How to distinguish false chanterelles from real ones: advice from mushroom pickers

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Even if you have just started to learn the basics of mushroom activity, you have probably already heard about the presence of so-called "false" mushrooms, which are often mistaken for real ones. Moreover, dangerous poisonous "analogues" can be found in almost any, even the most noble species.

Chanterelles are especially popular with mushroom pickers. They are equally good for any cooking methods. Accordingly, for sure you will be concerned about the question of how to distinguish false chanterelles from real ones. Below are some tips from experienced mushroom pickers that will allow you to find only real species that are completely safe to eat. At the same time, this “science” is completely accessible even for beginners, because the most important thing you need here is attention.

To answer the question of how to distinguish false chanterelles from real ones, you should pay attention to the color, since the colors of the caps of a real mushroom and a double will differ significantly. The shade of the false version is always too bright, which will look completely implausible, since the original is significantly paler. If you have a view from a brightorange color, then be sure that you have come across a double, because the original fox has a pale yellow or light orange hat.

In addition, false and real chanterelles differ significantly from each other in size and shape. A real mushroom of this species is distinguished by an uneven shape of the cap. In a young specimen, the top may turn out to be slightly convex at all, and only with growth does it acquire funnel-shaped forms. Fake options have an almost even hat twice the size of real ones.

There is one more nuance, thanks to which it will be possible to recognize false chanterelles. How to distinguish original mushrooms from fakes, you can find out thanks to the shade of the spores, which in a real specimen will be yellow, while the double is distinguished by a white tint of the stem.

Mushrooms, as you know, not only people and forest animals like to feast on, but also worms. At the same time, the chanterelle is perhaps the only species in which they do not exist. If you want to know how to distinguish false chanterelles from real ones, then be sure to look at cut spores. If you notice even traces of worminess, be sure that you have a false option in front of you.

You should also pay attention to the plates under the hat. This will also tell you how to distinguish false chanterelles from real ones. In a real mushroom, the plates are thick and rather densely located, while they seem to smoothly pass into the leg, which cannot be said about the “fake”. Yes, and the flesh itself of a natural chanterelle is distinguished by its fleshiness, when pressed on the hata red tint remains, while no changes are observed in the twin under mechanical action.

The last, but no less important point that will allow you to distinguish the original from the fake, is in the leg itself, or rather in its composition. In a double mushroom, it is hollow, which cannot be said about a real specimen, suitable for food.