How Two People Died From Eating Morel Mushrooms

Morels are one of the most commonly eaten wild mushrooms. So how did two people die from eating them at a single restaurant in Bozeman, Montana? Alex & George team up to take a deeper look into mushroom chemistry, identification, and cultivation to get a better understanding of this mystery.
#mushrooms #poison #chemistry
Credits:
Executive Producer:
Matthew Radcliff
Producers:
Andrew Sobey
Elaine Seward
Darren Weaver
Writers:
Alex Dainis
George Zaidan
Hosts:
Alex Dainis
George Zaidan
Scientific Consultants:
Michael Beug, PhD
Michelle Boucher, PhD
Alden C. Dirks, PhD
Leila Duman, PhD
Annie Weissman, MD
Executive in Charge for PBS: Maribel Lopez
Director of Programming for PBS: Gabrielle Ewing
Assistant Director of Programming for PBS: John Campbell
Reactions is a production of the American Chemical Society.
© 2024 American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.
Sources:
Morel Toxicity Update.pdf
www.fungimag.c...
Tests for gyromitrin, a poisonous compound in false morel gyromitra esculenta - PubMed
pubmed.ncbi.nl...
False morel fungi - Poisonous when raw
www.ruokaviras...
Hydrolytic Stability of Hydrazones and Oximes - PMC
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
Toxic Mushroom Contamination of Wild Mushrooms in Commercial Distribution - ScienceDirect
www.sciencedir...
What’s for dinner this time?: DNA authentication of “wild mushrooms” in food products sold in the USA - PMC
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
Outbreak Linked to Morel Mushroom Exposure - Montana, 2023 | MMWR
www.cdc.gov/mm...
Artificial cultivation of true morels: current state, issues and perspectives - PubMed
pubmed.ncbi.nl...
False Morels and Gyromitrin Mycotoxin - KZbin
• False Morels and Gyrom...
Warning on False or True Morels and Button Mushrooms with Potential Toxicity Linked to Hydrazinic Toxins: An Update - PMC
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
Report_FinalSummary_FBIOutbreak_7.19.2023-Final.pdf
www.healthygal...
Gyromitra Mushroom Toxicity - StatPearls - NCBI Bookshelf
www.ncbi.nlm.n...
Thirty Plus Years of Mushroom Poisonings
fungimag.com/a...
How to grow morels
• How to grow morels? Mo...
Morel cultivation methods
plantpath.psu....
Morel poisoning cases
www.scientific...
Mushroom bioaccumulation
www.sciencedir...
Horizontal gene transfer in mushrooms
www.pnas.org/d...
www.pnas.org/d...)

[@ACSReactions]

Only eat mushrooms that you’re 100% sure are properly identified, even if you bought them online. Also cook ALL mushrooms before eating. And while we definitely don’t recommend cooking and eating Gyromitra esculenta yourself, here’s how they do it in Finland: www.ruokavirasto.fi/globalassets/tietoa-meista/julkaisut/esitteet/elintarvikkeet/false_morel_fungi.pdf

[@isaacm1929]

Question: Can you just produce hydrazine at large scales with G.esculenta? Cause if you just need to extract the poison precursor and break down with water, its easier than synthesising. Maybe CRISP on E.coli for transfering the genes?

[@Ismakogie05]

Been there, done that, in Finland. Available only in the spring, Gyromintra esculenta is indeed deadly. I once was there at the right time, in May, to picked them myself. I boiled and rinsed them several times before cooking. I would not trust eating morelles picked by anybody else! In Finland late summer and autumn is a real real festival of forest fungi of all kind. BUT: People know what to pick and eat. Interestingly, a well-known psychiatrist, head of the local Mental Hospital in the 70's, was saying that he found autumn fungi hunting in the forest very easy: He could just pick everything left untouched by others! I suspect his fungi weren't stricktly for culinary purposes....

[@agranero6]

I once read in a book called The Secret Life of Trees written by a forest engineer in Germany that some fungi that symbiotic to trees are only poisonous in times of difficulty: if they detect the tree is not receiving enough nutrients and consequently they are also too they become poisonous to kill animals in the region, to fertilize the trees in the forest. The book didn't gave any details as how this process happen. But I agree the most probable cause is mixing. Even specialists can be wrong in selecting mushroom, the best rule is never eat wild mushrooms (I know this will not deter people from eating truffles). Anyway I only eat shiitakes and shimejis, at least here in Brazil they are cultivated by drilling holes on cut wood that are filled with sawmill and spores, not collected in the wild. Now that I know that cultivated mushrooms wee mixed I am rethinking that.

