Apparently, the word 'mushroom' isn't taught in Swiss schools...
Maybe it's a German thing, but all of the local restaurants / canteens tend to use boletus as the English translation of pilz . Until I moved here, I'd never even heard the word before -- I had to Google it.
Did you miss the Stein before the Pilz?
In any case I've never seen "boletus" used in the UK - they'd more likely use "porcino" or possibly (rightly or wrongly) something like "wild mushroom".
Boletus is an English word: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boletus
However, I, and most people I know, use the Italian name, porcini, when speaking English, as Boletus is a family name, and Steinpilz (porcini) is a specific type (Boletus edulis).
Tom
You're right, they are steinpilz.
But yes, what newtoswitz is correct -- in the US or UK, these would almost certainly be referred to as porcino mushrooms or, less frequently, cepes. I've never seen the word boletus on an English-language menu, regardless of whether it's an English word or not...
? it's Latin according to the article you linked...
"The name is derived from the Latin term bōlētus 'mushroom'"
'Derived from' does not mean 'is'.
Tom
Complicated- btw did you know the English word 'mushroom' is a Saxon distortion for the French word 'mousseron' - a species of mushrooms (St Georges mushroom- gathered April to May depending on location)! Those Saxon peasants were not too good at pronouncing French (mind you, Norman French was a bit bizarre anyhow, as they were Vikings and not French at all)...Charpentier became carpenter, and plombier = plumber, and 1000s more.
Boletus is also a very specific species, with tubes rather than gills underneath, and very popular (and expensive- in Switzerland and Europe). As said above, Porcini in Italian, Steinpilz in German, and in France, 'Cep' in most of the country, but 'bolet' in the East- and also called 'bolet' in Romandie. They will be even more expensive now, as this season's was a bit of a disaster, and so few found, due to very dry Summer and Autumn.
The most used cooking mushroom is grown in caves on horse manure and straw- and is called 'champignon de Paris' (as it was first grown in caves in .. Paris)- and is much cheaper and less tasty. Unless you find the wild form 'rosé des prés' or other related species, which are much tastier.
I get really annoyed, as a mushroom buff- when restaurants advertise something cooked with 'wild mushrooms' when they clearly are not, but cave grown Oyster mushrooms and a darker form of 'champignon de Paris'.
If the canteen is advertising 'boletus' and serving 'ordinary mushroom' - then they are legally mis-representing. On the other hand- if you are truly getting 'boletus' then you are very lucky. I have complained many times when expected to pay good money in restaurants for 'wild mushrooms' and got ordinary mushrooms (strangely called 'champignons' in Germand, lol)...they were always very surprised, in the UK, that anyone knew the difference.
OK, fair point - but plant genera are frequently used "as is" in English, I wouldn't say they were really English words unless commonly accepted and used in normal speech.
The only people likely to use "boletus" are naturalists and maybe chefs, and even then the latter wouldn't put it on their menu in most cases.
Well, at least they tried, right?
I mean, come on, in the USA, they call every meal "Swiss" that has some kind of a generic goo on or in it, although that stuff is not Swiss at all, maybe not even real cheese. But at least they tried. I would look at it as kind of poetic license (licence for the Brits) while trying to be nice.
LOL, love it when they ask in the US 'would you like Swiss (cheese) with that? And I reply, if that cheese is really Swiss, yes, I'd love some- if it comes from Wisconsin, you can keep it and they haven't got clue what I'm on about!
The English translation is "penny bun mushroom".
I assure you that there's not an Englishman alive who knows he's eaten a Penny Bun mushroom!
My OH does (I taught him... when first married, we survived on all sorts of wild mushrooms when we lived between Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common). My daughters too, although they grew up in Leicestershire, where I used to find tons of wild mushrooms, including Penny Buns- but mainly blewitts, bluelegs, parasols, oyster mushrooms, field and wood mushrooms and St Georges.