Guépinie

Appears in
Oxford Companion to Food

By Alan Davidson

Published 2014

  • About

guépinie the French name for an edible fungus which falls in the category of jelly fungus. It is unknown in Britain, although it does have the English name ‘apricot jelly’ in the Pacific north-west region of N. America. It is Phlogiotis (formerly Tremiscus or Guepinia) helvelloides, a mountain species which, as the drawing shows, has a remarkable shape, difficult to describe. Its height ranges from 3 to 12 cm (1.5–5"); its colour is rosy orange or coral red; and its texture gelatinous, translucid, and elastic. A French author has described it as looking like a piece of candied fruit without the coating of frosted sugar. It is to be eaten raw in salads, e.g. with chopped hard-boiled eggs, chives, and capers, and a suitable dressing. It has little flavour of its own.