Chanterelles in Colorado.

Colorado expectations

Chanterelles are not a Colorado headline species the way they are in Oregon. Our forests are drier and the season is shorter, so finds are smaller and more localised — but in reliably damp mossy drainages in spruce-fir forest, in a good monsoon year, they are there.

Expect to work for them, and expect to find them in the same few square metres year after year once you locate a patch.

Identification: the false gills

This is the whole thing. A chanterelle does not have true gills — it has blunt, forking, vein-like ridges that run down into the stem and feel soft and rounded rather than knife-thin. True gills are sharp-edged, closely spaced, plate-like, and stop where the stem begins.

• Colour: egg-yellow to golden-orange, fairly uniform.
• Cap: vase- or trumpet-shaped, wavy and irregular at the margin, often depressed in the centre with age.
• Flesh: white inside when torn, and it tears in fibrous strings rather than snapping cleanly.
• Smell: distinctly fruity — apricot is the standard description and it is accurate.
• Habitat: on the ground, mycorrhizal with conifers, often in moss. Never in clusters on wood.

Blunt forking ridges running down the stem, white stringy flesh, apricot smell, growing from soil. Any one of those failing means stop.

The two things it gets confused with

False chanterelle (Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca)

Common and easy to mix up at a glance. It has true gills — thin, sharp, crowded, and distinctly forked — a more orange, less egg-yellow colour, and a browner cap centre. It is generally considered inedible to mildly upsetting rather than dangerous, but it also tastes of nothing much.

Jack-o’-lantern (Omphalotus)

This is the one that matters. Jack-o’-lanterns are genuinely toxic — severe gastrointestinal illness — and they are the reason chanterelle identification has to be done properly. They have true sharp gills, they grow in dense clusters on wood or buried roots, and their flesh is orange throughout rather than white. They are not common in Colorado’s high country, which does not make the check optional.

Chanterelles grow singly or scattered from soil. Clusters on wood are a hard stop.

Handling and cooking

Chanterelles hold a lot of water and are often full of forest debris in the ridges. Brush thoroughly; if you must rinse, do it fast and dry them immediately. Then dry-sauté them first — into a hot dry pan until the water has driven off, and only then add butter. This is the same principle as every cultivated species on our recipe pages, and it matters more here because chanterelles are wetter than most.

They do not dry well — the texture goes leathery and the flavour is largely lost. Sauté and freeze, or preserve them in butter, instead. See freezing fresh mushrooms.

Common questions