[@christopheroliver148]

I would be very wary of on-line sources. I am not a sinophobe by any means, but there has been enough history with Chinese industries involving toxic materials where they shouldn't be that I'd be highly concerned with obtaining potentially problematic food from there.

[@agranero6]

@@christopheroliver148 First was the case of melamine resin that was put in dog and cat food that was outsourced to Cinha by Purina. The third parties used it to fool minimum level of protein tests. It killed a lot of cats and dogs. Later again in China the same prodict with milk this time it killed a lot of babies in China, the responsible were condemned to death. Those are only those I remember.

[@tedhadley62]

I read in a mushroom book many years ago that the substrate a mushroom grows on can be important. An edible mushroom growing on the wrong substrate can be made toxic. Another reason to be particularly careful of wild mushrooms.

[@FrigginCatsBruh]

That's why I'm afraid to grow the morel spores I have 😭

[@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648]

@@FrigginCatsBruh wood ordinary lumber sawdust do?

[@christopheroliver148]

@@SeekingTheLoveThatGodMeans7648 If it were that easy, I think cultivated morels would be a more frequent delicacy.

[@WylieWiggins]

I was reading through the comments for something similar to your response, thinking about the differences I've seen in the physical attributes of the Hericiums by way of different substrates. The taste can even vary greatly from growing blocks of the same substrate, depending on where the fruity bodies are harvested from. I personally feel the mushrooms from the lower regions of the blocks taste far more medicinal, if that may even be in proper context, kind of sounds funny IMHO. Higher water content potentially, IDK, I'm very much a novice hobbyist.

[@camojoe83]

Cultivating morels from spores is very hard. Best to go pick some and clone those successful fruits. Then you throw the inoculant into suitable woodsy soil with sawdust and wood chips in it and they'll go wild.

[@alexixeno4223]

Fun(gus) bonus fact! You can't overcook mushrooms. This is not to say you can't burn them but you cannot overcook them like you could with veggies getting too soggy or meat becoming too tough.

[@4124V4TA-SNPCA-x]

And mushrooms don't need oil to fry. If you fry too long and they become really dry you may add water however.

[@dagordon1]

Indeed: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jn2zfXajrKd_eLssi=-8KC2wIHKmtWZb0l

[@barrymayson2492]

My mother over cooked mushrooms till they looked like burnt bacon. She heard on tv to cook them well so not poison us.

[@4124V4TA-SNPCA-x]

@@barrymayson2492 She was a bit overzealous. But sounds very caring. Did she do that to All mushrooms or just to the ones that could possibly be sketchy? (Like the ones in the video)

[@jpdemer5]

@@barrymayson2492 And here you are! Obviously it worked. Perhaps the texture will survive overcooking, but surely the flavor can be cooked out of existence.

[@dj_laundry_list]

I don't get the morel of the story

[@ACSReactions]

amanita few minutes to come up with a clever reply

[@vinniepeterss]

😂😂

[@Skiamakhos]

@@ACSReactions It's quite demorelising, really.

[@spodefollower]

I don’t think there’s mushroom for improvement on these puns

[@alveolate]

good job yall are thoroughly cooking this one

[@forabug594]

In addition to the lack of a full scale metabolome/proteome investigation and annotation of the morel, I think it’s also likely that some of the toxins are not always present in the unharmed product rather in a “prodrug” form that isn’t toxic to the host morel cells, so metabolome/proteome annotation might miss them if the researchers aren’t aware of the nontoxic precursors. We see this in other organisms like cyanogenic glycosides in plants.

[@RossRadford]

Exactly. That is why some apple juices give me a severe headache. It depends on how they were extracted. If enough of the seeds were crushed in the process and contained enough cyanogenic glycosides which didn't get broken down by heat during pasteurization, my theory is that was causing my headaches. Of course, this is purely anecdotal and a population size of 1 so I could be wrong.

[@forabug594]

@@RossRadford Oh man, sorry to hear that that happens to you. I hope you figure out what causes them so you can either avoid them or find a solution.

[@gl15col]

This is strange for sure; my family has eaten morels for probably 100 years but ones we picked ourselves from large forest areas in Michigan and nobody has ever gotten sick. And I can't understand eating them raw, fried in butter till tender they are heavenly.

