Found a few clusters of Sheep Polypore (Albatrellus ovinus) today so decided to bring them home and give them a try as their close relative Albatrellus confluens turned out to be a good edible as I recall from a sampling I had a while back.
These young Sheep Polypore seem to be quite soft and tender and I’m curious which Albatrellus will end up as my favorite as Europe seems to prefer ovinus over confluens though N.A considers confluens the best edible.
As mentioned in many sites that describe Sheep Polypore as an edible mushroom its flesh did turn yellow during cooking and it aroma was pleasant. Most sources of edibility info state this mushroom has to be cooked well before consuming which I made sure was done.
Well the results are in. — I thought Albatrellus confluens was a good edible and its relative the Sheep Polypore in my opinion is even better than good. Sliced thin and well cooked this is a top 10 edible mushroom when cooked fresh, this is a big surprise as this mushroom is not rated very high in North America. It is possible the growing conditions in the lowlands of eastern New Brunswick may be ideal for this mushroom to produce good quality edible mushrooms as opposed to the mountainous areas of the west where we seem to find most the info on Sheep Polypore’s edibility in N.A. So if you are a wild mushroom expert or you know one, you may want to check this wild mushroom out a little closer if you live in central N.A. or the east coast. ciao
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