• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Forager Chef

Foraging and Cooking Mushrooms, Wild and Obscure Food

  • Home
  • About
  • Mushrooms
    • Mushroom Species Archive
    • Posts by Species
      • Other
        • Lobster Mushrooms
        • Shrimp of the Woods
        • Truffles
        • Morels
        • Shaggy Mane
        • Hericium
        • Puffball
      • Polypores
        • Hen of the Woods
        • Dryad Saddle
        • Chicken of The Woods
        • Cauliflowers
        • Ischnoderma
        • Beefsteak
      • Chanterelles
        • Black Trumpet
        • Red Cinnabar
        • Yellowfeet
      • Gilled
        • Matsutake
        • Russula / Lactarius
          • Candy Caps
          • Saffron Milkcap
          • Indigo Milkcap
        • Fairy Rings
      • Boletes
        • Porcini
        • Leccinum
        • Slippery Jacks
    • Recipes
      • Fresh
      • Dried
      • Preserves
    • The Basics
  • Plants
    • Plant Archive
    • Leafy Green Recipes
      • Leafy Green Plant Varieties
    • Wild Fruit
      • Wild Plums
      • Highbush Cranberry
      • Wild Grapes
      • Rowanberries
      • Wild Cherries
      • Aronia
      • Elderberry
      • Nannyberry
      • Wild Blueberries
    • Wild Herbs and Spices
    • From The Garden
    • Nuts, Roots, Tubers and Grains
    • Stalks and Shoots
  • Meat
    • Four-Legged
    • Poultry
    • Fish/Seafood
    • Offal
    • Charcuterie
  • Recipes
    • Pickles, Preserves, Etc
    • Fermentation
    • Condiments
    • Appetizers
    • Soup
    • Salad
    • Side Dishes
    • Entrees
    • Baking
    • Sweets
  • Video
    • The Wild Harvest
    • Foraging Videos
    • Lamb and Goat Series
    • YouTube Tutorials
  • Press
    • Podcasts
  • Work
    • Public Speaking
    • Charity and Private Dinners
    • Forays / Classes / Demos

Yellowfoot Chanterelles

Yellowfoot Chanterelles

True Craterellus tubaeformis. These are from Oregon, not from Minnesota and Wisconsin, where I hunt. If you buy yellowfoot chanterelles commerically, more than likely this is the species you’ll receive, and there good. 

Small, fragile, and petite, yellowfoot chanterelles, also known as Craterellus tubaeformis (formerly Cantharellus), among a few other closely related species, are a great mushroom to collect for the table. To complicate things, the species I have pictured in this post are only two of a number of mushrooms that fall under the umbrella of what we would call “yellowfoot chanterelles”. Technically there’s Craterellus sphaerosporus, lutecens, and tubaeformis that I know of, and there are likely more that are undocumented.

For the majority of you reading this, you’ll be looking at mushrooms that resemble the picture at the top of this post. But, if you live in the Midwest, you’re going to see a different species, actually a better tasting, and more visually attractive mushroom, but, unfortunately, you’re not going to see as many of them, heck, you’ll see only a fraction of them compared to what a hunter on the West Coast will see.

Yellowfeet from California and the Pacific Northwest just fruit heavier than the species we have in the Midwest, and the same is true with actual chanterelles, or mushrooms allowed to be in the Cantharellus family (yellowfeet used to be in Cantharellus but have since been moved to the trumpet family, and it makes a lot of sense)  So, even though our species tastes better, it’s nothing to right home about, since, if you end up finding enough for dinner, you’re in the top skill percentile of Midwestern mushroom hunters, and even then, you probably got lucky. If you don’t know what you’re looking for, these things (especially in the Midwest) are teeny tiny, and easy to walk right past. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of the two different species below, note the scale of the Minnesota species, these are small mushrooms, where the PNW are 2-3 times the size. What kind of differences can you pick out?

Yellowfoot chanterelles craterellus tubaeformis and friends
Yellowfeet from Minnesota.
Yellowfoot chanterelles craterellus tubaeformis and friends
Yellowfeet from Oregon.

Habitat 

Where I pick these in Minnesota, they like to grow in wet areas, typically near oaks-the same places you might find black trumpets, so if you know a place where trumpets grow, make sure to look around the area for yellow feet too. Hunting around small ponds and areas that hold moisture are really your best bet for these, they really like it damp, and wet.

Since they’re mycorhizal, they will come back year after year in the exact same places, rain permitting. I don’t usually find them in mass quantities, but I know that in the Pacific Northwest they can be picked in very large numbers, and I used to go through 30 lbs a week during the Winter mushroom season. With their small size, and hollow stem, just like black trumpets, 30lbs is a lot. If you find a lb of these, consider yourself a winner, and don’t forget where you picked them.

