How to Identify and Cook Honey Mushrooms

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Honey mushroom is a generic term for a wide complex of wild mushrooms in the Armillaria family, usually A. mellea. Yes, honey mushrooms are edible, with a few caveats. Here’s how to identify, harvest, cook and preserve them.

A group of young honey mushrooms
Photo by Hank Shaw

See these? These are primo honey mushrooms. Regardless of species, you want to pick a honey mushroom young, like real young. This patch is in my yard, and it emerged maybe four or five days before I took this picture.

Timing matters with honey mushrooms, although they are still kinda-sorta edible when they get old. More on that in a moment.

Habitat and Range

Honey mushrooms are a circumboreal species, usually found in temperate places, meaning not the tropics. Imagine a ring starting in the boreal forest and extending down into the American South, Europe, and Russia, as well as China.

Mostly you will find them north of a line running from about Fresno, California to about Charlotte, North Carolina, but a few species, like the ringless honey, can be found as far south as Florida.

They are a decomposing mushroom that eats wood and causes “white rot.” If you have it in your yard, as I do, good luck getting rid of it. Killing a honey mushroom is notoriously difficult.

Look at the base of trees, around stumps, and around piles of fallen logs. Honey mushrooms are always in a cluster.

You will find honey mushrooms when the weather is cool and damp. I’ve gathered them in Virginia as early as September, and as late as January here in Sacramento. I’ve never seen them in spring.

Identifying a Honey Mushroom

You want to be very sure about what variety of mushroom you have before you go eating it. This is always good policy, but there are a few poisonous mushrooms that bear a passing resemblance to a honey mushroom, notably the sulfur tuft and the various pholiota species.

You use a “key” to identify a honey mushroom. I’ll walk you through it.

I highly recommend buying a book like David Arora’s Mushrooms Demystified, which contains long “keys” consisting of scores of “if-then” statements. For example, if the mushroom has a ring on the stalk, go to No. 12. If not, go to No. 18, and so on. You start with guidebook pictures to get you in the ballpark, then move on to the more detailed key to confirm your guess.

This is absolutely necessary when you are trying to see if a mushroom that is new to you will taste good, be boring — or will dissolve your liver. Beware of the mycological siren song that traps many a mushroom hunter: It is a common — and potentially lethal — mistake to make a square peg fit into a round hole, mentally downplaying one aspect of a mushroom so it can fit into the edible hole you want it to be in. Dangerous.

Let’s take a closer look at the honey mushroom.

Details of young honey mushrooms
Photo by Hank Shaw

What makes a honey mushroom a honey mushroom? Lots of things, but there are two important markers to look for beyond three easy ones: where it’s growing, is it in a cluster and does it have the ring around the stalk? (Although there is a ringless honey mushroom, A. tabascens) The first important marker is whether the cap has five o’clock shadow:

Details of a honey mushroom
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

These little hairs, or speckly fuzzy things on the cap are a hallmark of a honey mushroom — which, incidentally, is so named for the range of colors it can have on the cap rather than its flavor. Look for these markings. You can see them even in the really young honey mushrooms in the top picture as pimply dots.

A second tell-tale marker is the mushroom’s gills: Honey mushroom gills are decurrent, meaning they run down the bottom of the cap and onto the top of the stalk, down to the mushroom’s faint ring.

Decurrent gills on a honey mushroom
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

A final test is a spore print. It’s like a fingerprint for a mushroom, and will often confirm your best guesses after keying the thing out. To make a spore print, you slice off the stem of a mushroom and lay the cap, gills down, on paper. Ideally, you do a couple of prints: One on white paper, another on a darker paper. This is because a lot of mushrooms have white spores, which won’t show up on a piece of white paper.

Honey mushrooms have white spores.

Harvesting Honeys

Unless they are those pretty little buttons, you will want to collect only the caps of honey mushrooms. As the mushroom ages, the stalks get fibrous and not fun to eat — although they make a perfectly fine mushroom stock. Try to keep dirt out of the gills because they are a pain to clean.

Once gathered, set your honey mushrooms on paper towels in a lidded container in the fridge. They will keep this way for a week or so.

Cutting a mushroom pierogi with a fork.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Cooking Honey Mushrooms

Before I start with this one, I need to tell you why you will never see a honey mushroom at the supermarket: It’s because a certain, measurable percentage of people who eat them, get a stomach upset. It’s not so much a toxin as it is an inability to digest them. It presents as a stomach ache and unhappy innards for a day or so.

So the first time you eat honey mushrooms, go easy. And wait a day.

Second caveat: Honey mushrooms must be thoroughly cooked. No quick sauté. Honeys need to be braised, stewed, or roasted for more than 1o minutes or so, and I always cook mine more than 30 minutes. An hour is better.

Third caveat: A honey mushroom is the mycological equivalent of okra, or nopales. Yeah I’m talking about slime. Honeys are not nearly as slimy as okra or nopales, but they are. This is why they are not terribly loved among most mushroom hunters: They are not a “fry it in butter and eat” sort of mushroom.

But this thickening effect is perfect when the mushrooms are part of a filling, or a stew.

Other good recipes for honey mushrooms include:

larger honey mushrooms growing
Photo by Hank Shaw

Preserving

I’ve tried pickling honey mushrooms, and, well, it was a slime fest. Not my thing. You absolutely can dehydrate them, and it’s a great way to preserve them for winter stews. That’s my go-to method. Just dehydrate at low temperature until the mushrooms get brittle and papery. It takes about 8 hours or so.

Another method is to cook, then freeze. This works well, too, but occupies freezer space, which is at a premium at my house. A good option for this is to pre-make a filling for, say, mushroom pierogis, or mushroom ravioli, and then vac-seal and freeze that.

In case you are wondering, yes, all this work is worth the effort. Too many foragers shy away from mushrooms because they are scary. And those who do typically stick with the traditionals — morels, porcini, chanterelles.

But scores of edible mushrooms live among us, and, if you are careful about identifying them, they can enrich your cooking in ways few other ingredients can. Many, like the honey mushroom, have special traits that you can take advantage of — if you know how to tap into them.

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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82 Comments

  1. Found the motherload of Honey Mushrooms on Saturday. Split into two prep streams; first, I’m drying bags of them (mushroom powder?) and second, making Mushroom Catsup (turns out to be much more viscous than the type I’ve made with Champignon — as you’ve noted.)

  2. Here’s a GREAT soup you can make with Honey mushrooms.

    Creamy Hungarian Mushroom Soup

    1/2 stick of Butter
    1 lb fresh honey mushrooms, finely sliced/chopped
    1 medium onion, diced finely, or about 2 cups diced
    2 cups Chicken stock
    1 T Paprika
    1 T Soy Sauce
    2 tsp Dill Weed or a fresh dill head
    1 cup of Milk
    3 T Flour
    2 tsp Lemon Juice
    1/2 cup Sour Cream
    Salt and Pepper to taste

    Melt butter in a stock pot on medium/high heat. Saute’ onions until they turn clear, about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, stir and saute’ for about 5 minutes. Add chicken stock, soy sauce, dill, paprika. Reduce heat, Simmer covered for 15 minutes. Now either use an immersion blender and puree in the stock pot, or remove in stages to a blender and puree, return to the pot. Whisk flour into milk and add, along with sour cream, lemon juice and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well, Simmer on low for another 5 minutes or so and serve. Mmmmmmmmm!

  3. Be careful with these. Some people get very sick eating them. I have eaten them many many times and love them. However my brother on one occasion and a friends wife on another got very sick on them. Extreme diarrea, nausea, etc. it did pass but they were very ill. I’ll pick them again when the first frost sets in.

  4. I first tried Armillaria mellea 35 years ago and didn’t care for them…thought they had a metallic taste. I mostly ignored them after that. About a decade ago, while out photographing mushrooms with a Polish friend, he suggested par-boiling the honeys first. I have found that just a couple of minute blanch removed the metallic taste that I have found so unpleasant. After that I like them in stir fries, where I find they have a mild shiitake like taste.

    Also, take the stipes, just the stipes, and remove the outer ‘skin’. Take the resulting core and fry them in a VERY hot, dry (no oil), caste iron pan with a little salt…absolutely delicious.

    I no longer pass by the large clusters of Armillaria.

  5. Thanks for the great post! The link to the recipe appears to have disappeared. Can you repost it? I’m finding bushels of honey mushrooms this week!

  6. I love mushrooms. I wish we had a greater variety available in grocery stores. I also agree that it’s very important to make sure you don’t eat any poisonous ones. I love my liver more! LOL!

    John V. Karavitis

  7. I live in Northern California near the Trinity river. This year and last I’ve had a nice little bloom of honey mushrooms in my yard (fruiting where there used to be a black oak tree). I recently picked some button-sized ones and sauteed them in olive oil with onion, salt, pepper. They were delicious! I plan to make use of as many as emerge. I put a little fence around the area, and today I watered the area lightly to encourage fruiting.
    I have seen them in the local woods here-and-there but have never eaten them until now.

  8. For a time I thought them not worth the picking
    and wondered why my Polish friends canned them
    by the bushel. What did they know that I didn’t?
    Then on a whim I tossed a hand full in a soup I was making.
    Umami! They are loaded with umami.
    The flavor of the Honey mushroom is a bit faint and
    in truth verges on insipid but it packs a big
    punch in the umami department.

  9. Great article! I’m just getting into shrooming and found a ton of the honeys today. Thanks for taking the time to write this!

  10. Just came across them in the Czech Republic, where they are called Václavka obecná. Good to know the slime released when cooking is normal. They were perfect in a turkey stuffing recipe!

  11. Foraging is a skill I lack and wish I had access to a trusted personto learn from. Mushrooms are a favorite foodtuff and I would love to be able to just go out and find such delicacies growing wild.

    Your pierogie sound fabuous btw

  12. I’ve found honeys many times but have not tried them yet … I’ve always been skeptical of them for some reason.

    BTW, I can’t eat hedgehogs for some reason … they make me nauseous.

  13. I also live in Sacramento, but am an Eastern European transplant. Some of my happiest childhood memories are picking mushrooms with my parents, including oyster mushrooms, puffballs, and some bright orange lactaria. I’d love to get back into mushroom picking. Do you know of any expert foragers who are willing to give lessons? My husband and I just came from a walk along American River, where we found a ton of large, russet collored gilled mushrooms. They look a lot like lactaria deliciosa, but are not “milky” nor get discolored when damaged. I’d love to find out what they are. While we were there, we picked some wonderful miner’s lettuce and chickweed as well.

  14. Hi, its bice to see people to appreciate the wild mushrooms, i terribly miss the time i lived in my country, Finland, where it was breeze pick mushrooms. Here where i live its not so easy if you dont know the landowner. Meaning its illegal to pick with out permission.
    But i must say, im little suprised your saying ;”but they looked so much like the inedible russulas and lactarias”. Cos those are my favorite mushrooms, wich i have eaten my whole life, lactarias are incredibly tasty when handled properly and made for russian/carelian style of salad. You Do have to know wich ones to pick from those, not all tastes good or are edible. And russulas are all so good but nothing spectacular, but when you mix it with others they add nice touch of taste.
    But if you want to know more, contact me on email. I dont want to go on for ever with my comment, i just than you for very nice blog wich i follow with intrest when i have time 🙂

  15. Hank – followup on my earlier post – we simply can the mushroos in 1 quart sealers – and yes they are slimy after that process. Re the walleye fishing- dead serious about the invite – just get here and we’ll take care of the rest – they’ve been catching now – but you can get some pretty serious action in March. We have some other tasty water creatures here too!- specifically Goldeye and Tulibee – catch, smoke, enjoy – might even be able to line up a day with a commercial fisherman who places his nets under the ice….pretty neat adventure.