Fried morels, where have you been all my life? Seriously. I have eaten morels for decades, but only recently have I experenced the glory of the fried morel. I am not looking back.
Frying morels in flour, breading or batter is the go-to method of eating these most coveted of springtime mushrooms for most of North America. But not where I live, in the Pacific West.
Here we tend to saute them with other spring vegetables and toss them into pasta or somesuch. I looked down on the fried morel as borderline ghetto… until I finally had some about a year ago. I was wrong. Simple? You bet. But so, so good.
The secret is the coating on the mushroom. A good breading or batter will not only give you a nice crunch, but it will protect the morel inside, which will cook not by contact with the hot oil, but by steaming from within. Few other methods really highlight the actual flavor and texture of morel mushrooms.
But know that there’s a trick to this: You need a substantial breading or batter. Just a quick dip in flour isn’t good enough to get this effect. The reason is because you need to fry your morels for longer than you’d think because morels must be fully cooked to be safe to eat. Raw morels will send most people to the hospital.
Undercooked morels will send many of you to the porcelain bowl. How long? Hard to say, but 6 minutes per morel seems to work fine. To get there, you actually don’t want to fry your morels at ragingly hot temperatures; 325°F to 350°F is the sweet spot.
My breading of choice is flour, then egg wash, then flour one more time. I like this because it’s thick enough to get you that awesome steaming effect, but it’s not so thick that it’s all batter, like a beer batter would be. Tempura is another good choice. You could also use finely milled cornmeal, normally sold as “fish fry.” After all, some people call morels “dry land fish.”
Serve your fried morels very simply. After all, this is the culmination of long hours hunting for your quarry and you want to let them shine. You want something for tartness, though. I like lemon wedges, but malt vinegar is another good choice. Oh, and beer. Lots of beer.
Fried Morel Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 12 ounces to 1 pound fresh morels
- 2 cups flour
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- Lard, butter or vegetable oil for frying
Instructions
- Slice large morels in half lengthwise and keep small ones whole. Drop the mushrooms into a bowl of cool water and shake them around a bit to let any debris fall out of the little nooks and crannies in them. Remove from the water and pat dry with paper towels.
- Put the flour and all the seasonings in a bowl. Whisk together the milk and eggs in another bowl.
- Pour enough oil, or lard or butter, into a large sauté pan to come up about 1/2 inch. You are shallow-frying your morels, like when you fry chicken. Heat this to at least 325°F and I prefer 350°F.
- As the oil is heating, dust the morels in the seasoned flour. When the oil is hot, dip enough morels to fit into your sauté pan -- in one layer without touching each other -- into the egg wash, then into the flour once more. Shake off the excess flour and fry. You want the morels to be fully cooked so fry them for at least 3 to 4 minutes per side, adjusting the heat so they don't burn. If your heat's at the right spot, it all should sound like frying bacon.
- When they're done, move the morels to a paper towel to drain. If you have a lot of morels to fry, put the paper towel in a baking sheet and set that in the oven set to "warm." Serve your morels with lemon wedges and lots of beer.
Nutrition
What is your ideal beer pairing this recipe?
Love fried morels. All my big ones get set aside for this dish! This year has been a late season, I went out and only found a handful of true morels but picked a couple pails of Verpa Bohemica. They are in a paper bag in my fridge as I figure out what to do with them. Mixed information on these early false morels…I did find some information that they have market value in Italy and are loved but here in North America it seems we leave them alone? What is your experience with Verpa Bohemica?
Nice. Before I batter and bread them, I fill them with a simple salmon mousse before frying.
My mom would soak them in salt water to get out the bugs. I haven’t seen anyone doing this. Is this necessary?
Valerie: No need to soak, but yes, floating them in salty water, or any water, will help float out any bugs. This is mostly an Eastern thing. I find that most morels in the West are bug free.
I will be attempting this tonight. Been in the woods every day for the last 4 next to the house and been lucky – quarantine and all – *sheesh. Anyways, I have always drenched once in flour with S&P in a pan with butter. But tonight I have two dry-aged NY strip steaks with mine and my wife’s names on them. She works in an Emergency Room and needless to say, she deserves this.
Great recipe, I even have some fish fry flour. Perfect.
I cooked mine tonight 2 different ways and my favorite is with flour! Yummy!!!! I wanted to add my photo but didn’t see where to do it. I did egg wash on both fries, one I battered in a flour, Salt/pepper mix and the other in a saltine crushed/pepper mix.
