This is a first time I came across one of these and what a weirdo. I found it initially and it had the mother of all volv.........universal veils.
I let it pop and I ended up with a big beautiful white mushrooms. They say it is edible but the whole growing out of the sack grossed me out on this one so I passed.
Fascinating! Hmm, they remind me of deer mushrooms, I wonder if they taste similar?
Volvariella used to be in the same family as Pluteus before they got their own and they're still in a suborder together (along with the Amanita family).
I've tried Straw paddy mushrooms (Volvariella volvacea) before and they have a much better texture than Deer Mushrooms. They sell them in cans at Asian grocery stores.
Ah, yes, I've had the canned ones! They're pretty tasty. I tried a deer mushroom once, when I found one that wasn't yet full of bugs..it was okay, but very skippable.
Deer Mushrooms look so big until you cut them up and realize the cap is 90% gills and the tiny bit of flesh cooks down to nothing 😭