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Never eat a wild mushroom identified from a website. This one helps you rule things out. It cannot rule anything in.

Mr Mushroom
← The kitchen

Keep an uncooked specimen

Put one raw mushroom from every wild meal in the fridge.

Why

This is not a cooking tip, it is standard clinical advice and it belongs in the kitchen because that is where it is forgotten. If anyone becomes ill, an uncooked specimen is what allows a hospital to identify the toxin and choose a treatment. Without one, clinicians are guessing, and the treatments for amatoxin and for muscarine poisoning are entirely different.

How

  1. 01Set aside one whole raw specimen from each species before cooking, complete with the stem base.
  2. 02Wrap in paper, not plastic, and put it in the fridge.
  3. 03Keep species in separate bags in the field as well, so a mixed meal can still be traced back to individual species.
  4. 04Photograph the specimen where it grew, including the base and the surrounding habitat.
  5. 05Discard after a couple of days if all is well.

What this step actually needs

What this step needsPaper and wax bags$12.99

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The other techniques

Brush, do not wash

Clean with a brush and a damp cloth, not under a tap.

The dry sauté

Hot dry pan first. Fat only after the water has gone.

Cook it properly, and cook it through

Eight to ten minutes minimum, and longer for anything thick.

Drying

The default preservation method, and for some species an improvement.