[@brentoncarter4275]

yeh this channel is full of sh*t

[@FrigginCatsBruh]

They're like steak flavored bacon 😋

[@christopheroliver148]

Agree. The season's almost over, and I still haven't done a chicken/morel risotto. Grrrr!

[@cliffordwagner]

I've never considered eating morels raw. Butter is necessary. Save the butter after, it's heavenly.

[@christopheroliver148]

@@cliffordwagner I actually once made a steak sauce based on Hollandaise technique with morels using that butter. Not exactly slimming, but rather good.

[@rianfelis3156]

I think you might be giving "trained chefs" a little too much credit. They are after all trained to make sushi well, not to identify mushrooms. Unless something is obviously wrong, they're not going to think too much about if something from a trusted supplier is exactly what it says. There is just way too much emphasis on doing things quickly and repeatably. One other thing might be that only some morels have whatever this toxin is, just like some peppers have a lot more capsaicin than others. As for finding out what it is, firing up the NMRI is expensive, and if the toxin tends to not do much, there really hasn't been demand to figure out what it is. This might change though, so that people can feel safer eating morels, and know just how much cooking it takes to denature this toxin.

[@fantomlimbs]

While it's hard to identify a false morel as an amateur, after handling them for a short period it's pretty easy. Side by side even easier. The caps look different, the inside isn't hollow. When I first started I would have to see the inside to be sure. I've never found a false morel, but after a couple years hunting them I could identify them by pictures. It's hard to describe because they are really similar, but they just don't look right most of the time, and cutting them tells the tale.

[@alexdrockhound9497]

Friend of mine was a chef at the sushi place. What you said is basically what i heard. And the heath department was also baffled by this and didn't place any blame on the restaurant. I ate there a few weeks before this incident, and continue to go to this restaurant.

[@SpyGenesis]

8:55 Never stood up and put my hand on my heart this fast.

[@ACSReactions]

Torilla tavataan!

[@masondula]

Dude I was 100% certain you had the destroying angel and puffball backwards. I was leaning in close to my screen looking for something I'd missed thinking "well if they have an experienced mycologist working on the video - it's early in the morning so maybe I'm confu... oh you did swap them". If you aren't sure, you can always cut them open too (like the lil animation) and generally the amanita in that stage will obviously not be a puffball as far as I know.

[@hawks9142]

I was panicking before they said they switched it. I thought somehow I was immune to dying from death caps but that my liver was for sure failing

[@masondula]

@@hawks9142 your stomach is built Ford tough lol

[@IanGrams]

It's nice to see Alex and George teaming up for a video. Really interesting topic, albeit frustrating there was no clear conclusion to the incident. But I guess that's par for the course with science. We have learned much about our world but there's still so much more to learn. I hope some mycologists get to the bottom of true morel toxicity someday.

[@ubiquitous_phd4243]

8:25 even if the methyl groups are implied, a great many of us write them anyway to avoid confusion, particularly in public education/teaching contexts. I’m sure there are plenty who feel strongly about not using a “methyl cap,” but I’m a proponent of them as it encourages clarity and a lack of ambiguity, particularly when looking at structures drawn in a hurry or without a lot of care (as many students, grad and undergrad alike, are want to do).

[@karmakazi219]

G. esculenta is a super-delicious mushroom. I used to collect them, along with morels, all the time (they often grow in the same habitat / season). I never went through the trouble of double-parboiling them but one good parboil + discard the water and soak in fresh water is probably minimum safe practice. I never had a problem with G. esculenta BUT one time, as a kid, my family cooked up a whole bunch of morels and ate them (way more than any normal person would eat in one sitting). I got extremely sick. As I recall, it was mostly just lots of vomiting. I basically spent the night in the bathroom. I'm not sure if it was improper cooking or something else. No one else got sick but I was the only non-adult so I suspect that I just ate way too much. That turned me off of morels for a long time but I eventually came back around and I enjoy them, in moderation, again.

[@me0101001000]

I was foraging just this weekend. I found plenty of dryad's saddles, wood ears, scarlet cups, inky caps, fairy caps, and even some coral crowns. But I was disappointed that I didn't find a Morel. Now I'm a lot less disappointed.

[@lyndafjellman3315]

I have morels growing in my garden.

[@alveolate]

aw, don't be too demorelised

[@me0101001000]

@@alveolate aw come on, there isn't mushroom in this comment section for these puns

[@isaacm1929]

@@me0101001000 Nah, cap

[@FrigginCatsBruh]

​@@lyndafjellman3315how are you doing it? What substrate? Have you already had a successful/safe harvest?

