Wild Chanterelles

Last August I was hiking near my house in western Massachusetts with my Swedish goddaughter, Josefin, when she suddenly cried out, "Chanterelles!" There they were, two clumps of ruffle-edged, bright yellow mushrooms growing beneath a hemlock tree. But were they really chanterelles? Josefin was sure of it; her mother forages for them near their home in Sweden every summer. We picked them, but I made her promise there'd be no cooking until I did some research. Once I was certain these weren't one of the six varieties of poisonous mushroom that grow in New England, we sauteed our chanterelles in butter and then added a splash of heavy cream. When the liquid had mostly evaporated, we sprinkled them with sea salt and a grind of pepper. The chanterelles were firm and meaty and tasted of the woods they came from. —Nancy Pick, Sunderland, Massachusetts

Death by Fungi
KURT SMITH
Culture

Wild Chanterelles

Last August I was hiking near my house in western Massachusetts with my Swedish goddaughter, Josefin, when she suddenly cried out, "Chanterelles!" There they were, two clumps of ruffle-edged, bright yellow mushrooms growing beneath a hemlock tree. But were they really chanterelles? Josefin was sure of it; her mother forages for them near their home in Sweden every summer. We picked them, but I made her promise there'd be no cooking until I did some research. Once I was certain these weren't one of the six varieties of poisonous mushroom that grow in New England, we sauteed our chanterelles in butter and then added a splash of heavy cream. When the liquid had mostly evaporated, we sprinkled them with sea salt and a grind of pepper. The chanterelles were firm and meaty and tasted of the woods they came from. —Nancy Pick, Sunderland, Massachusetts

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