spruce.
(External website) Université de Rouen Normandie / Smart Champignons · Tylopilus felleus · Description, Comestibilité (External website)Caloboletus calopus · bitter beech bolete
Classed as not for eating: bitter
A fairly common bolete of broadleaf and conifer woods with a netted stipe. Both sources describe it as bitter, and Rouen lists it as one to reject. Descriptions give a grey-white to beige-brown cap, yellow to olive pores that turn blue when touched, and a two-coloured stipe, yellow at the top and red lower down, with a net.
(External website) Université de Rouen Normandie / Smart Champignons · Boletus satanas · Confusions (External website)Caloboletus radicans · rooting bolete
Described as bitter
The Swiss article lists it among the bitter boletes that end up in porcini baskets. It describes a dirty-white to beige-grey cap, yellow pores, flesh that turns blue, a yellowish stipe and a tapering, bulbous base.
Spoiled porcini
Even real porcini can make you ill
A correct identification is not the whole story. The Austrian health portal names eating spoiled mushrooms, alongside confusion, as a cause of mushroom poisoning: mushrooms spoil quickly, and ones kept too long or stored badly can cause symptoms. It advises a basket or cloth bag instead of plastic, and both it and the BfR say to prepare mushrooms fresh.