Any idea what this large mushroom is? Can I slice it up and put it in a quiche?

I can't i.d. from the pix sorry... but not chanterelle. With fungi my rule is 'if in doubt chuck it out'.

I wouldn't eat it - it most nearly resembles Clitocybe dealbata rather than any others, and if it is that, it's highly toxic. I'm not 100% certain though, because the gills look a little too white. This particular poisonous one has a tendency to grow where the edible ones do.

I cann't identify it either, therefore I would not eat it.

If your not 100% sure (or more) of what a fungus is, its better just to leave it. Even with books, some can still resemble others. Just as Moon Grower says!
Its not worth the chances.

How often can one say LOUD AND CLEAR that one simply must not eat any fungi that has not been identified with an expert the first (and probably the tenth) time you have gone out hunting.

There are some that are unmistakeable for which one might make an exception but really, the fact that you have to ask the question at all means that you simply must not risk eating it. Fungi are in any case masters of disguise and can appear very differently when they are grown in different places.

This could also be Paxillus Involutus, bruising chestnut, tho it doesn't look quite dark enough on top. As Moon Grower says, from a picture it's not identifiable.

I'm sorry if I sound fierce - I do a talk called The Fatal Fascination of Fungi and my greatest fear is that someone will go off, pick and eat something simply because I have shown it as an edible one. I spend much of the talk explaining to people that they must not do that.

In Germany and Austria, at one time, pharmacists had to do fungus id as part of their qualification. The public could then go into the pharmacy with their foraging harvest and have them expertly checked. I don't know if this is still the case but I would not trust any of our local pharmacists with this.

Spot on Cestina! I know Bulbaholic posted this story before but I think it bears repeating.

The Earl of Moray's sister and her husband were visiting them a couple of months ago. They went a picked some wild fungi, cooked them and all four ate them. They were all seriously ill and in hospital for a while. The Earl is now on renal dialysis as the fungi wreaked his kidneys and is waiting on a transplant.

This can happen to anyone... a friend picked what she thought were chanterelles and were actually the false chanterelles and ended up being ill too.

Pharmacists peform the same service here in France, but despite this, every year, there are several hundred cases of fungi poisoning and deaths. Wild fungi can be delicious and wonderful, but you do need to depend on experts and no book or photo can give a definitive identification. In my view, no food, no matter how good, is worth the risk, as there are so many other good things to eat which offer no risk at all.

My son was convinced when we were in Normandy that if you took particularly choice specimens to the pharmacist he would identify them as deadly and then have them for his dinner!!

The German ones still identify, I don't know about Austria. I must ask whether it's the case here in the Czech Republic. This is a country which is full of expert mushroom pickers but they are very careful, usually restricting themselves to a small group of fungi, mainly boletes and chanterelles. I caused a furore amongst the builders working on my house when I showed them the Craterellus cornucopioides (Horn of Plenty, Trompettes de Mort in French) that I intended to eat for my supper.

When you plan to visit someone in the country you don't enquire what the weather has been like, you say "Jsou houby?" "Are there mushrooms?" And the newspapers are full of record sized ceps that people have gathered. And yet even here there are fatal accidents.

Btw my guru here also identifed the OP's photo as probably Paxillus Involutus, the Brown Roll Rim. Used to be thought edible 60 or 70 years ago but has been reclassified after many unfortunate episodes of poisoning.

Well I'll definitely give that one a miss...

Yep, message received loud and clear!

:-)

I like the humour of your son Cestina :-)))

ROFL well Andy, all i can say is i am sooooooooo glad i passed on that quiche tonight lol.... and sooo nice to see you have recieved such a warm GoY welcome........xxxxxx