Finnish fine dining: poisonous mushrooms
Eating spring false morels can lead to a painful and lethal end. So, why do some Finns enjoy them? Our reporter Ruben Kalus gave them a try, or did he?!
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00:00This little mushroom could kill you when you eat it.
00:03But in Finland, it's a delicacy.
00:05How dangerous are they really?
00:06They are deadly, deadly poisonous.
00:09But why would you eat a poisonous mushroom?
00:11How is it prepared correctly?
00:13And am I brave enough to try it?
00:17Let me think about it for a second.
00:22Okay.
00:23Tell me I think I made my decision.
00:25Yeah.
00:28False morels, as they are called,
00:30or Jaromitra esculenta,
00:32which ironically means edible,
00:34grow in spring and early summer in North America and Europe,
00:37including here, on Finland's Ruisaalo Peninsula.
00:43It's illegal to sell them in many European countries,
00:46but not in Finland.
00:47Here, you can find them at markets,
00:49in restaurants,
00:51and in Sami Tallberg's collection baskets.
00:55I'm about to meet a chef and expert forager
00:58to find out more about false morels.
01:00He probably can tell me what's great about this mushroom,
01:03which, if it doesn't kill you,
01:05can pose a risk to the liver, digestive and nervous systems,
01:08can lead to convulsions, unconsciousness and organ failure.
01:12Sounds great, doesn't it?
01:14Sami is not only a renowned chef with international experience.
01:18In Finland, he's also a pioneer
01:20when it comes to collecting and cooking wild ingredients.
01:23He has even written several books on the subject.
01:26But given that there are many non-poisonous mushrooms in the world,
01:29why would you choose to eat false morels?
01:32I like them because they are the first mushrooms
01:35to come out every spring,
01:37and they have a wonderful texture
01:40and really, really cool flavor.
01:42And they're a little bit tricky to prepare as well.
01:45You really need to get rid of all the sand,
01:47and they are deadly poisonous as well,
01:49unless you've treated them correctly.
01:51And I actually like to call them on my menu
01:54as the dish is called deadly morels.
01:56I love it, I love it.
01:58To find them, we'll need to travel a bit.
02:00These mushrooms are scarce,
02:02because there hasn't been much rain,
02:04which also pushes up the market price.
02:06And so our mushroom hunt begins.
02:12It will take a little time, you know,
02:1415, 20, 30 minutes,
02:16once you calibrate yourself with nature.
02:19The nature will teach you to calm down.
02:22It will help you to calm your nervous system
02:25and then find the frequency.
02:27Then you can possibly find the mushrooms,
02:31and then ideally, they'll find you.
02:33So I've got to listen to my inner self,
02:35and let's hope that we find false morels now.
02:39And that goes much faster than expected.
02:41That's it, that's it!
02:43Really? No way!
02:45That's it!
02:47I mean, come on, the whole look screams,
02:49please don't eat me.
02:51Really?
02:53Good thing we have gloves.
02:55The poison could be contaminated
02:58into the wild herbs that we will eat raw,
03:00because we're going to make a wild herb salad as well.
03:03So this will go here,
03:05and the wild herbs will be picked by hand,
03:08with no glove, to another part of the basket.
03:11Now, with our poisonous mushroom in hand,
03:14we head into the kitchen.
03:17We've got green asparagus
03:19with creamed false morels
03:21and wild herb salad.
03:23And what do you have to look out for
03:25when preparing false morels?
03:27You need to have plenty of water
03:29per amount of false morel,
03:31and then you just boil it for five minutes.
03:33So this water will now extract the poison from it.
03:36And then after that five minutes,
03:38you rinse it, just in case
03:40if the poison has left there.
03:42Then change the boiling water
03:44and repeat the process.
03:46It's important to not inhale the steam,
03:48so turn on the oven fan.
03:51Even though deaths are extremely rare nowadays,
03:54they can still occur even when the mushroom is boiled.
03:57It depends on how much poison the mushroom contains
03:59and who eats it.
04:01Severe mushroom poisoning is possible.
04:03Symptoms can appear after a few hours or even days.
04:14Okay, here we are.
04:18Deadly morels.
04:21Prepared correctly.
04:23I trust you. It looks amazing.
04:26Let me think about it for a second.
04:34I think I made my decision.
04:37I trust you 100%,
04:39and I don't want to be disrespectful,
04:41but if I listen to my inner frequencies...
04:43That's perfect.
04:45Maybe they told me not today.
04:48Do you want to try it?
04:50I'm happy to try it, yeah.
04:56Oh my god, so good.
04:58Who did this? Me?
05:00You did it.
05:02What does it taste like?
05:04It's so earthy, so fragrant,
05:06and really well balanced.
05:09So in the end,
05:11I didn't try the false morel.
05:13Probably I missed out,
05:15but that's okay,
05:17because I learned something else,
05:19and that is how tasteful and exciting
05:21forage food can be.