[@johnford7847]

I remember reading that there is at least one anecdotal case of wild mushrooms gathered and identified by expert collectors which resulted in poisonings. In this case, the mushrooms were taken from a site which had previously yielded this species and been enjoyed without incident. No explanation was put forth to explain this. Good video. The chemistry of fungi is really fascinating and relatively poorly characterized. For example, some fungal pigments are being studied as natural replacements for FD&C food colors.

[@bbadamb8675]

Love the call out to cook mushrooms because they taste better "fight me." 🤣🤣

[@christopheroliver148]

Somewhat odd, since I thought the notion of cooking mushrooms improving the flavor was entirely uncontroversial.

[@tedbomba6631]

Well, my love for Morrell mushrooms has suddenly ended unless I am doing the preparation and final cooking of them. Thanks for this excellent video to all of those who brought it to our attention !

[@zachb8012]

Why would you even want to eat raw morels? The whole point of the morel is that they soak up all the sauce and have a pleasant texture.

[@christopheroliver148]

Actually, you want to keep the sauce very simple else it overwhelms the flavor of the morel.

[@andiralosh2173]

Clearly we need better mushroom cooking education. I suspect people think all edible mushrooms are the same because we're not taught. They should be treated more like meats, in the sense that if you don't know how to prepare them, you... shouldn't be preparing them

[@bentompson5994]

When he did the Puffball comparison I was instantly like whoever made this slide clearly cannot be trusted! You guys really had me there.😂 Very good video from identification, preparation, supply chain and gene transfer....Great Job

[@danbance5799]

"All mushrooms are edible. Some are only edible once." And this is why I'll never eat wild mushrooms.

[@WeeWeeJumbo]

3:49 baby Destroying Angel sounds the same as Baby-Destroying Angel, which sounds like a Biblical punishment come to life 😳

[@AlexanderTzalumen]

Well, it's more than toxic enough to totally destroy several babies.

[@chrisbalfour466]

@@AlexanderTzalumen Who feeds mushrooms to babies? Baby food is mush, not mushrooms.

[@two-chicks]

The capital "B" and the "-" in Baby-Destroying is pronounced differently

[@ronaldlee3537]

Not a wild mushroom eater, but I know people who are, morel mushrooms must be thoroughly cooked. They can not be eaten raw. ETA Personally, I will just buy this stuff from the local Asian supermarket, the last time I look they have like 10 kinds, in addition to the commonly encountered button mushroom.

[@playgroundchooser]

Damn, I loves you guys! What a great episode. I hadn't heard half of that, and I live an hour away from Bozeman. A+ reporting.

[@Axman6]

If we’re going to use the Greek ‘octopodes’, at least use the use the Greek pronunciation- oc-top-o-dees _ducks before the Grammar police tell me how wrong I am_ Edit: wrote this before getting to the end of the video, thanks for getting to the truly important topic! Great video ❤

[@AdrianLee]

Heck, I just commented exactly this 😂

[@squessi]

Growing up my uncle would bring my grandma morels he'd gathered by the bag full. I can't remember the specifics of it but I recall she'd soak them in salt water for like a day and do some rinsing process before she'd fry them all up. I don't seem to recall anyone in my family ever getting sick, so maybe there's something to that process. Delicious mushrooms!

[@11regnartseht]

That's to get the little worms out

[@camojoe83]

That just kills the hugs. Not even real necessary if you cook em.

[@christopheroliver148]

@@camojoe83 I'm not sure I want that extra protein, and without a brine soak, there's a good chance of sand in the food which is rather unappetizing.

[@camojoe83]

@@christopheroliver148 i didn't say not to cut and rinse em, lol.. they're full of ants sometimes.. the brine soak is just bad for your blood pressure 95% of the time. You want em salted? Salt the butter you fry em in. Besides, saltwater soaks ruin the spores, and that's the only reason to spend any time soaking them, really.

[@christopheroliver148]

@@camojoe83 Odd that my mother's cardiologist wasn't hyperfixated on salt. The rather light brine soak at most seasons the mushrooms slightly, and you adjust your seasoning during the rest of the preparation. Since they are going from the brine directly to the pan, I don't see what you're on about with spores? Are you just trolling me?

