Weirdly, it smelled strongly of cucumbers when it was fresh. Removed the pore surface, sliced into strips and sautéed it in butter. 10/10 texture, 3/10 taste. Crispy on the outside and meaty on the inside, tender but firmer than button mushrooms. Some pieces tasted fine like a normal mushroom but others had an unwelcome sort of aromatic wood/chemically flavor.
I cooked more than just the two in the picture - it could be that the larger (therefore older) ones had the strong taste, or possibly the type of tree that a few of them came from imparted a flavor.
Probably won't go out of my way for them in the future but if I was backpacking for a night or two and came across some I'd for sure cook em up.
I want to like mushrooms more, but damn they gross me out.
There was a point that they grossed me out too, then one day I tried them for the first time in a while and suddenly realized they were delicious haha. Keeping an eye out for them while walking in the woods is like a mini-quest and it's fun to come across something you can take home and eat that you can't buy in a store.