How to identify Golden Chanterelles, gourmet edible wild mushrooms

Identification difficulty: Intermediate

Warning: despite the frequency with which these are foraged, I feel that the risks associated have been downplayed. I personally believe there is the potential for confusion with deadly species. That said, I believe you can learn how to rule those out. 

Summer 2021 is turning out to be a nation-wide bumper year for the greater chanterelle family, which includes cinnabar red chanterelles, black trumpets, and, of course, golden chanterelles. 

Facebook foraging and mycology groups, Reddit foraging and mycology boards are all flush with pictures of, well, flushes of mushrooms. There's a lot of books, websites, etc out there that talk about how to identify golden chanterelles, so I wasn't really sure how necessary another post would be, but at the same time I'm seeing a lot of misinformation or incomplete information going around on social media. 

Overview and history

The term chanterelle can be used to describe a group of related genera (that's plural for genus): Cantharellus, Craterellus, Gomphus, and Polyozellus. Craterellus includes the black trumpets and yellow foot mushrooms, Gomphus includes the pig's ear, Polyozellus is a one-species genus that contains the blue chanterelle, and Cantharellus contains several species of golden chanterelles, red or cinnabar chanterelles, the smooth chanterelle and the white chanterelle. The lobster mushroom, Hypomyces lactifluorum, looks similar but it is unrelated and, while also being a choice edible, tastes completely different from chanterelles of any kind. 

For most people, however, when they think of chanterelles, only the golden chanterelle comes to mind. 

Golden chanterelles are a gourmet wild mushroom, one of the "big five" mushrooms that command the highest prices globally. The "big five" include truffles, matsutake, chanterelles, morels, and porcini. These are the five most expensive mushrooms for their CULINARY value; there are some fungi which sell for higher prices due to their use in Eastern medicine. 

We don't know exactly when humanity began it's love affair with the golden chanterelle. Asian, African and European cultures all have long histories of the mushroom, and we can safely assume it was eaten before it was recorded as well. In Europe, chanterelles were reserved for the nobility for many centuries.

Chanterelles are a mycorrhizal species, they grow in symbiosis with trees. This makes them very difficult and expensive to cultivate, as one would need to both own a forest and be willing to wait for decades while the trees and the fungi mature, before the fugal mycelium would grow mushrooms. 

At one point in time, all golden chanterelles were believed to be Cantharellus cibarius, and older books will still refer to them this way. With the advent of DNA testing, we now know that there are many, many kinds of golden chanterelles, some with sub-varieities, and that C. cibarius only grows in Europe. 

Golden Chanterelles as a group

Since "golden chanterelles" are a group, there are many, many color variations. There are species that are all golden or egg-yolk yellow, some that have white areas, such as a white stem, white gills or a white cap, and some that have those same variations except pink instead of white.

For the sake of this article, the term "golden chanterelle" will apply to any species that is 50% or more "egg-yolk yellow"., We won't be trying to identify individual golden chanterelle species, as all are edible, all are choice and they share many identification features. 

NOTE: Some chanterelles have a tan or deep yellow spot at the center of the cap. I would personally avoid these. And you must avoid all potential "chanterelle" species that have a cap or stem that is entirely tan or brown as it may be a potentially deadly look-alike in the genus Paxillus. Also spore print any all-yellow mushroom with decurrent gills where the stem seems thin for the cap size. 

Why I think chanterelles are an intermediate difficulty to ID

Overall, I think most foraging and mushroom hunting books leave out important potential look-a-like species for the chanterelle. They generally talk about false chanterelles, Hygrophoropsis aurantiaca, and jack o' lanterns, Omphalotus species, as the only real danger. Both these mushrooms can make you sick, Omphalotus can make you seriously sick, but neither will kill you. 

I'm more concerned about Paxillus species, which have the potential to be deadly poisonous. Paxillus are not super common and don't STRONGLY resemble chanterelles, at least not in America. However, there are yellow varieties in Australia, which could always make the cross-ocean trek on tree roots. And there are brown-yellow varieties in North America and Europe which we will go into in greater detail.

As I've said on the page where I define these terms, if I feel there is potential for confusion with a deadly species, then I consider it to be an intermediate difficulty identification. 

Scratch-made chanterelle tuna noodle casserole

Tuna noodle casserole had always been problematic for me. 

On one hand, I love the IDEA of it: affordable, reasonably healthy, nutritionally balanced comfort food. 

On the other hand, I hated the way it tastes.

Over time I've come to realize that it's not the casserole's fault. Why would it be? Tuna is tasty and healthy. Pasta, in moderation, is part of a balanced diet. Cheese is to freaking die for. 

It's all the fault of the canned cream of mushroom soup.

I HATE canned cream of mushroom soup. I always have. 

As a child I thought I hated mushrooms, but in fact, what I actually hated was canned cream of mushroom soup. The problem was, growing up as the average suburban American in the 80s, the only mushrooms I ever had were in sauces made with canned cream of mushroom soup. Even as a teenager, I ignored mushrooms while foraging because I thought I hated mushrooms.

You see, both mushrooms AND milk products (like cream) have one thing in common: they are famous for absorbing flavors. So whomever decided to put them together and CAN THEM IN METAL needs to be the first against the wall when the revolution comes.

I get it. Not everyone feels the same way. For many, meals made with cream of mushroom soup (from the iconic red and white can) are 100% wholesome, delicious, comfort food, taking one back to thier childhood. My husband insists on Americanna green bean casserole every Christmas, made with canned cream of mushroom soup and frenched onions. Just the smell of it makes me feel ill. 

But with this dish I set out to redeem tuna noodle casserole for myself. In addition to using non-canned, non-processed ingredients, I also lightened it up calories and carb-wise by substituting half of the pasta for cauliflower. In fact, even with generous servings, this all-in-one meal clocks in at under 300 calories. and has two servings of vegetables.

So while this recipe isn't specifically for those of you who adore the canned soup version, you should try it anyway, because you just might come to love it too! My husband did.