[@Ittiz]

@4:00 I was like yeah, he's got that backwards ☠

[@FrigginCatsBruh]

Yeah that part was stupid. If he didn't mislabel them I knew which was which, had me second guessing myself 😅

[@Tinil0]

It's blowing my mind that people will just eat raw mushrooms. First of all, that doesn't even sound appetizing, but secondly...I mean, they grow in dirt. Just like other veggies, they can be hard to clean completely and still contain bacteria from the dirt, and that doesnt even include the other substrate issues with growing mushrooms if you aren't careful (And while I hate "China = Bad" xenophobia, the chinese market does have a LOT less regulation around stuff like that). Cook your dang mushrooms people!

[@johnnyfish6051]

Raw button mushrooms are served in salad bars .

[@orobeam]

I grew up in montana and have eaten morels all my life without issues (that i noticed? Lol??)...but now I have a new fear unlocked.

[@velisvideos6208]

Thanks for this very informative video. Here in Finland we really do pick and enjoy the G. Esculenta. In our obscure language they are called "korvasieni", which literally means ear mushroom. Well, they do look like malformed ears, don't they? Anyway, I have always wondered who, why and when realised they have to be boiled twice before consumption. Is this ancient knowledge or just a recent innovation?

[@johnnyfish6051]

Verpa bohemica is a morel. Gyromitra is commonly eaten in the USA. They where artificially grown in China??? How did the CDC get a Chinese co. to cooperate with them on distribution of there product?? I dont think so.

[@Nathsnirlgrdgg]

Mushrooms are good at having compounds in them that are very near to ones that kill animals. This means if they stay around their siblings, they will having plenty of food to eat. So mushrooms that live near a lot of their relatives learn how to become toxic to the animals that are eating mushroom indiscriminately. That’s why some mushrooms use so many sexes to reproduce, they are trying to protect as well as reproduce.

[@BenjaminSpencer-m1k]

My dad grew up harvesting and eating these shrooms and had always told me not to eat them raw. I actually hunt shroom but these don't grow here and I only will harvest saffron milk caps (very easy to.identify non are poison but partly toxic so you could feel sick but not die) and some boletus mushrooms. O forgot my dad always said to stay away from the false morel the Coral mushroom.

[@manualdidact]

Issues like this make me glad that I find all spore-releasing fungal reproductive organs to be disgusting ingredients that ruin any meal I find them in. Living with this epicurean disability just feels safer than actually wanting to eat things that appear indistinguishable from other things that can kill me -- or worse, give me sudden public diarrhea out of range of a bathroom.

[@canerbakar-jv2si]

Mushrooms did wonders in my life. I suffered severe trauma several years ago after divorce with my husband. Got diagnosed with cptsd. Spent my whole life fighting cptsd. I suffered severe depression and mental disorder. Not until my son recommended me to psilocybin mushrooms treatment. Psilocybin treatment saved my life honestly. 6 years totally clean. Never thought I would be saying this about mushrooms.

[@bellodavid7749]

So great to hear. they saved you from death bud, lets be honest here. and mushrooms are one of the most amazing things on this planet i wish people would all realize. they could solve a lot of problems, more than just mental treatments, environmental clean up; the possibilities are endless with fungus.

[@OskhelDavid]

Hey mate! I have severe anxiety and depression and take prescription medicine, but they don't always help. Where can I find those psilocybin mushrooms? I'm really interested in treating my mental health without Rxs. I live in Belgium don't know much about these. I'm so glad they help you. Really need them too.

[@DericBush]

YES very sure of Dr.medshrooms. I have the same experience with anxiety, depression, PTSD and addiction and Mushrooms definitely made a huge huge difference to why am clean today.

[@misinformationwithrandy]

77 people... [camera jumps] "You know they didn't have 77 bathroom stalls." Ha ha ha!

[@NiallBoggins]

I've eaten morels a few times that I've picked, with not a single problem. I always cut them into slices and fry them in butter. BUT, a friend of mine put some raw morels on a salad, and from what I heard, that was a very unpleasant experience. Waking up in the middle of the night with a pounding headache and vomiting.

[@mencken8]

While I was growing up, morel gathering was a springtime activity regarded by some as an official state pastime. We got morels, ate morels, knew and were related to people who hunted and ate morels. Never once remember hearing of anyone getting sick from doing so. Perhaps some people are eating them raw, which we never did.

[@christopheroliver148]

The thing that always struck me as strange were the folk who gathered them just to sell. I can understand selling as they command a high price, but I can't imagine not keeping at least a few for oneself.

