How to Process Wild Chanterelles

 No other PNW mushroom is as prized AND plentiful as the chanterelle. 

Image 1.A: Freshly picked chanterelles plus a handful of shaggy manes (left)

This post is intended as a guide for cleaning, cutting, flash boiling, and freezing recently picked chanterelles. Identification of any wild mushroom should be performed with a seasoned veteran and reliable, peer-reviewed field guide. Any mention of a chanterelle's features in this post should not be relied upon for identifying your own mushrooms in the wild. 

My family has been harvesting chanterelles for four generations. Starting when I was little (when mushrooms were "mutrooms"), I have been taught to spot, confirm, and sustainably harvest wild edibles; chanterelles being our preferred harvest each Fall. If I am an ever unsure about a mushroom I have found, I will not keep it. 

Chanterelles, like many varieties, tend to grow in beds. Where there is one, there is likely more. That is my family's motto. Look around, but be aware that mushrooms of other kinds can grow in the same patches. So each mushroom picked must be verified. 

With that said, let's assume you have found, verified, and harvested your gallon limit and are ready to process your chanterelles.

Mushroom Picking Permits

A word about harvest limits and permits.

Mushroom harvesting in Oregon's forests is regulated by the USDA Forest Service. In order to pick mushrooms for your personal use -- meaning non-commercial intent -- you may need to obtain a harvest permit from the local ranger station or via online request according to the national forest in which you will be hunting.

Here is a map of Oregon's national forest boundaries provided by the University of Oregon: 

Image 1.B

For example, I obtained a free mushroom picking permit for the Willamette National Forest (click link for local regs) at the McKenzie River Ranger Station. Note from the WNF link that pickers can harvest one gallon per person per day for personal use (except Matsutake) without needing to acquire a permit. My party was harvesting two gallons on average per day, so a permit was required. 

Cleaning Fresh Chanterelles

Bathing

Image 2.A: One-fourth of my total haul is represented here soaking in four inches of cold water

Step one is to soak them in a cold water bath for two reasons: 

1. any bugs in their nooks and crannies will panic and become visible or drown, and
2. debris will rinse off or become easier to remove.

Soak only enough to fill the top layer of the water's surface available to you. A sink or tub will suffice. Make sure it is cold water. Warm or hot water will start to cook the mushrooms. Cold water will preserve them. 

Note in the picture that the mushrooms are floating. Bob them down a few times and roll them over after five minutes to help dislodge debris.

You can start cleaning them by hand after they've soaked for between 20 minutes to an hour. Anymore than that and the water will reach room temp. When the mushrooms warm above 60 degrees (is my guess), they start to absorb the water and rot (turn mushy brown). We don't want that. We want to keep them as firm as possible until they hit our cooking water. 

Hand Cleaning

Image 2.B

One by one, hand clean your mushrooms. That means trimming away any mold or bad spots; removing debris from the gills, stem, edges, and cap; and scraping any discoloration that doesn't look right to you. This process is about getting the mushroom as clean as tolerable for cutting. You must decide what your tolerance level is for grit, mush, and discoloration. Mushrooms that have sat in your car for more than a few days may develop mold. To be absolutely clear, mold and fungi are NOT the same species. Remove and wash away mold, or else discard the mushroom entirely. 

Image 2.C: Chanterelle with ugly brown spot

The brown spot in the middle of Image 2.C is rot. It's mushy and discolored from the rest of the meat. Carve this spot away.

Image 2.D

 You want to see only firm, golden beige coloring when you're done.

 Here's a video showing you one technique to clean a chanterelle:

There's a difference between rot and rubbery edges (as I say in the video), though they may discolor similarly. Rot is soft and easily dislocates from the pressure of your finger. Rubbery edges are just that, they feel like rubber and must be trimmed off with a knife in order to remove them. Rot is gross. Rubbery edges can be tolerated because they are just what happens when the ends of a mushroom dry out. I remove both rot and most of the rubbery edges.

Image 2.E: Clean mushrooms ready for cutting into smaller pieces

When you've cleaned away all the unwanted bits, you'll be left with only a glowing mushroom. Image 2.E shows some chanterelles cleaned to my personal standards. 

Compared to some mushrooms my family harvests, chanterelles are relatively easy to clean, but it is still a tedious process. A lot of water and time will be needed. I distinctly remember as a kid once using our bathtub to clean our haul of mushrooms; there were so many. We would gather them in buckets and process them at home over several days. 

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A word about mushroom beds.

Seasoned foragers safeguard the locations of known edible mushroom beds like they were buried treasure. The reason for this is not always selfish hoarding. Some foragers know that if word gets out, commercial operations will trample the beds in their grid search, potentially harming the landscape and future spawning of that bed. While some amount of human and animal traffic can help spread spores, too much can destroy the network. 

Mushrooms don't trample your bed, please don't trample theirs. Leave some behind.

My family has always cut the mushroom at their base and left the "root" in the ground. While there is debate as to whether this actually helps the bed respawn, the act is a display of respect that carries with us as we harvest. We also disperse any cuts we don't want as we trim in the field in the hopes it propagates the species even more in subsequent years.

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Cutting

Once a handful of mushrooms are clean on your cutting board, you can slice or dice them down into bite-size portions. 

Having cooked meals with chanterelles preserved from several different methods and sizes over the years, I prefer to cut mine into approximately 1-inch cubes, flash boil them, and freeze them. That way, I can break off a chunk of cubes at a time for my dish. But you can choose what size and shape to preserve yours in.

