# Morel Mushrooms



## elkmule123

Well I learned how to identify a false morel mushroom today. Yesterday I came across this mushroom and thought got lucky with a morel mushroom. After a little research to try and confirm it, i wasn't so lucky. I had found a false morel.


False Morel Look-alike:

Cap is more wavy and lobed. It appears to be bulging outwards.
Cap often has an irregular shape and appears "squashed", almost as though it has been stepped on.
Cap hangs freely off the stem. If you slice it lengthwise you'll see the cap is attached to the very top of the stem.
The inside is not hollow. It will be filled with some cottony fibers or chunks of tissue.


Hopefully I'll have better luck next time.


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## longbow

Glad to see you love mushrooms too. Morels are so good fried in butter and onions!


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## wyogoob

Good job.


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## elkmule123

Yeah I love adding the sauteed mushrooms and caramelized onions with a bit of reduced balsamic vinegar on my elk steaks.


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## elkmule123

Since I've never actually found an edible morel mushroom, I was wondering. Do they grow in the same area as the fake morels?


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## hunting777

I see mushroom that look like that all the time hunting. I have never picked any. I don't know which are edible and which are not. can any of you help and give me some pointers or websites to look at? I love mushrooms. The non drug type, to be honest I don't even know what those look like. But any info will help. thanks


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## Christine

The trick to finding morels is to wait until they get some size to them. 

And dead elm trees.


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## Dunkem

Christine said:


> The trick to finding morels is to wait until they get some size to them.
> 
> And dead elm trees.


Now thats a mushroom,where is the butter?8)


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## hunting777

so are the false Morel edible?


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## Christine

Quite a few people eat the false morels but other folks have unpleasant reactions to them. I can only eat a small amount of real morels so I haven't dared try the false ones. Besides, where I'm from they have a rather unpalatable nickname.


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## hunting777

Christine said:


> . Besides, where I'm from they have a rather unpalatable nickname.


you got my curiosity, Which Is?


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## Christine

Uhh.... 'dog pecker' or 'peckerheads'... Hey, you asked. :shock::shock::shock:


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## wyogoob

Nice morel Christine. Illinois? Boy, they're having good morel year this year.

I can eat false morels, my wife cannot.

Growing up we had morels on our farm in Illinois.

There are some good black morel places south of Evanston. I can't remember exactly where they are now. Odd, but I have the same problem remembering where the golden trout lakes are in the Wind Rivers.

uh....if you like snowbank morels, and hell, who doesn't like snowbank morels, now is the time. Look along melting snowbanks in lodgepole/spruce/willow wet areas. Stateline Reservoir area or along the Mirror Lake Highway. Learn how to ID snowbank morels, their lookalike cousins will kill you.


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## Christine

Yep, that was from Illinois, last Spring. In between moving trips I had to hit the tick-filled woods at least once and find some mushrooms.

Sometimes we'd find morels in the yard. Of course, sometimes there'd be weird fungi growing in the basement of that old farmhouse. Oh, how I won't miss the constant summertime humidity.

In the fall I went back to deer hunt and found this. A first for me. I didn't try to eat it but I hear they are tasty.


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## hunting777

so what is that??


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## elkmule123

wyogoob said:


> I can eat false morels, my wife cannot.


How did you cook it? Did you just try small amounts to determine if you could handle it? Does it just make your wife feel sick?


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## Bailie

Congrats on the large mushroom. Me and my wife look everywhere when we go hunting. We have only found one in Big Cottonwood Canyon too far to go for just one mushroom though. Is anyone have any pointers for northern Utah like Ogden to Cache Valley


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## Bailie

Has anyone found in the morels in northern Utah from Ogden to Logan


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## wyogoob

elkmule123 said:


> How did you cook it? Did you just try small amounts to determine if you could handle it? Does it just make your wife feel sick?


Dip in a milk and egg mixture then roll in cracker crumbs and fry in butter just like you would any morel.

My wife will get diarrhea.

.


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## elkmule123

Thanks wyogoob, I'll have to be honest though. I through it away, the site that I confirmed it being a fake morel suggest not eating eat. Didn't want to chance it, but will now.


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## longbow

Bailie said:


> Has anyone found in the morels in northern Utah from Ogden to Logan


Once up by Mantua but I haven't seen any for many years. Since you're from Clinton, you might be familiar with Doc Flats on the road to Willard peak. If you go to the north side of Doc Flats and follow the four wheeler trail up through the firs you'll find some Agaracus, [same kind you buy in the store], growing in the duff under the trees. You won't find any down in the maples but as soon as you get past the first switchback start looking below the trail.