[@mencken8]

@@christopheroliver148 I never heard of anyone selling them, either. What we found never lasted long enough to sell!

[@11regnartseht]

Many wild mushrooms should never be eaten raw, morels included.

[@TestUser-cf4wj]

Morels grow in my area, but I don't bother with them because they honestly don't taste that great. Chanterelles, on the other hand, taste great and I eat those by the pound when they're in season. So to go off topic, chanterelles only grow on the roots of conifers. They are a (pseudo?) parasitic fungus that feeds on the sugars in the sap of the trees. They have no dangerous look alikes and are very easy to correctly identify. There has been some progress towards developing a method to artificially cultivate them, but the technique is not ready for commercial implementation.

[@Rungus27]

in the case of the morel, is it possible that what's making people sick is an enzyme that's denatured by heat rather than a discreet toxic organic compound? Perhaps there are conditions that make the morel express these enzymes when they are stressed by something in it's environment.

[@attekinnula4406]

Yeah, we eat Gyromitra esculenta here in Finland. They're a REALLY delicious, especially as a creme-based soup 🙂. I regularly harvest and eat them, so do plenty of people, and they're regularly served in restaurants. But yes, you do need to know how to prepare them because - as said here - they contain neurotoxins. I actually googled to find out news of poisoning cases, but couldn't find any (did not do a thorough check) and I think they would be all over the news here, at least if something like would happen in a restaurant.

[@caitygart]

I must say I absolutely love the outfit. That top and those earrings are perfect for the video!

[@IanGrams]

Much agreed, Dr. Dainis is quite good at finding topical earrings or clothes for videos 😁

[@christopheroliver148]

I just looked. Call me completely unobservant, but I didn't even notice when I first viewed the video.

[@75viking75]

I’m from Michigan and up here in the northern forest, we eat morels every Mother’s Day! My family has been picking and eating them for generations. However, the picking season is only for a few weeks in late April/early May for the entire year…

[@75viking75]

For clarification, we always fried them in butter… the limited availability would also seem to suggest that even if there is bioaccumulating toxins, unless you eat them raw, you should be fine. Our family hasn’t ever had any problems related to a morel dinner. As well, these meals often weren’t dominated by the fried morel side dish, annually.

[@christopheroliver148]

@@75viking75 Depends on the toxin. If the soil had heavy metal accumulation, I'd be wary of taking edible mushrooms from there.

[@christopheroliver148]

Maybe it's just me being a Michigander, but for me, the distinction between the true morels and false is perfectly clear. Sadly, the season is drawing to a close.

[@evanbasnaw]

4:18 Perfect score for me, but I've been looking at morels my whole life.

[@vizanonn1728]

They are definitely not one of the worlds most sought after, and eaten "wild" mushroom.... But they are tasty, and with a death rate less than that is way less than someone who is walking across the street.... I think its okay.

[@bruhhhh625]

improper food storage really likely imo because mushrooms can have other species spores on them, left out or in a humid environment I can only imagine that there is a possibility of something growing on the morel that could be potentially toxic.

[@EasterWitch]

My grandmother taught me how to pick and cook morels (I grew up in Northern Scandinavia). Even with the so called "safe" morel I would still parboil them the same as so called "false" morels. Oh, also: I was so confused when you called the wrong mushroom a puffball, because I saw immediately which was which.

[@bersl2]

I don't eat mushrooms at all because they all give me indigestion, but this sure doesn't make me jealous of missing out.

[@chrisn8349]

This format is great, looking forward to watching more videos like this. (Also that "puffball" did not not look like any puffball I've ever seen.)

[@johnfoster6412]

When I was a kid, we had to stay at a neighbour's place while my little brother was born 180 miles away. While we were there we were fed morels - and I'd never tasted anything so great. I was about 10 years old. When Mum came back we asked for morels to eat. It turned out that our neighbour had been giving bags of them to Mum for months, who had promptly thrown them away because "they looked poisonous".

[@Curly3107]

Verpa bohemica is not toxic and tastes similar to morels. However, you should avoid foraging them as they are quite rare in most regions.

[@JWentu]

Love you guys and the way you explain things

[@maxnova9763]

7:11 Skipping over this story is almost criminal. I can’t be the only one who wants to know more about that devastating mayhem.

