Shaggy Inkcap in Felbrigg Woods

In early November last year we were walking in the woods at Felbrigg Hall in North Norfolk and found a lovely crop of Shaggy Inkcap fungi, Coprinus comatus, in an area of Sweet Chestnut woodland.

It is a very distinctive species that is easy to identify and rather common, occuring in autumn in grassy areas, such as roadsides and in parks.

Unlike Chicken of the Woods, the Shaggy Inkcap (a. k. a. Lawyer’s Wig) isn’t one of my favourite fungi. John Wright (in “Mushrooms”, River Cottage Handbook No. 1, Bloomsbury 2007) describes the taste as “boiled polystyrene“. I think that’s a little unkind but the first time I tried Shaggy Inkcap I fried pieces in oil and they were slimy and pretty tasteless and I wasn’t at all impressed.

But there were so many Shaggy Inkcaps that we decided to give it another try and that evening we fried slices in a little butter and the result was much more satisfactory and definitely worth repeating. If I find a good crop of Shaggy Inkcaps again, I will definitely eat some of them.

As well as the choice of butter instead of oil, I think the condition of the fungi was important – we chose very firm, fresh specimens. Older inkcaps deliquesce (what a lovely word), going pinkish then black before dissolving in an inky puddle full of spores. While you can use the black puddle as ink, older inkcaps are unsuitable to eat.

The Common Inkcap, Coprinopsis artramentaria, is a close relative and is edible but alcohol should not be consumed for up to 72 hours after taking it.

When we drink alcohol, it is broken down into acetaldehyde in the liver. Acetaldehyde is then broken down into harmless acetic acid by the enzyme acetaldehyde dehydrogenase. Unfortunately Common Ink Caps contain a compound called coprine, an inhibitor of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase, leading to an accumulation of acetaldehyde. This gives us the equivalent of a really bad hangover and symptoms can include facial reddening, nausea, vomiting, malaise agitation, palpitations and tingling in limbs.

I like alcohol too much to have eaten the Common Inkcap. And since a study has shown that (admittedly large) doses of coprine can cause testicular lesions in rats and dogs, I don’t think I’ll be trying Common Inkcaps any time soon.