Eat-Me-Not

This spring mushroom looks fantastic and edible. Smells great. Almost morel-like. Makes you want to harvest, prepare and devour immediately.

Gyromitra esculenta

Here's what fungal scholar and foraging daredevil Charles McIlvaine is famously reported to have said about this attractive and enticingly named species:

"It is not probable that in our great food-giving country anyone will be narrowed to G. esculenta for a meal. Until such emergency arrives, the species would be better left alone."

False Morels

The are believed to contain a compound, Gyromitrin, which metabolizes into the acutely toxic Monomethylhydrazine (MMH), also a constituent of rocket fuel.

There are elaborate preparation instructions which some recommend, involving parboiling under a fume hood with multiple changes of water (which is discarded) before cooking.

But the consequences of a mistake could be severe. If not immediately toxic (causing painful destruction of internal organs and death within days of consumption), MMH is also highly carcinogenic.

I admit to having followed the boil-discard-boil-discard-then-cook instructions once in the distant past for a single specimen. It was tasty and I survived without any ill effect.

But I was young and foolish then. Now I'm older and some would say more foolish, but in this regard at least, more inclined to err on the side of caution.

So these False Morels have been left unmolested.

Their abundant and tempting presence so early in the season bodes well for another bountiful year. Let the hunt begin!