Foraged Recipes
Posted on August 31, 2020
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Black trumpet mushrooms (Craterellus fallax), aka black chanterelles, are a choice edible mushroom with flavor notes comparable to truffles. In this article, you’ll discover how to find black trumpets and make a simple, delicious meal with them.
Black trumpet mushrooms: quite possibly our favorite mushroom of all
We love foraging and growing mushrooms. Similar to the flavor diversity in fruits and veggies, every mushroom species offers different, nuanced flavors. Like fruits and veggies, mushrooms are also seasonal, with different species of edible mushrooms growing in every season of the year.
While we don’t have a favorite mushroom, we can say that there isn’t a North American mushroom we know of that tastes better than black trumpets, aka black chanterelles.
(Read our chanterelle foraging guide to learn more about finding different species of chanterelle mushrooms.)
What do black trumpet mushrooms taste like? Black trumpets have a rich, earthy, fungal flavor that’s somewhat comparable to truffles.
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East coast US black trumpet mushrooms (Craterellus fallax)
In American, black trumpet mushrooms are found on both the west and east coasts. They’re also found in Europe and other areas of the world.
Common names for these fungi vary by region and country:
- black trumpets,
- horn of plenty,
- trumpet of the dead (not because they’re poisonous, but because they’re black, horn-shaped mushrooms, and emerge from the ground),
- black chanterelles.
Here in the east, our native black trumpet species is Craterellus fallax, which produces a yellowish-orange spore print. Black trumpet mushroom species found elsewhere in the world have a white or creamy spore print.
A beautiful harvest of black trumpet mushrooms (Craterellus fallax).
Visually, the various species of black trumpet mushrooms look nearly identical. Although somewhat common, their black-grey color and wrinkly texture provides excellent camouflage, making them very difficult to see.
For reference, here’s a quick video showing black trumpet mushrooms growing in association with beech tree roots in August in South Carolina (they’re a summer mushroom here):
*Note: Video may not play if you’re running ad blocking software.
Host trees:
Although black trumpet mushrooms are mycorrhizal with other hardwood tree species such as oaks, we almost always find them associating with beech trees in our area.
They’re either emerging from leaf litter or moss under their host trees, usually on disturbed hillsides or trail edges.
Can you spot the black trumpet mushrooms emerging from the forest floor in this picture?
Season:
In our area (the Upstate region of South Carolina), black trumpet mushrooms fruit from June – September.
Cooking recommendations for black trumpet mushrooms
There are countless recipes you can make with black trumpet mushrooms. Even though they offer a rich fungal flavor, they can be overpowered in strongly flavored sauces.
We recommend making them the star of the recipe so their sublime, subtle flavor really pops. For instance, you probably wouldn’t want to add them to a tomato sauce or pesto, which could overpower them.
Our favorite simple way to use them is in pastas or as a bread dip — and the recipe below can be used to make either one…
This black trumpet mushroom pasta recipe lets the full nuanced flavor of the mushrooms shine.
Recipe: Black trumpet mushroom pasta
Black trumpet mushroom pasta
Course:Dinner
Cuisine:American, Italian
Keyword:black chanterelles, black trumpet mushroom pasta, black trumpet mushrooms
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Servings: 2
A simple, delicious pasta recipe starring black trumpet mushrooms (Craterellus fallax and other related species).
Ingredients
- 3cupsloose packed black trumpet mushrooms (about 4 ounces)
- 1/4cuporganic extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4cupfresh-grated parmesan cheese
- 1 1/2tbspfresh rosemary, finely chopped
- 1 1/2tbspfresh thyme, finely chopped
- 2tbspsea salt for pasta water
- 1/2tsp pink sea salt for for mushrooms, or to taste
- 4 .4ouncespasta noodles (2 serving sizes) - we used half a box of 4mm Grand Mere organic whole grain free-range egg pasta noodles (No. 4)
Instructions
Place mushroom in saute pan with 1/2 tsp salt and add just enough water to pan to cover the mushrooms. Cook on medium high heat (6 on our stove) until water has almost cooked off, about 20-30 minutes. (This ensures the mushrooms are thoroughly cooked and chitin in cell walls is broken down.) Then add olive oil + fresh herbs. Turn heat down to medium low (3 on our stove) to let remaining water cook off and herbs + mushroom flavors infuse the oil, about 15 minutes. You don't want to burn the herbs or let their volatile flavor compounds be degraded. (*To make a black trumpet mushroom bread dip, stop here and add these ingredients to a blender.)
On separate burner, bring water to boil with salt added to help flavor noodles. Once pasta is cooked, strain then add to pan with mushrooms. Toss noodles and mushrooms together with stove on low heat.
Plate dish then top with fresh-grated parmesan cheese.
Mastered this recipe? Be sure to try our next!
– a flavor combination you’ll never forget.
Enjoy!
KIGI,
Other fungi articles you’ll want to explore:
- Cauliflower mushroom guide (with our cauliflower mushroom sweet corn quiche recipe)
- Reishi mushrooms: how to find, ID, and use
- Lactifluus corrugis and L. volemus: delicious wild mushrooms
- 6 gourmet and medicinal mushrooms you can easily grow in your garden
- Complete guide: how to forage and use chanterelle mushrooms
- DIY: How to grow shiitake mushrooms
- How to find, identify, grow, and cook chicken of the woods mushrooms
- Bicolor bolete: how to find, ID, and eat this wild gourmet mushroom
- Blue mushrooms? A delicious indigo milkcap mushroom recipe
- The hunt for the elusive morel mushroom
- How to find, ID, and eat umbrella polypore (Polyporus umbellatus)
- Lions mane mushrooms: a brain booster that tastes like crab meat (with “crab” cake recipe!)
- How to find and prepare maitake mushrooms
- How to grow and eat King stropharia mushrooms
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Aaron von Frank
Food explorer, seed & soil geek, duck evangelist, writer, health nut, and entrepreneur. In addition to their collaboration on Tyrant Farms, Aaron and his wife, Susan (aka "The Tyrant"), are cofounders of GrowJourney.com, which focuses on providing free educational resources for gardeners and small farmers interested in no-till organic food production. Aaron is the former farm manager at Oak Hill Cafe & Farm, a no-till, permaculture, farm-to-table restaurant & farm located right down the street from his alma mater, Furman University, in Greenville, SC. He also serves on the board of the Diversified Agriculture Committee for the South Carolina Farm Bureau.