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## Bailie

That's a big shroom


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## Bailie

Thanks for the heads up we will go take a look at that


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## longbow

longbow said:


> Once up by Mantua but I haven't seen any for many years. Since you're from Clinton, you might be familiar with Doc Flats on the road to Willard peak. If you go to the north side of Doc Flats and follow the four wheeler trail up through the firs you'll find some Agaracus, [same kind you buy in the store], growing in the duff under the trees. You won't find any down in the maples but as soon as you get past the first switchback start looking below the trail.


*I meant south end of Doc Flats.*


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## wyogoob

elkmule123 said:


> Thanks wyogoob, I'll have to be honest though. I through it away, the site that I confirmed it being a fake morel suggest not eating eat. Didn't want to chance it, but will now.


You are wise beyond your years....uh how many years are ya?

.


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## elkmule123

IDK, I'd have to think about it.  I quit counting when I was 29, but the Mrs says I'm not over the hill yet. So that is good.


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## wyogoob

The morels were good back home this spring; a little late, but lots of big ones. 

Wish I'd been there.


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## elkmule123

My FIL came back from a hike earlier this week and was able to find two nice sized black morels and a few small false morels. He said they were growing right next to each other.

I also came across this site, stating the process to render the false morels edible.

http://www.dlc.fi/~marianna/gourmet/morel.htm


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## elkmule123

We sauteed the black morels up last night in butter. They are delicious!!! Time to hit the hills again and find some more.


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## elkmule123

we came across these puffballs this weekend.


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## fishreaper

these are some familiar looking shrooms, but I've never had the audacity to pick and consume a mushroom, even if I recognized it. I'd always be warned never to eat wild mushrooms. Mostly because I was a kid and couldn't be trusted to trust my own judgement. There was talk a couple of months ago on this forum of some congregation that brought actual mushroom experts and novices together to practice finding and identifying mushrooms. Sounds like a good mushroom 101.


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## elkmule123

I cooked up some of it in butter last night. I do have to say it has an different texture while being eaten. Definitely not hearty like a morel.


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## fishreaper

Evidently, some species of false morels , for example gyromitria esculenta contain gyromitrin, which is potentially carcinogenic (cause cancer). False morels, in large or frequent quantities, can also cause loss of coordination in muscles, including cardiac (Heart) muscles. 

I must say though, the more I read the more interested I am.


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## elkmule123

Hmmm I wonder if we'd be able to isolate that from the false morel and develop a drug that could help someone with muscle spasms.


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## elkmule123

The amanita mushroom can look like a puffball mushroom in its infancy. If you cut the puffball mushroom in half and it looks like a mushroom is growing inside it, throw it out. There is also a puffball mushroom called a pig skin puffball that you need to stand clear of.


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## hunting777

I had a good friend just bring me 4-5 pounds on Moerls. They have been in the freezer just a few weeks. I can't wait to try them!


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## elkmule123

Lucky ... Enjoy :grin:


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## wyogoob

From my hometown:



.


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## Iron Bear

Strikes me as overkill.


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## wyogoob

Iron Bear said:


> Strikes me as overkill.


 Yeah, shouldn't take three people to pick those morels.

.


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## elkmule123

:mrgreen: Especially now that you have to share them with each other.


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## wyogoob

You can't over harvest mushrooms really. The mushroom is just a smart part, the fruit if I may, of the fungi. Most of the thing lies below as mycellium. The mycellium will be there next year and if moisture and temperature conditions are right the morel will come back up in the same place.

The pile of morels in the picture that my friends picked is an average amount of morels for an outing for three guys in an Illinois woods. The shrooms are harvested on private land. If they don't get picked they just wither away, unused. I know the guy on the right personally and I assure you none of the morels were wasted, as if it makes any difference.

Yellow Morels love dead and decaying elm. The great American Elm die-off during the 50s and 60s across mid-America has been good for the morel. The rotting elm tree trunks and stumps are now prime for morel growth. 

The bounty in that part of the country is incredible; raspberries, blackberries, asparagus, mushrooms, hickory nuts, walnuts, ginseng......and more.

.


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## wyogoob

elkmule123 said:


> :mrgreen: Especially now that you have to share them with each other.


Uh huh.

Where I come from you grabbed a buddy and went out and picked a sack of morel mushrooms...maybe drank a beer or two. And then you went to town and give them all away.

It's an unwritten mushroom picking rule. Sausage making has the same rule. You are only allowed to keep 10% of the sausage you make for personal use. The balance must be given away.

.


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## Iron Bear

Strikes me as overkill.


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## Iron Bear

^^^^Crickets? Be sure to tip you waitress.


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## elkmule123

Ok here's one that I found yesterday. Any clue which kind of mushroom?


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## wyogoob

elkmule123 said:


> Ok here's one that I found yesterday. Any clue which kind of mushroom?


Not much to go by for me. Some kind of Russula, my guess.

.

.


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## elkmule123

Thanks wyogoob. What more should I have shown. Those onions in the back ground are about 4 to 5 inches in diameter. There isn't any left over hood attachment on the stem.


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