I’ve always fried them in a skillet but I’ve been wondering about deep frying them. Have you ever tried that before? I didn’t want to go and try it and ruin the taste of the only few I found this year
Jarrod: I have not deep fried them, but it should work. Make sure your fat or oil is about 325F to 350F.
Are their poisonous morels?
DNV: Undercooked morels can be toxic, and raw morels are very toxic, and there are many species of false morels that are toxic, too.
There are mildly poisenous morel look alike mushroom- look exactly like morel in color and shading but not spongy, just solid smooth flesh. I’ve only seen them small 2 in. or smaller.
Can you freeze them?
Perry: Yes, but only after sauteing. You can’t freeze uncooked morels, as they turn to mush when they thaw.
Best way to preserve them is to dehydrate them. we do it every year. When you want to eat some just soak them in water for a few minutes and they puff right up.
I actually dredge mine and then freeze them in a single layer on parchment. Once frozen solid i bag them. The trick is to make sure you do NOT thaw them before frying. Throw them into hot oil straight out of the freezer. They’re never mushy this way. Taste just like fresh.
This is our go to recipe for morel mushrooms. This is the first thing my family asks me to cook when we find them.
Oh oh, I washed my morels and my family has already gone to bed! Now what? If I dry them with a paper towel, will they keep until tomorrow night?
Suzy: Pat them dry and put them in the fridge.
Turned out delicious. All about battering and frying them right. Light and delicious. Not too much seasoning not too much batter. And your descriptiveness on the recipe didn’t leave any question. Awesome. Well worth the 6 hours I spent climbing up and down mountains in Maryland. Gotta love Appalachia.
I use cracker crumbs a little course after dipping in egg and milk mixed together. Then fry in butter in hot skillet.
These were amazing! Thank you so much for sharing the method as well as the breading recipe. I’ve apparently been frying too hot! I used butter and it was great. Yummy!!
Great recipe and instructions on frying morels. Thanks for sharing.
Way too much salt and way to much batter. My family wouldn’t even eat them and normally we love them! I’m sticking to my tried and true recipe of just salt, pepper, cornmeal and flour!
Had to trash them and what a waste!
Hello Hank,
Since I could get fresh morels from the nearby Vosges mountain today, I will try them the way you suggest.
We love this mushroom. The european variety seems to be a bit different from what I see in your pictures.
A very traditional recipe from my father‘s ancestral home, the Jura mountains is
Morels filled with pork sausage
We have these often. Strangely, funnyly, I found a very similar recipe for filled morels in Andy Warhol‘s wonderful cookbook!
Sincerely
Alain
My grandfather knew all of the secret and best places to find Morels and I grew up looking forward to the annual spring “mushroom fry”. He would some years bring back bushel baskets of them. Grandma cooked almost exactly as your recipe documents. There’s one thing that you didn’t mention that Gram would swear by and that’s you have to use a well seasoned cast iron skillet to really make the magic happen.
I hope I screwed something up too. Southern Wisconsin yellows used for me and I didn’t get any of the mushroom flavor to come through. Love that that they didn’t shrink up like they usually do with the simple butter salt and pepper frying method but not enough flavor came through for me.
Everybody loved them that tried that recipe
Hank, Thanks for the insight. Yes, these were burn morels and they were on the small side. I’ll try in one more time and I’ll try and limit the amount of flour used.
Not sure why, but mine came out terrible. No morel flavor at all. Just fried flour, like bad calamari. Huge disappointment. I’m a fan of your recipes and other comments were positive. So what did I do wrong? BTW, I used an instant thermometer and kept to fresh oil at 350.
Mark: Hard to say. Sometimes if you use the very thin-walled burn morels in the West, they are not meaty enough to stand up to the flour-and-fry method. This is a Midwestern preparation, and their blonde morels are sturdier. That’s about the only think I can think of.
I tried this recipe last week after collecting some really fresh morels. I now understand how crisping the outside and steaming the inside makes for a better fried mushroom. Alas, I didn’t have any beer or lemons on hand to go with the morels. I’ll be better prepared next time.
Thanks Hank!
I always roll morels in fine cracker crumbs after the egg. It adds much more flavor than more flour. I use whole wheat saltines though any favorite cracker will work. Be sure they are very fine. I use a heavy rolling pin with the crackers in a large zip lock bag.
Delicious! And very easy. Thank you!
Just tried this with almond meal and it was amazing!
never take a friend to your favorite spot or you may have to snuff them when you find out they went back without you.
Not a Quick dip in flour but a good shaking in a paper bag…Wash morels as set out to dry til just damp…place in paper or plastic bag with seasoned flour(your choice) shake well coating.
Here is the kicker…fry in butter…i know, not good for you but its not like you get morels every day…fry til browned, remove, salt, add more butter and next batch.
Then while they fry stand around the stove and eat the freshly fried ones.
When you are tired of eating them you are either very good at gathering or didn’t share with you friends and you don’ have extra dishes to do…
When I was around five or six years old my grandmother would take me on walks up the hollow where she grew up and we’d pick morels. We’d also pick peppermint and wild lettuce, which she used to make rock salad. I’m wondering if she picked arugula. She always pan fried the morels. I didn’t realize how expensive they were in the rest of the world till I moved out of WV.
Ritz cracker crumbs are the way to go. Been doing it that way for years. The best.
I found my first Morel and followed your recipe, except I did flour,Egg and then Panko was delish…
I love the big, spongy morel mushrooms, but I coat them differently than any I have seen here. I make a mixture of flour and white cornmeal with a bit of salt. Dip them while slightly damp into the mixture and fry in a butter and oil combo. The cornmeal gives a bit of crunch without diminishing the wonderful taste of the mushroom, as many other coatings do.
Well its late April up here in the Sierra Nevada. I don’t usually find morels until mid May. As of today (2.25 lbs in 90 minutes), I have gathered some 6 lbs in the last two weeks. Get out there. Its never been better. No burns. Just logging. They are everywhere. Happy Hunting!
Hank — As expected, these were fabulous! Ours were very large so I halved them lengthwise (and even might have done thirds, just to make sure the entire mushroom was in oil after cooking both side) and cooked them in bacon grease in a cast iron skillet. I did need 2X the egg/milk and found that keeping the temperature constant took a close watch. A half pound served 3 generously — that means there’s more for tonight’s dinner!
When I was little the whole family would go out in the spring and we would find Morels. We would all go back to Grandma’s house where she had been cooking bacon the entire time we were gone. The adults would drink beer and my job would be to crush saltines. Into the eggs, crackers, and fried in bacon grease. I just figured everyone ate them this way. I have tried them with flour and fried in butter and they just aren’t the same. Plus after you fry all that bacon just for the fat you have lots of bacon, because bacon!
I am so lucky that I don’t have to hunt morels. They come up in our yard. Last year, just a few in a couple of places. This year, a much larger bunch in the shadow of a retaining wall.
The only thing that might be better is fried porcini!
I haven’t hunted morels since I was a boy but the only way we cooked them was frying in beer batter. It really does hold in the flavor. We used to do frog legs the same way, dipped in beer batter and fried. Yum…
Holy cow! This recipe is so good. Hard to believe, but I do have leftovers. Will try freezing them and rehearing under a broiler. Bet you’ve received marriage proposals over this one.
I’m totally with you on this, I do fried portobellos with a lemon aioli that, until now, was my holy grail of fried foods…these look spectacular!
I’ve never tasted morels. They look unreal with their velvety caps.
And, anything better fried, right?
Yep, that stupid simple recipe is now classic. I have to make this every Spring. Of course your risotto recipe is in high demand in my family. Congratulations for finding Harlequin!
Absolutely! This is how I fix the first morels of the year. It is a tradition. The rest may be sauteed, creamed, or whatever, but the first batch has got to be breaded and fried. And in my house, good old borderline ghetto Saltine cracker crumbs are the way to go.
Ohh yeah! Fried is amazing.
Tried stuffing the biggest ones from our last foray with some leftover lamb kofta kebab meat last night. Baked in the oven with some olive oil, dash of sherry vinegar at the end. Excellent! But then to fry those…
Timely article indeed! This past weekend my family and I picked over 10 pounds of black morels here in northern Minnesota. We dehydrated a bunch of them already and sauteed the rest in butter before freezing for future use, but I’m pretty sure I could find another pound or two to try out this recipe!
Wow, I have always assumed that this was the first and best way to eat morels. My family has always prepared them this way, it’s just tradition with us. If you want a real treat make a morel sandwich. A thick layer of morels between two pieces of buttered white bread…Man, that’s the way to do it! Never forget what grandpa told me. He said “There are OLD mushroom hunters and there are BOLD mushroom hunters, but there aren’t any old,bold mushroom hunters.”
This is the only way my family eats them – my mom calls them “fritters” – and it’s absolutely THE BEST when done in a cast-iron pan. This article was timely; the family went hunting twice this weekend and hauled in about 4-5 pounds of blondes and grays, and we’ve got an assembly line of egg-washing and dredging going in the kitchen as I type.
Our belts will need loosening tonight!