Yellow foot chanterelles or Craterellus tubaeformis

Yellowfoot chanterelles in Minnesota, I pick small amounts of these every year in a very wet woods, in one of the same places I pick black trumpets.

Cooking 

Flavor wise these are great, they have a sweet aroma like a golden chanterelle, but a structure that’s similar to a black trumpet, with their hollow stem and thin flesh.

You’ll need to find a bunch of these to make a meal, since when they hit a pan they wilt quickly and cook down, but their flavor makes up for that, as well as the fact that they dry easily. They’re a great addition to any sort of broth or stock, and of course, like most mushrooms their flavor is amplified by cooking them with cream.

yellowfoot chanterelle consomme with northern pike mousseline dumplings

Yellowfeet are great rehydrated in simple soups and broths.

When I find these, I typically dry them for future use, since if they were picked in an area that was sandy or after a rain, they will be dirty, and cleaning them with a brush is liable to just break them apart without getting them clean at all. If you dry them though, their structure tightens up a bit, and swishing them around in some of their reconstituting liquid will allow you to remove all of the grit, no problem.

These can also be pickled, but I would make sure to use a mild flavored pickling liquid, without sugar. Another great way to enjoy them is a conserve, which is something in between a marinade and a pickle.

dried yellowfoot chanterelles

Yellowfeet dry very easily

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

Categories

Instagram

foragerchef

Let’s talk roadkill. Honestly, the roadkill is t Let’s talk roadkill. Honestly, the roadkill is too specific a term for me—I don’t limit myself to vehicular-harvested meat. 

However you feel about the topic, grab some popcorn and head over to the comment section on my blog (link in bio) for the 🔥personal stories from readers have shared from around the world. 

There’s the kid who brought home a nutria after school, a wife getting 4 deer with the same car, a train hitting a herd of elk, a bear named squish, living in a house with weasels, and more. 

#budgetgourmet #gleaning #scavenging #meatismeat #roadkill #freefoods #finderskeepers #wastenotwantnot
Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberr Sam Thayer dropped 25 lbs of his highbush cranberry cultivars (3 types!) on me before the last snowfall and I honestly don’t even know where to start after processing them. I’d already made jams and hot sauce already and I have enough for a year. 😅

Great time to practice the cold-juice which ensures the juice isn’t bitter. 

Anyone else have any ideas? 

You can still find some on the shrubs if the birds didn’t get them up by the north shore. 

#highbushcranberry #winterforaging #birdberries #sweetnectar #foragerproblems #juiceme #embarassmentofriches #wildfoodlove
100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw v 100% wild candy bars. I don’t usually make raw vegan snacks, but when I read about Euell Gibbon’s wild hackberry candy bars I had to try them. The  originals were just crushed hackberries and hickory nuts, but, I’ve read that Euell grew to dislike the crunch of hackberry seeds later in life. 

Here’s the thing though, if you sift the hackberry flour, you get a fun texture, with no worries about cracking a tooth. 

These are equal parts ground hackberries, dried wild blueberries, and hickory nuts, with a splash of maple syrup to bind.

The end product is a shelf stable, nutrient-packed bite filled with protein, carbohydrates, fats and natural sugars infinitely adaptable to your local landscape.

The texture is chewy and nougat-like, and now I’m curious to see how they’d perform baked in recipes that use frangipane or almond paste. 

#euellgibbons #energybars #hackberry #crushin #paleobreakfast #tradionalfood #wildfoodlove #rawfoods
Hackberry milk spoonbread with black walnuts and c Hackberry milk spoonbread with black walnuts and chokecherry gastrique is one of the dishes @credononfiction and I filmed for @headspace. 

I cook hackberry milk with cornmeal and maple syrup, whip some egg whites and fold them in, then bake. Eats a bit like crust-less pumpkin pie, if pumpkin pie came from a tree. 

#hackberry #souffle #wildfoodlove #chokecherry #blackwalnuts #brunching
Hackberry milk is a sort of rustic nut milk made f Hackberry milk is a sort of rustic nut milk made from ground hackberries and water. I grind the berries to a meal, then simmer with 3x their volume of water, strain through a chinois (without pressing) season with maple and a pinch of cinnamon. Tastes like pumpkin pie in a glass, also a decent cooking medium. 

#hackberries #nutmilk #foraging #wildfoodlove #celtisoccidentalis
Are hackberries a fruit? A nut? They're a bit of b Are hackberries a fruit? A nut? They're a bit of both. They also contain protein, fat, and carbs, and the oldest evidence of humans enjoying them goes back 500,000 years. Right now is the best time to harvest them in the Midwest as the leaves have fallen. The full break down and introduction to them is in my bio. 
#hackberry #celtisoccidentalis #winterforaging #wildfoodlove #traditionalfoods #manbird
Load More... Follow on Instagram

Footer

Privacy

  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2021 · Foodie Pro & The Genesis Framework