[@willcool713]

The morels here locally are about five times that size, or usually more. I've picked and eaten them many, many times. They are super easy to identify correctly. Industrially packaged wild edibles are rarely safe, in my experience -- trust is not highly valued in business. Wild crafted items can be okay, but you've gotta watch the source. In this case, I suspect it was a pest that left residue -- some snails or slugs could do that easily.

[@SamRossman]

My grandpa would always harvest and eat false morels, like his whole life despite his ENTIRE family begging him not to. Dude lived to 97 and died of lung cancer even though he never smoked…. Life is bonkers.

[@ka-mai]

Sorry, a salmon-en-morel sushi? That just spells disaster.

[@christopheroliver148]

I like a good sashimi, but that combo does indeed sound wretched even if completely food safe.

[@ka-mai]

@@christopheroliver148 it was a 'salmonella' joke XD

[@bonnieballew7762]

We always soaked our morels in salt water for at least a half hour before cooking them. They have little white worms in them that the salt water drives out.

[@joeanderson8839]

I would eat morels if I harvested and cooked it myself. I would make sure I positively make an identification. I would eat a small amount of well cooked mushroom before I ate this small amount. Then I would wait to see if I had a reaction before I ate more. Even if a mushroom is safe to eat, food poisoning and other environmental factors can cause poisoning in any food you eat. Mushrooms are more related to meat than plants. I would not eat a raw hamburger that I found in the woods.

[@like90]

One time we picked morel mushrooms, but we never ended up eating them because they kinda freaked me out.i always felt like i missed out, but now I'm really glad we didn't eat them.

[@exiletomars]

This video does not mention the name of the Montana restaurant that had the health code violations and two people dying due to eating at it. The restaurant is called Dave's Sushi and is still open.

[@pacjam418]

Good post

[@KristiChan1]

Definitely dislike how vague the conclusion was by the FDA, CDC and Montana Health.

[@ep7672]

It blows my mind that we can pinpoint a toxin after bad symptoms, but it is unlikely to perceive the problem before human consumption when it happens. It sounds extremely risky

[@DeRien8]

ABSOLUTELY knew that the labels for puffball and destroying angel "egg" were switched!! Puffballs sort of have a muffin-like shape from the base, especially when they're not massive. The mushrooms that emerge from an "egg" like the destroying angel, stinkhorns, etc. have that eggy shape because of the stalk developing inside and putting more vertical pressure on the outer membrane than they do to the sides. Of course, I have the benefit of foraging/studying mushrooms for decades, with plenty of puffball encounters of many species. I can easily imagine a complete novice seeing a potato-y lump of fungus and assuming it's a puffball.

[@erikjohnson9223]

NMR would only be useful after some sort of very thorough / multifactorial separations operation (probably various forms of chromatography). It will help identify pure compounds (at least if they are already known and have a published spectrum), but mushrooms (& any life form) are a complicated mix of many chemicals. Overlapping spectra tell you basically nothing.

[@hawks9142]

3:99 I was panicking. Ive eaten the ones on the right so many times. You can 100% tell the difference though, you're playing up the danger.

[@DH-bf9xb]

Great video! Question... does it matter HOW you cook them? Is it the heat or the heat + water... as they're normally boiled. I sometimes over roast mushrooms in oil.

[@jessstuart7495]

And that's why I deep-fry all my morels!

[@grahamsell3863]

“The important takeaway is to never eat wild mushrooms” they say as I’m currently trying to figure out what to do with the 4 lbs of chanterelles I picked this weekend which are currently sitting in my fridge.

[@pdubb9754]

In my area, Gyromitra escuelenta appears at the same time as Morchella elata. Probably true in most regions where they co-occur. But they are pretty different in appearance. When I see the false morels around the pines in my yard, I know it is time to go to my spot to look for the black morels. Good to hit on the point about not eating raw.

[@dondobbs9302]

It's Octopi and did they test for Botulism? (I would hope!) Chinese suppliers and they're cultivated, not (local? really?) foraged. What did they grow them on/with? How were they preserved and packed? I'd be worried about dried then reconstituted raw ANYTHING.

[@cliffordwagner]

You [rude person], I was seriously questioning my identification on the puffball when you had them reversed. Not fair.

[@jpdemer5]

These days, you fire up the GC-MS. (The NMR comes later, if you run into anything new.) Seems like an easy, and useful, publication for whoever wants to do it.

[@bmiller949]

I am so glad I can recognize the correct mushroom for Psilocybin.

[@ClumsyPineapple]

Submit a FOIA request to find out what they tested for, maybe? Because now I want to know.

