When going for the first spring mushrooms, you need to be extremely careful. It doesn’t matter whether you’re going to the forest or to the store, the advice is the same for everyone: look carefully at what you’re going to put in your cart. “360” tells how not to fall for natural tricks, distinguish real from false morels, and also where it is better to go for prey.
Before we start looking at mushrooms and their differences from their poisonous counterparts, look at the map with the most mushroom places in the Moscow region:
Photo source: TV channel “360”
How to distinguish morel mushrooms from strings: comparison, similarities and differences
Morel and string
Morel and string mushrooms are very similar in appearance. It is difficult for an inexperienced mushroom picker to immediately spot the differences. Let's compare these two types of mushroom. Here are the similarities and differences:
- In morels, the cap has a regular external structure: conical or round. The lines have an unusual shape and resemble a brain.
- The stem of morels is smooth - without deep folds or convolutions, and long. This mushroom rises well from the ground, it seems to stretch upward. The stem of the mushroom is almost invisible, it is squat and one can say that this mushroom, on the contrary, goes into the ground.
- Morels are smaller than lines.
- Morels have a nutty or mushroom smell , while the flesh of the string is almost odorless.
- The morel is empty in the middle and filled with creamy or light-colored pulp . The line is also hollow inside, but its flesh resembles large convolutions.
At first glance, it seems that these two types of mushroom are similar, but if you look at them in more detail, the differences are obvious.
Biological description
Morels are mushrooms that belong to the genus Morels and the Morschellaceae family, and are one of the largest representatives of this family . The height varies from 6 to 20 cm, the weight of one specimen can reach 500 g. It has a fleshy elongated ovoid cap, which is strongly wrinkled and consists of indentations.
The morel is so popular in the United States that in 1974 the state of Minnesota declared it its official legal mushroom.
Its height usually does not exceed 7 cm, and its diameter is 8 cm. The color can be varied: from yellow to gray. A distinctive feature of old specimens from young ones is the dark color of the cap. The legs are cylindrical in shape and tightly connected to the caps. Length - from 3 to 9 cm, thickness - from 1.5 to 3 cm.
Young specimens have white legs, while older specimens have a creamy and yellowish tint . When visually examining the mushroom, it looks proportional: the size of the cap and stem are the same. The cut has a light cream color. The pulp, which is fragile, easily crumbles under mechanical stress.
There are several of the most common edible types of morels:
- ordinary;
- conical;
- high;
- steppe.
Where, in what forest and when can you pick morel mushrooms?
Morels
Morel mushrooms appear only on soils favorable for their growth, namely:
- In coniferous and mixed forest plantations and forests, on the edges, along roads, clearings
- In garden plots
- On the ground after fires
- In parks and gardens
Morels grow equally well in fertile soils as well as in sandy and sandy loam soils. Finding such a mushroom is not easy, as its cap blends in with the color of last year’s foliage and dry grass. These mushrooms are collected in April-May.
False doubles
False doubles of morels are strings ; they are very similar in appearance, so inexperienced mushroom pickers can easily confuse them and harvest a deadly one instead of an edible one. The lines contain a potent toxic substance - gyromitrin, which, if ingested in large quantities, is fatal.
If you eat a small amount of cooked strings, the consequences may not be so frightening, but the toxic effect on the body will manifest itself in the form of severe poisoning, damage to the central nervous system, liver, and gastrointestinal tract.
The lines refer to marsupial fungi from the Discinaceae family . The appearance of the cap is reminiscent of the surface of a walnut; it is presented in the shape of an uneven circle and can reach a diameter of 2 to 10 cm. The edges of the lower part are tightly connected to the stem. The color can vary: from yellow-brown to red-brown, depending on the area of growth.
The leg is irregular in shape, short - up to 3 cm in height and up to 2 cm in diameter, wrinkled, with many grooves, and has a slight thickening at the base. The stem is hollow inside and the flesh is yellow-pink. String is common in coniferous forests, prefers sunny areas, and grows on plant debris.
Did you know? Morels are very expensive because they are not grown artificially, but are collected only from the wild. One kg of dried mushrooms can be purchased for an average of $100.
In order not to confuse an edible and a dangerous mushroom, it is necessary to consider the main differences between them:
- the cap of an edible specimen usually has the shape of a cone, and the stitching is round;
- morels are completely visible on the soil surface, and the stem of the lines is partially or completely immersed in the substrate, it is practically invisible on the surface;
- the edible one has a void inside the cap, while the inedible one is completely filled with twisted pulp;
- An edible mushroom has practically no mushroom smell, while an inedible one has a pronounced smell.
Is it necessary and how to peel and process morel mushrooms?
Morels
do not need to be peeled and filmed. It is important to process them correctly before cooking:
- First you need to soak the mushrooms in salted water overnight - 2 tablespoons of salt per 10 liters of water. This type of water removes dirt better.
- Then you should boil the mushrooms for half an hour . Large mushrooms must be cut in half. After boiling, drain the water.
- Add water again and cook for 20 minutes.
- Change the water again and boil the mushrooms again for 20 minutes.
After this treatment, the mushrooms can be fried, boiled, or cooked with them in various dishes.
Cooking recommendations
Before cooking, mushrooms should be washed thoroughly and the pores should be inspected for insects or snails. Next, they are soaked for an hour in boiled water. Morels need to be cooked for a long time to remove all kinds of toxins from them. It is advised to ventilate the room during cooking, as the toxins contained in the mushrooms will come out along with the steam. Some mushroom pickers boil morels more than 3 times to make sure they are completely cleaned. Boiled morels should also be washed. After this procedure, you can use morels to prepare main courses, appetizers or fillings.
Drying or frying morels should also take a long time. After drying, you can make a powder from the mushrooms, which can add a mushroom flavor to any dish.
When cooked properly, morels are very useful for improving vision, the circulatory system and cleansing the stomach.
And mushrooms can also cause harm to the body , for example, if they are cooked incorrectly or eaten raw. The toxic substances in them can only be destroyed by prolonged cooking or prolonged drying (even after drying they are eaten after 3 months). It is also prohibited to salt or pickle morels.
Are morel mushrooms healthy: benefits and harms?
Morel Mushroom
Scientists biologists have conducted many studies with morel mushrooms, thanks to which they discovered that such mushrooms contain the substance FD4.
- This is a polysaccharide compound that helps strengthen the eye muscle.
- Currently, many medications have been created that help cope with clouding of the eye lens.
- The substances that make up morels help cleanse the blood and lymph, increase immunity, appetite and the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
- The harm of these mushrooms is that they can be confused with poisonous strings - they are very similar in appearance.
In addition, morels have a low calorie content - 16 kcal per 100 grams. But you shouldn’t eat a lot of these mushrooms, as this heavy food may cause indigestion in the intestines.
Stitches
A few words about the lines (Gyromitra). From time immemorial in Russia they ate strings with preliminary boiling and draining of water. And our family too. But Europeans manage to poison themselves with them, and a fatal outcome has been recorded. Mycologists associate poisoning with gyrometrin toxins, which accumulate in the lines in different ways: in some places more, in others less.
If you have no experience using stitches, it is better not to risk it. If you have doubts about the identification of a mushroom, it is better to leave it in the forest - the forest inhabitants will figure it out. And the most important thing is not to be greedy: you don’t have to eat a frying pan of fried mushrooms at once. You can try a little and put the rest off until tomorrow. A frying pan with mushrooms will not run away. Checked!
Can there be morel mushroom poisoning?
Morel Mushrooms
It has long been known that mushrooms absorb harmful toxins from the soil. Therefore, it is not recommended to collect any mushrooms in contaminated areas. This also applies to morels. Mild poisoning may occur if such mushrooms are not prepared correctly, since each organism perceives helvella acid differently. Therefore, before cooking, thoroughly soak the mushrooms and boil, changing the water 3 times.
Don't eat morels in large quantities. Serve them as a delicacy - tasty and original.
Curly Shaker
Strange lacy formations of all shades of yellow are often found on rotting wood. And all year round. This is the orange tremella (Tremella mesenterica). These tremors have an interesting property: when dry, they look like sloppy rags, and after rain they swell, acquiring their usual jellyfish-like appearance.
The fungus turned out to be not so simple - it does not grow on rotting wood, but parasitizes on another fungus, the tinder fungus itself, which destroys wood. Trembling plants also grow everywhere - in the north and south, in Europe and Asia.
If you encounter brown tremors on a rotting tree, you should not take them - they are inedible. You can only eat orange and fucus. But it is found only in Primorye, otherwise it is called white and looks like strangely frozen water.
The mushroom, fresh or dried, is good in soups and is considered a delicacy in China. Trembling has long been actively used in Chinese medicine, due to its immunostimulating, radioprotective, antidiabetic, antiallergenic and hepatoprotective properties. So eating it is very useful. Moreover, it can be dried, pickled, fried, boiled, eaten raw and even made into jam.
Tremulous fucus is used in Chinese, Korean and Japanese medicine even more actively than orange. There are no poisonous tremors, there are simply inedible ones that have no taste or smell.
Orange tremella (Tremella mesenterica). © Tatyana Nikolina
Growing at home
The best medium for growing fruiting bodies is considered to be a dead organic substrate, because... Mycologists classify these fungi as saprophytes.
There are several ways to cultivate this species:
- In France, they are grown in open ground under the foliage and fruit of apple trees.
- In Germany, they got used to getting a good harvest from a mixture of mycelium, wood ash or paper ash. In addition to this composition, nutritious components are used - compost or rotted manure. In the fall, the bed is covered with a layer of fallen leaves or compressed straw; in the spring, the cover is removed to allow the mushrooms to grow and develop.
You can also use a less labor-intensive growing method: place morel caps in a bucket of rain or melt water and shake well. The prepared bed is watered with the prepared solution. This manipulation is done in the spring, at the end of April or at the beginning of May, and always in damp weather.
To avoid moisture evaporation, the area is mulched with a thick layer of pine sawdust and wood chips. In spring, the mulch is carefully removed.
Next year, under favorable weather conditions (at a temperature of 15-16°C), young mushrooms will appear.
Collection rules
Collecting morels is not an easy task, since they like to hide under fallen leaves, in thickets of bushes and even under fallen tree trunks.
Choose young specimens - they have more tender and aromatic flesh.
You can determine their age by the color of the leg - it is beige or white; in more mature mushrooms it is yellowish, in older ones it is brown or brown.
To collect, you will need a sharp knife, a wicker basket, and a stick for searching among the vegetation.
The cut is made at the very bottom to leave the mycelium in the soil. In the future it will produce new fruiting bodies. The collected mushrooms are shaken off from soil and forest debris and placed in a container intended for collection.
It is advisable to carry out processing immediately after collection.
