Chanterelle

How to recognise it: chanterelle

1. 1

   Ridges instead of gills – thick, forked, decurrent

2. 2

   Egg-yolk-yellow, funnel-shaped fruit body without a clear cap–stem boundary

3. 3

   Firm, fibrous white flesh

4. 4

   Fruity (apricot) smell

Description

Cap

1–12 cm, light yellow to orange-yellow (egg-yolk-coloured), matt, smooth; convex with an inrolled margin when young, then funnel-shaped, with a wavy, lobed margin.

Ridges

Instead of gills, thick, blunt, irregularly forked RIDGES (folds) with cross-connections, running far down the stem, the colour of the cap.

Stem

3–6 cm, the colour of the cap or paler, solid, firm, narrowing downwards and merging smoothly into the cap.

Flesh

White to pale yellow, firm, fibrous in the stem (tears like chicken breast); does not change colour.

Smell and taste

Smell pleasant, fruity (apricot), spicy; taste when raw slightly hot, peppery after a moment.

Where and when it grows

Coniferous (pine, spruce) and broadleaf (oak, beech) forests, gregarious in moss or fallen leaves, especially on sandy, acidic soils. A mycorrhizal fungus.

Most often with: pine, spruce, oak, beech

Where are conditions good today?

Look-alikes: what it can be mistaken for

• 

  False chanterelle Inedible medium risk

  The “false chanterelle”: it has true, thin, CROWDED, regularly forked, intensely orange gills, thin soft flesh, a thinner stem that often darkens at the base; it usually grows in September–November on litter and rotting wood. Inedible (stomach upset).

• 

  Hedgehog mushroom Edible low risk

  Deceptively similar from above, but it has spines under the cap, not ridges. Edible – the mistake is harmless.

In the kitchen

Fried briefly (they toughen if fried long), stewed, in sauces and scrambled eggs. Best preserved by freezing after blanching; pickled and dried they turn out poorly (the dried mushroom can be ground into a powder). Rarely maggoty.

Protection and sale

• Species protection: the species is not protected.
• Sale: the species is on the list of mushrooms approved for sale (it may be sold only with a mushroom inspector’s certificate). Listed in Annex 1 as “pieprznik jadalny (kurka) – Cantharellus cibarius”.

Where you may pick mushrooms →