Morchella crassipes

The classic method: (1) clean and rinse thoroughly (the pits often hold sand and tiny insects); (2) boil for 15-20 min in plenty of water; (3) drain the water; (4) rinse the mushrooms. Then fry with onion and sour cream (the classic way), stew in cream or add to sauces. Dried morels: first soak for an hour, then boil and cook as usual.

NO. Never eat any true morel raw — even if it pops up on some Western cooking blogs. Raw flesh contains trace amounts of hydrazine-like toxins that break down only with prolonged heating. The classic way to serve it — boiled and then fried morels with sour cream.

Yes — it's a great way to keep them. Cut in half, dry over an air vent or in a dehydrator at 40-50°C, and store in glass jars. Before use, always soak for 30-60 min, then boil for 10-15 min, drain the water — and only then cook. Dried morels keep their aroma for up to 2 years.

In floodplain and ravine deciduous forests with ash, elm, poplar, alder; on rich alkaline soils. Especially abundant after spring floods, on alluvial deposits. It also turns up in old parks with ancient ash and elm trees. It doesn't grow in dry pine woods or on acidic soils. Look along forest edges, on riverbanks and in damp hollows.

Prykarpattia, the Western and Right-Bank Forest-Steppe (especially the floodplains of the Dniester, Southern Bug and Prypiat), Polissia (less often), the Carpathians (in the lower belts). In the steppe — in ravine forests. Finds are scattered, and each one is a pleasant surprise.

April to May, peaking from mid-April to late April. It coincides with ash blossom and the first unfurling leaves. In a wet spring the season lasts until mid-May. By June it no longer fruits.

Two signs: (1) size — the thick-footed morel is much bigger (10-20+ cm vs 5-10 cm in the others); (2) the stem — it has a distinctive downward-widening "barrel" 4-8 cm thick; in the common and conical morels the stem is cylindrical or moderately thickened. The cap's color and structure are similar — honey-yellow with a honeycombed surface.

The false morel (Gyromitra esculenta) has a cap shaped like a brain — irregular, convoluted folds WITHOUT clear honeycomb pits. A morel has clear pits. Also, the false morel's cap is solid (filled with flesh), while a morel's is hollow (air inside). The false morel is highly poisonous even after boiling — selectively, in some people. In the EU it is officially banned from sale. The golden rule: cut it in half — if it's hollow inside, it's a morel; if it's filled with flesh, it's a false morel.