Weeping Bolete (Suillus granulatus) and Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus)
Thanks for my precious half we have this wonderful video about very successful harvest of Weeping Bolete (Suillus granulatus) and Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus) 
For those who are curios to know what happened with mushrooms after we finished shooting I can say that we have found some more Suillus mushrooms which we have collected in addition to those shown in video. So, after getting them home, cleaning, sorting and cutting I’ve got enough mushrooms to marinate (will post soon about it), to cook omelette and today I plan to stuff marrow squash with weeping boletes (I’ll share my recipes on this blog), and maybe to cook soup with left mushrooms.
Here I have few more photos to show you how Weeping Bolete and Skillery Jack looks in the nature.
 Weeping Bolete (Suillus granulatus) growing in wild |
 Weeping Bolete with yellow convex cap in the wild |
 Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus) growing in wild |
 Slippery Jack with brown convex cap in the wild |
Both mushrooms (Weeping or Granulated Bolete and Slippery Jack or Sticky Ban) have very bright colorful convex cap which is sticky when it’s dry and slippery when it’s wet. In fact, I think that’s the only wild edible mushroom which has shining and sticky cap. It’s hard to miss it in the forest as its bright cap can be seen from far distance.
As you can see from the picture below those Suillus mushrooms have some difference – shape of the cap and steam width.
 Slippery Jack or Sticky Ban (Suillus luteus) |
 Weeping or Granulated Bolete (Suillus granulatus) |
- Weeping Bolete has more flattish convex cap than Slippery Jack.
- Almost every Slippery Jack mushroom has a veil around stem when Weeping Bolete has it more rarely.
- The stem of Slippery Jack is thicker than steam of Weeping Bolete
- The stem of Slippery Jack has color similar to its cap when the color of Weeping Bolete stem is darker than it’s cap (usually it is dark brown).
Underneath the cap they remain to be similar – both have yellow tubes which are smaller when the mushroom is young and bigger if it’s well-developed mushroom. For eating well-developed mushrooms are good. Though for preservation it’s better to take smaller, younger mushrooms.
 Suillus (well-developed) mushroom tubes underneath the cap |
 Suillus (young) mushrooms underneath their caps |
If we cut the mushroom cap in halves we see that it has light yellow flesh with a small layer of tubed surface which is darker than cap’s flesh.
 Weeping Bolete or Granulated Bolete (Suillus granulatus) cap cut in halves |
 Cleaned, sorted, cut and prepared for cooking Weeping Bolete (Suillus granulatus) and Slippery Jack (Suillus luteus) |
I hope that now you know how Suillus species look like and how to identify them.
I wish you good luck with your Weeping Bolete and Slippery Jack hunting and share with me your stories
Do you peel off the “slippery” top of the slippery jack before cooking it? This has been suggested to me, but you do not mention it.
Thanks!
Hi Sandy,
). Plus, it’s very hard work to peel the skin of the cap. Considering that I bring from forest many other mushrooms I would not like to spend a lot of time for cleaning. And the Suillus mushrooms preservation does not require any peeling, therefore, I never do that. I know many people who do not peel Suillus tops 
No, I do not peel the skin off as I do not consider it’s necessary. it does not influence the taste or mushrooms edibility (they are edible and safe with or without skin
P.S. I have also responded you on my Edible Wild Mushrooms facebook page.
Do you eat your granulatus when the flesh has become as spongy as your cut in half pic shows? I prefer mine firm like a cooked egg white texture. White to yellowish flesh but the spongy ones go into my woods in hopes for a colony. I’m a newbie yet have collected over 5 lbs so far in the last week. I don’t peel the caps on the granulatus and they were great stir fried with purselane and zucchini.
In the same 10 days I’ve only found 2 small blewits and one pear shaped puffball. The puffball was great fried in butter
Hi Frank,
They were not as spongy as one might think. Though I would say the younger are mushrooms (young Suillus mushrooms would have a cap attached to the stem and about 1-2 cm in diameter) the better they taste. I was kind of sentimental to pick such young mushroom species, so I took some and left the others to grow. The mushroom cut in halves on the photo had a cap about 5 cm in diameter, so I would say it was quite developed but not old yet.
Due to the rainy weather which we have had in July-August many Suillus species got to be full of water and very spongy. It was a pity to leave them in woods
hi, we’ve collected a couple of buckets of slippery jacks recently and place them to the water, they’ve socked up and we’ve cleaned them and pealed the top skin of them then fried them on the fry pan , and had a diharrea next day, i guess we’ve done something wrong , or didn’t cook them well or socked them in the water so it made the spounge socked with skin’s juice . people say we’ve got wrong mushrooms but people in australia know only mushrooms from the supermarket but i know that slippy jacks can’t be mistaken with any other mushrooms because of the tube sponge and their slippry top. do you know if we have to boil them before cooking as they’ve got waterin them now? and can we freez them ?
Hi Alan,
Usually Suillus species (including Slippery Jack) are fully edible without any special preparation. I myself never clean the skin from them – it’s too much hassle. Pored mushrooms (the ones that have sponge) do not require any soaking. In fact, it just makes them too watery and damages their texture. So, I don’t believe that soaking has anything to do with your symptoms. Even if you fried the mushrooms not enough it’s not going to cause any problems except of maybe not so pleasant taste and feel on tongue (it’s same as if you do not fry enough potato or fish). I don’t like eating half-cooked food whatever it is
Yes, Slippery Jack can be frozen as well as dried or marinated (pickled).
Now, the following your statement is not entirely correct:
In general, there are dozens of other pored mushrooms (with tube sponge) in woods and all of them can have slippery tops if it was rainy before mushroom picking. What’s important – colors. The color of top, the color of sponge, the color of stem, the color of mushroom inside when you cut it into halves. Of course, I mean raw mushroom, not cooked. Please feel free to browse this blog to see articles on wild mushrooms I collected. I know most of wild pored mushrooms, so you may want to post photo of your mushroom on my Facebook page next time.
Another question what were you eating pored mushrooms with. If they were Slippery Jack, it might be that some food didn’t go well along with mushrooms.
Hope this helps.