Wild cuisine: Tips on hunting and cooking mushrooms

Ken White/Daily Mail/ Sarah and Russell Lacey with a basket full of freshly-picked area chanterelle mushrooms.

Nevada Daily Mail

When many people think about hunting mushrooms, they think "morels." Moreover, many folks never think of July as a good time to hunt and find another excellent edible mushroom, but they are missing out on some of the best wild food available at this time of the year.

Recently, we were surprised when we were visited by some friends that brought us a big bag of chanterelle mushrooms. They weren't sure of what they had, but after telling them what they had, they said they found a place where there were lots of them. We thanked them for giving us the tasty fungi and the next day I started a search in our front yard where I found dozens of chanterelles.

Ken White/Daily Mail / An oven-fresh Chanterelle-and-bacon pizza is one way to celebrate Missouri's mushroom bounty.

In her book on wild Missouri mushrooms, author Maxine Stone tells about the value of these mushrooms. They are common during July and August and may be found in oak-hickory forests, along with ticks, chiggers and the summer heat. This mushroom, like the tasty morel, is easy to identify. They can be small, tight and round, or large and flower-like with wavy edges. You might detect the odor of apricots when freshly picked.

For an inexperienced mushroom hunter, they need to take care not to confuse chanterelles with the Jack O'Lantern, which grows in clusters on stumps or buried wood.

Jack O'Lantern also has close, sharp-edged gills and fruits in the fall while chanterelles are single to many in moss, leaves, grass in paths and under oaks.

Photo courtesy of MDC/ Missouri chanterelle mushrooms.

This orange-to-yellow colored chanterelle may be smooth or slightly ridged and doesn't have true gills.

The edibility of these mushrooms is rated excellent and are best preserved by sauteing in butter with a little onion and frozen and stored in zip-lock bags

A recipe by Patrick Harvey in the Missouri Department of Conservation book on Missouri's Wild Mushrooms, shows that these mushrooms really go well with the bacon in a Chanterelle and bacon pizza. Here is how to make it:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees

1 pizza crust (home made or ready to use)

6 strips of bacon

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves of fresh minced garlic

2 shallots, sliced

3/4 cup of chanterelles

1 cup of fresh mozzarella cheese, torn into pieces

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

1 teaspoon of Italian seasoning

A few leaves of fresh basil, coarsely chopped.

* Prepare pizza crust as directed.

* Fry bacon crisp and drain.

* Pour bacon grease and add olive oil to the pan.

* Add garlic and shallots.

* Saute until soft.

* Add torn chanterelles, and saute five minutes or until done

* Spread pasta sauce on pizza crust, arrange bacon slices over sauce, place chanterelles mixture over bacon.

* Cover with mozzarella and sprinkle parmesan, Italian seasoning and basil over all. Bake for 15 minutes, or until done.

My wife, Donna, tried this recipe by using her homemade sourdough pizza crust and it was very good.

Stone has some excellent guidelines for collecting Missouri wild mushrooms, including, when you have found a good number of edible fungi, go through them to make sure each and every one is what you think it is.

It's very easy to slip in a few that look similar to your edible collection, but are actually different species, which can be dangerous. I remember years ago when my friend, George Miller said, "When hunting mushrooms, if in doubt, throw it out."

Don't collect mushrooms that might be contaminated with pesticides. Don't hunt near railroad tracks, as these areas are heavily sprayed with chemicals. Golf courses are also places that get a lot of pesticides. Even lawns that have been chemically treated are not good places to pick your mushrooms.

Wild mushrooms shouldn't be eaten raw. Raw mushrooms are difficult to digest and might contain harmful toxins that are destroyed by cooking.

Missouri is a great place to find all kinds of wild mushrooms. Our state has the right climate and habitats for growing dozens of good edible mushroom species, as well as two groups of highly prized edible ---- the morels and chanterelles.

Mushroom hunting is a simple and inexpensive hobby and the reward of finding morels and chanterelles is enjoying them on the dining room table.

The 164 page book Missouri's Wild Mushrooms, published by the Missouri Department of Conservation is available thru MDC, including the Springfield Conservation Nature Center and MDC Southwest Regional Office in Springfield.

The book is an excellent guide to hunting, identifying and cooking Missouri's most common mushrooms.