Beefhearts...What ever ya call them.. They should becoming up right now.. IWe always used to eat them. Now I see some people call them false morels and that they are poison. I have read they contain a compound found in jet fuel....:eek: and it builds up in your system over time causing liver failure.:(

Fun it doesn't have to build up in your system..the secret to them is to make sure they are absolutely completely cooked through..
We called them beefsteaks..
but yes they do contain a toxin of sorts that is highly damaging to your liver..if you don't cook them clean through..and you happen to have alcohol with them ..you are risking acute liver failure and trip to ICU...

good old wikipedia has lots about them...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyromitra_esculenta

that's one that I always tell the uninitiated to stay away from..just cause it didn't hurt us.. ya know?
and now with my liver shot ..I've quit eating them for for fear that I'll just finish it off..

I was just thinkin with all the acetaminophen people use these days it might not be a good ideal to push it...:eek::D

Who in the world would drink some type of alcohol w/a highly tasty fungi? Perish the thought! Fun???????

Who in the world would drink some type of alcohol w/a highly tasty fungi? Perish the thought! Fun???????Only those who seek a Dream Quest.....:rolleyes:;)

Mmmmmmmmmmmm...Dream Quest.....

That's kind of a permanent Dream Quest though Fun.

Dave...did you get a good look at Critter? That's what mixing alcohol and fungi will do to you! ROFL

Beefhearts... I have read they contain a compound found in jet fuel....:eek: and it builds up in your system over time causing liver failure.:(

That's why I've never eaten those, I know a lot of people that still do. I don't know if all "REDZ" have the compound, it seems like the book I had said that some could possibly be mildly poisonous, so I just pass on the REDZ.

Not drinking a beer with fried MuShRoOmZ! ABSURD!

Every year, after eating Morels for a few weeks, I get a serious, "BOUT WIT DA GOUT", not sure if the two are related, but it comes along just in time to cripple me up for turkey season, which is miserable, I'm too ate up with turkey hunting to stay off my feet, so I limp around the woods chasing GobblerZ! only aggravating it more. I've learned to start taking my medicine for it before the morels pop!
When I first had gout diagnosed I ask the doc what causes it, he said " Red meat, Beer" I said, "Whoa, that's my basic diet!" he just gave me a look, then I ask where do I buy the crutches? Cause, I'm not giving up either one.

Huntrz I hear ya..the mold usually grabs me and throws me for a loop about the time morels start..but

YAY!!!YAY!!! I think I've made it through March with no relapse!!! First time in 8 years I haven't been hospitalized in March and then so full of steroids that I was psychotic..
Guess this med is working after all... :)

it's the purines in the organ meats that really set the Gout off..and excessive alchol intake..take your allopurinal and go have a good steak and a beer! LOL

When I was young we used to find them one or two at a time , ususally under dead or dying oaks. They where huge. I found one the size of a basketball. They would be in the upland hard woods.My Mom would always soak them in salty water for at least over night and the only way she cooked them was chopped up in scrambled eggs. About 8 years ago my brother-in-law moved down in the bottoms and he calls me real early in the year and says he found some mushrooms. I had to go down and look and they where reds but they where about as big as a grapefruit. He didn't just find one he was finding patched of them. Like a couple of five gal. buckets full. I started hunting them down along the river and been finding them every year in the sandy areas where the drift wood would wash in and pile up.They where also growing in the willows and maples. The huge one we used to find as a kid where so big you couldn't slice them into steaks cause they would fall apart. That was one of the reasons my Mom diced them and cooked them with eggs. The smalled ones we find in patches down by the river are small enough to slice but they had a lot of water in them so to get then crunchy like I like them we would have to fry them a long time other wise they would come out mushy and kinda slimy. I have notice the ones from the bottoms will make your stomic upset and give you the runs. I just always though that was from all the grease from fryin them and the fact that we would find so many of them I was foundering myself. Maybe I had a touch of poisioning.:eek: