Transcarpathians are looking for "grandmother's ears": what is this find and why are people poisoned?.

An incredible trophy can kill you.

In Transcarpathia, they have been raking in the forests for more than a month. People find the first spring delicacies.

One of them is sarcoscypha, or as it is also called "elf mushroom", "elven fire", "cuckoo's shoes". One of the features of the mushroom is that the delicacy retains its natural red color even after heat treatment. And although the mushroom does not have an extraordinary nutritional value, unlike porcini mushrooms, etc., many gourmets love it.

Mushrooms are boiled, stewed, added to salads. In addition, sarcoscypha is also medicinal.

It is worth noting that not all mushroom pickers know that the sarcoscypha mushroom is edible. Therefore, rarely does anyone decide to take a mushroom to the basket in order to cook a dish from it. And on Facebook, there were numerous reviews about mushroom poisoning. So, in the "Mushrooms" community, one of the contributors noted that her husband the other day, having read about these allegedly delicious spring mushrooms, decided to collect and fry them at home. But later, having eaten "elf fire", he became ill, the man received severe poisoning.

But gourmets, who have been collecting this delicacy in the forests for several years and eating it, do not complain that the mushroom can harm. After all, no adverse reactions were observed, as noted in the comments

Edibility

In most reference books on mushroom growing, it is written that Sarcoscypha austriana belongs to the category of edible mushrooms. The mushroom is not poisonous, and this means that it is unlikely that you will get serious poisoning when eating the described species. However, the mushroom flesh is very tough, and the appearance of the Austrian sarcoscypha is not very appetizing.

In folk medicine, it is believed that a powder made from dried sarcoscypha helps stop the bleeding.

Another traditional spring mushroom, which is already being hunted in Transcarpathia, is morels. It is not uncommon to see it on sale in local bazaars. At the same time, if there are gourmets on them, then there are also "anti-gourmets" who are also afraid of such trophies, especially to end up in the hospital after consuming them.

About 80 species of this fungus are known. The most common is edible morel (Morchella esculenta), which is hunted by experienced mushroom pickers. The features of the mushroom should also be taken into account by beginners, hunters of quiet hunting advise, in order to know exactly what to look for and not be afraid that the mushroom is poisonous.

On Facebook, people share various recipes for how to cook morel mushrooms and call its popular names. One of them is "grandmother's ears". Other names: the name is cap, dryer, kotsiurupok.