[@alanquinn8745]

Being a myco hobbiest i was second guessing my ID skills before u reviled ur swap with the amanita and puffball.

[@BloodyMobile]

3:50 I'm not saying that I knew, but "Puffball" felt "wrong" for the left one, so I was like "huh?". But for the mentioned reasons, I'd rather start chewing on a tree than eat any mushroom in wild, should I end up needing to. 8:40 rocket mushrooms! 🚀

[@hybridizedhere]

Clicked on this video and didnt expect it to mention the incident with Daves sushi Basically noone eats there anymore from what ive seen passing by now I live in a family of foragers and it was alarming that they let that happen, guess its not common knowledge that you have to basically char shrooms to make them safe to eat

[@JuliusUnique]

morels grow next to the street in my area at tiny gras spots in the city, which I wont eat since they are contaminated with street air and dog pee, but I also know a spot at an apple tree where I found 3 morels

[@msaditu]

Can we all appreciate Dr. Dainis's shirt and accessories? 😊🍄

[@AlexDainisPhD]

I do my best :)

[@michaelmcchesney6645]

While I enjoy some mushroom flavor in some foods, I am not a big fan of eating mushrooms themselves. This video has made me even less inclined to do so. Ironically, I was planning to cook one of my favorite dishes for dinner as soon as I finished this video. To make it, I mix a container of sour cream with a can of Campbell's condensed cream of celery and a can of Campbell's condensed cream of mushroom soup. I then cover some sliced chicken with the sauce, bake it for 45 minutes, and serve it over rice. I'm still going to make that for dinner, but I think I'll bake it for at least an extra 5 minutes. Oh, and I would go with octopi rather than octopuses or octopodes.

[@jevinday]

The only time I've eaten mushrooms is for psychedelic effects, I hate the taste 😂

[@fredochs]

Can't we just send this video to the CDC and say "Hey, could you include an appendix to your report?" Please? :)

[@FrigginCatsBruh]

Octopi, fight me.

[@RippieFarmer]

Any wild edible mushroom not cooked properly can be toxic.

[@brandonkelley6500]

Loved the inaturalist hoodie... I have the app and its really cool. Great for trying to identify bugs around the house, or what I like is mushrooms and flowers on hiking trails. I think I first learned about the app from an "Its okay to be smart" video (before the name change)

[@Noneblue39]

great root cause analysis!

[@4124V4TA-SNPCA-x]

Musings on multi-faceted morals of morels, with multiple meticulous medical morsels makes my mind markedly mirthful.

[@polcastillo6272]

Great video. Tot i que molt inesperada la dita 😂 11:08

[@tomarmadiyer2698]

7:06 to 7:35 Glorious

[@michaelniederer2831]

Good report well presented, and I didn't even mind that it was light on the chemistry. Thanks.

[@dogphlap6749]

If the grammar Nazis won't let us use 'octopi' I'll happily use the new to me 'octopods', got to be better than the horribly clumsy sounding 'octopuses'.

[@tenkowal]

3:58 I am pausing too early and taking a screenshot in the bad moment. I will use it to ID mushrooms. I will get sick from eating the deadly mushroom. Don't do such swaps with things which can actually lead to serious health hazards. For sake of own feeling of guilt or simply for sake of not being sued, choose your own reason.

[@herzogsbuick]

ooo speaking of chitin, what about people who eat softshell crabs for instance? or insects? is that bad?

[@XSpImmaLion]

I'll be sticking to tame champignons and Japanese mushrooms.... which I'll still thoroughly cook because why raw?

[@shawnsg]

I may have missed it if you mentioned it but there was a gentleman in Missoula that died from morels the same time. I think the article mentioned he was an experienced forager. They suspect they might have be undercooked however and given his long-term consumption of them he may have had a hydrazine buildup assuming that's even what makes them toxic.

[@af-gt9lu]

i literally just bought a pack of dried mushrooms 6 hours ago............ now im scared to eat them cause apparently i cant trust distributors enough

[@FrigginCatsBruh]

Yeah, go forage.

[@christopheroliver148]

Methinks you meant "just because it's _uncommon,_ doesn't mean it's _incorrect."_

[@GeraldBlack1]

You're rolling the dice every time you eat out, even more so with sushi.

[@nanwelch1394]

Perhaps the morels were growing next to a poisonous plant/herb....

[@kevinroberts781]

It grew in contaminated soil or it wasn't the mushroom at all