Photos of Morels - Cooking and Cleaning

Below are some pictures of morels that I took while preparing them to eat. The cooking and cleaning process is a great time to examine the features of these mushrooms close-up.

I'll use these mushroom pictures to showcase some identification features. Beware: they may also whet your appetite and make you crave them!

This page may take a while to load on slow connections due to the larger pictures. All photos are credited at the bottom when appropriate.

The other photo pages are here:

Page 1 - Mushrooms from America and Europe

Page 2 - Science and hunting

Page 3 - Close-ups while cooking and cleaning

On The Cutting Board

Here you see some mushrooms laid out (not so neatly) on a cutting board. Before eating, always slice them lengthwise so you can remove any residual critters and check to see that they're hollow.

The bottom picture shows them cut up. Note how they're hollow on the inside.

Extreme Close-Up

These pictures show the shape of an average cap. See the ridges and how they're pitted inwards? This can help distinguish from the false species, which is often said to have a more bulging outwards appearance and a shorter cap.

You can also see here how the cap is longer than the stem and attached directly to it. These are more features of true species.

The top mushrooms still look a little dirty. I'd better wipe those off before I eat them!

True Vs. False

The two cross-sections here are good examples of the insides of true vs. false morels.

The top photo is a true species, and as such it's completely hollow. The bottom photo is a false look-alike (Verpa bohemica). Note the fibrous, cottony insides and how the cap is attached to the top of the stem?

Time To Eat!

All fried up with butter and flour, one of the easiest recipes for cooking these mushrooms. The pictures do not do them justice. Mmmmm.......

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The eighth picture (Verpa bohemica) was taken by Jason Hollinger and is published on Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Share Alike 3.0 License.