Image 3.A: Chanterelle cut into slices

Image 3.B: Chanterelle cut into strips

Image 3.C: Chanterelle cut into cubes/chunks

However you chose to cut them, consider giving them one final rinse under cold water now that they're innards and sides are easier to reach. Some flecks of dirt in crevasses can only be reached after cutting the mushroom into more manageable chunks.

Image 3.D: Large bowl filled with raw chanterelle chunks

If you go for cubes like I did, you'll eventually fill a bowl and then a pot. Have a pot of water already boiling on a stove before transferring your cut mushrooms to the pot.

[NOTE: My family would warn never to mix different kinds of mushrooms together. Cook your chanterelles separately from your shaggy manes or your fried chicken mushrooms. White and golden chanterelles can be cooked simultaneously though.]

Flash Boiling

Image 4.A: Pot of boiling water

Because we're only flash boiling these chanterelles, set a pot half full of water to boil while you're cutting. Flash boiling is a process that will kill any bugs, worms, or microscopic parasites on the mushrooms without overly cooking the meat. Some mushrooms need to be boiled to death. Chanterelles are technically edible raw and can get too spongy when overcooked. For those reasons, a flash boil is sufficient.

Once you have a sizable bowl full of cut mushrooms, slide them into your boiling water. Stir and let boil for a minute or two. 

Image 4.B: Chanterelle chunks added and being stirred in boiling water

Storing and Preserving

Using a slotted spoon, I scooped the chunks into a labeled, quart-sized freezer bag.

Image 4.C: Flash-boiled chanterelle chunks being scooped into freezer bag for storage

You don't have to fill each bag up to the brim. In fact, I prefer to under fill because then I can gift a few small bags away to friends and family.

Press out the excess air in your bag and seal it closed. It can cool on the counter if you like, or place it in the freezer.

Image 4.D: The final product of six labeled and processed chanterelles

Mushroom Broth

Reuse and save your boiled water. Chanterelles are so precious that the broth produced from flash boiling is worth saving. Add a little salt and let the broth boil and reduce for another 10 minutes or so after cooking a few batches of mushrooms in it. 

Then, pour the broth into jars for storage. Chanterelle broth can be used as a soup starter or the base for risotto, among other things. It will have a caramel color and tidbits of chanterelle. 

Jar, Dry, or Freeze

Chanterelles can be jarred, dried, or frozen. I have some already dried from last year that retain their flavor well and don't mold in the jar, but they take forever to soften. If I had a way to freeze-dry them so they would crumble or absorb liquid faster, that would be better than air drying or using a food dryer. I don't like them jarred in water as much as flash boiled and frozen, hence why I discussed that method here. 

However, I recommend trying every way available to you so you can decide for yourself which method caters to your cooking style best.

Mushroom Profile

Image 5.A: Size comparison

The best way I can describe the smell of my kitchen as I was processing chanterelles is stale gummy bears.

Chanterelles absorb the flavors around them in a sauce, soup, or stir-fry while adding a distinct, pleasant taste all their own. 

They can be harvested at any size, so long as they're firm with give, not rotted or molded or dried out when discovered. Image 5.A shows a size comparison of one of my larger finds with one of my smaller finds next to a quarter.

Varieties

Image 5.B: Two varieties commingling

Two popular varieties of chanterelle can be found commingling in the same beds: the golden chanterelle and the white chanterelle. The former variety is more highly prized and slightly rarer than the white, likely due to its complexity of flavor, but both are edible and enjoyable.

How to tell which is which? Well, it can be quite difficult at times to differentiate them. In the image about, the left is a goldie and the right is a whitie. Golden chanterelles will discolor darker, have slightly darker meat, golden to dusk-orange caps and stems, and may have more ruffling around the edges than whites (though not always). White chanterelles are largely beige to cream colored through and through with tones of amber and rust. 

I personally do not have a preference either way. Chanterelle are delicious regardless of variety.

Note that there are other varieties, like winter chanterelle and the rare blue chanterelle. I have never had the pleasure of seeing these in the wild. 

Mushroom Terminology

Words relating to mycology (study of mushrooms) that I use in this post are defined as follows:

Bed - A patch or area of land where mushrooms are growing and may grow each year if there is sufficient nutrients and spores; a debris patch with an underground mycorrhizal network from which mushrooms of the same variety may surface when conditions are right.

Cap - The rounded or pointed, concave or convex umbrella top of a mushroom.

Stem - The elongated portion of a mushroom from the base of the gills to the ground. Unlike many plants, the stems of edible mushrooms are also edible. On a chanterelle, the gills blend seamlessly into the stem, rather than having a distinct ring or cutoff point differentiating the stem from the gills.

Gills - Located on the underside of a mushroom cap, gills can be fine baleen-like rows, spongy pores, or veiny ridges (like chanterelles). Gills of edible mushrooms are also edible. The unique colors and textures of a mushroom's gills make it a key feature in proper identification. Spores are held in the gills until the mushroom cap unfurls.

Spores - How mushrooms (and Orcs) reproduce. When a mushroom matures and opens its cap to expose its gills, it also may release its spores to be scattered on the wind for future mushrooms to spawn from.

Meat - Any part of the mushroom that you can eat.

Myconid - A mushroom race in the DnD universe that grow in circles.

Thanks for reading!