Surrounded by spruce Pecos wilderness, New Mexico, USA about 10,000 ft asl A lot like Lactarius delicioso, which were numerous in the area, but had no tinge of green and the stalk was not hollow and did not have the bright orange on the outside Spore print gave nothing.
Based on your suggestion, I read about L. rufus on wikipedia; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lactarius_rufus which says: an extremely hot (maybe the hottest) mushroom. They mean spicy hot? I had no idea any mushroom could be spicy. But hey, I live in the land of red and green chile. I can handle it!
All of the spicy hot tasting mushrooms that I'm aware of are considered poisonous. Anyway, I suspect that the spiciness disappears upon cooking. That is certainly the case for Russula emetica, the only spicy mushroom that I've eaten.
'tasting' the spiciness of a Lactarius is fun. All you have to do is take a knife and superficially cut the gills. Watch the milk start to ooze out from your cut, then touch the milk to your tongue. Wait a few seconds for your tongue to burn. Wash out your mouth with water. Wait a few minutes for the burning sensation to go away.
