Mushrooms Are Coming!

[Justin Spencer]

Morels have been known to cause mild poisoning symptoms when consumed with alcohol.

Proved that wrong last night, found another 29 today so I'll see if I can get poisoned again tonight. Sounds like an excuse for a little over consumption if you ask me.

[Trout Commander]

Sounds like an excuse for a little over consumption if you ask me.

In the name of science!

[jdmidwest]

Done hunting mushrooms, its time to harvest. Went back to the spot from last week where I left some for seed. The little guys did some growing and called up a bunch of friends. 65 in all. Soaking the bugs out of them now, they are full of them, 2 salt baths and 2 rinses, mites are still coming out. Should have picked some Friday by the looks of them. Good rain on Sat and today will get them popping up all over this week around here.

[flytyer57]

Soaking the bugs out of them now, they are full of them, 2 salt baths and 2 rinses, mites are still coming out.

What's wrong with a little meat with your veggies?

[Gavin]

They taste better if they are very fresh, and not soaked....but you do what you gotta do...Nice Mess!

[Al Agnew]

I was surprised in reading the MDC website that the reds have definitely caused deaths. A few years after the great Mississippi flood of 1993, which killed a huge number of big cottonwoods and other trees on Kaskaskia Island, there was an explosion of the red false morels. Everybody in our families had always eaten them, so we went out and gathered them by the sackload. Four of us brought out five grocery bags apiece the first day.

Mary, my wife, sliced them like beefsteak, dipped them in seasoned flour, and pan fried them. We ate them until our sides were sticking out like puppies. Soon afterward, Mary got sick, nauseous and diarrhea and dizziness. She didn't think anything of it. So a couple days later she fried up another bunch for us, and again she got sick, worse and it came on quicker. So she decided she was allergic to them. I must have eaten ten pounds of the things that year without any ill effects, and nobody else got sick, either. After reading that the toxin goes airborne, I just realized that Mary may have gotten sick because she was the one standing over the skillet frying them!

[jdmidwest]

They taste better if they are very fresh, and not soaked....but you do what you gotta do...Nice Mess!

I usually do that with little greys or yellows that are in better shape. But these have been up for a while and the mites and ants have been working them hard. Some ended up down the disposal, eat up thru and thru.

As you can see, I have a bounty at the moment. How do you normally store them for later? I have sliced and breaded them, then froze them. Usually works if I eat them within the next few weeks.

[Gavin]

I usually pan fry lightly then vac pack..or toss them in the dehydrator & vac pack...then toss em in the deep freeze. Dehydrated ones will need to be reconstituted in water...and dont pitch the water..it adds a good flavor to stocks & stews.

Favorite...toss shrooms in a bit of S&P and some saffron..dust with 50/50 flour & cornmeal...very light...pan fry in grape seed oil,high heat... finish off the pan with a good dollop of room temp butter...........Need to go track down some saffron & grape seed oil.

[jdmidwest]

Need to go track down some saffron & grape seed oil.

Yeah,,ok! Mine tasted pretty fine tonight in Land of the Lakes Salted Butter and Club Cracker Crumbs. But yours sounds pretty good too.

I tried the dehydrator and came out with almost nothing one time. How dry do you usually dehydrate. Mine came out about like a macaroni noodle.

Al, I have heard some locals going after the reds around here in the bottoms too. I only stick to the morels, and sometimes, after a good mess of them, I get the poots.

[Justin Spencer]

To preserve for later we just roll in flour (or bread like you normally would) then put on a cookie sheet and freeze. Bag them up (vac would probably be best). Just take them out of the freezer and drop them in the oil frozen. They'll keep a year or so that way, and are still almost as good as fresh.

Found a few falsies the other day and after studying about them decided they were probably the etible kind, but the wife threw them out anyway. If you look in the books there are several kinds of false morels, some are poisonous, some are not.