I saw a poster recently for a similar “tour” on Whidbey Island. Might try it!
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I feel your pain. In fact I’d never seen them fresh here- ever, until I saw some in Sprouts a couple of weeks ago.
Beware of imported morels. A restaurant in Bozeman, Montana has been shuttered for investigation into 2 deaths related to foodborne illness. I haven’t figured out to get the story on here. It came from nbcmontana.com
and is about Dave’s Sushi Update
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Rather disturbing.
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Thanks for putting the story out there. I haven’t figured out how to do that.
It is very disturbing. I wasn’t aware of imported mushrooms, other than those that come here from Oregon or California.
PS Love that cat!
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Since the imported morels were shipped to locations outside of Montana and there were no reported outbreaks of food poisoning in other states, it indicates that improper storage and/or transportation temperatures, conditions may have caused a partial decay or enzymatic breakdown in the morels.
Once cells die, they can be infected with bacteria. Some bacteria make toxins, like Botulism. Others can be pathogenic to humans if ingested. Thorough cooking can prevent the latter, but it’s harder to remove toxins. I read somewhere that it takes a minimum of fifteen minutes of fully boiling to inactivate botulin toxin. Other toxins may stubbornly persist and can’t be cooked out.
Mushrooms are fairly indigestible raw. Most taste better when well cooked, fried to remove much of the moisture and browned a bit. Any mushrooms with an ammoniacal smell should be discarded, as should any food with off odors.
It’s hard to imagine a more fragile mushroom than morels. Even Beard Tooth (a.k.a.Lion’s Mane), Hericium erinaceus, is more flexible. Morels are brittle, fragile and have a massive surface area prone to bruising. They must be stored dry and very cold to prevent spoilage. Even then, their shelf life is short. In many cases, it’s better to thoroughly dry them for storage. They dry quickly at 120°F (49°C) in a dehydrator.
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This stretches credulity. I’ve dried iffy morels for a long time for use throughout the year, and they’ve always been fine with a short rehydration and frying. I would’ve put my money on them having ANTImicrobial properties.
Considering that the outside crenellations and the inside of the mantle can hold on tenacously to dirt, insects, etc., if I were investigating, I’d focus on how the suspect mushrooms were cleaned. Just sayin’…
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Thanks. Beautiful and relaxing. But I was so hungry for her food at the end!
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Why is this news?
Drying kills a lot of bacteria, as does cooking. Mushrooms, like any moist food, can spoil. If the morels in question were stored in a plastic bag and kept for too long or at too warm a storage temperature, I guarantee they can become toxic. I’ve tried culturing morel spores in a laboratory and they are teeming with associated microbes, especially slime molds. These are normally harmless as long as the tissues are alive. Some species have antimicrobial properties, but only towards certain bacteria. An the research on antimicrobial compounds is generally done with concentrated extracts of certain fractions or compounds.
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28286150/)
Mushrooms undergo lysis if too old or stored improperly. At this point, they are unfit to eat.
While button-stage mushrooms present a smooth surface which is easily cleaned, it’s virtually impossible to thoroughly wash mushrooms with gills. “teeth” or other sporangia. Cooking is the safest method for preparation. Mushrooms are fairly indigestible raw, but cooking renders them easier to digest. Plus, they taste better.
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There’s been an odd shortage of morels here this season. Usually they start out at $30/lb, then go down to as low as $15. But after the $30 batch was gone, no more appeared.
They started out at $49/lb this year, at the end of May. But the store had them for $29/lb yesterday, and I got a small handful, probably a couple of dollars worth. I sliced them thinly and sauteed until they were crisp, then added them to a havarti omelet. Crunchy bursts of umami!
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just started seeing them in Santa Cruz county last week. $29/lb. the first batch i bought smelled a little ‘dusty’, but they cooked up nicely.
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Down to $19/lb in Berkeley, a little moldy so I had to choose carefully.
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