» Amanita Muscaria

Amanita Muscaria

My wife, Sonia, with a basket of Amanita muscaria in Lithuania

Note: Mushroom field guides usually classify Amanita muscaria as poisonous. However, this mushroom is not poisonous in the standard English sense of the term — a substance, a small part of which, if ingested, can cause serious injury, or even death. It is “poisonous” in the field-guide sense that there are ways of ingesting it that may make you feel nauseous, or that might intoxicate.

Mushroom field-guide edibility ratings tend to be based more on the cultural prejudices of the author’s culture than the author’s careful evaluation of the scientific evidence. Amanita muscaria is one of a large number of mushrooms that includes toxins that can affect you — in the case of muscaria by making you intoxicated — but whose toxins are water soluble, and can therefore be washed away through boiling. Once mushrooms of this type have been properly prepared for eating there is no longer anything toxic about them. (See Alan Phipps Master’s Thesis (2000) on the place of Anaminta muscaria in the traditional diet of Sanada, Japan, for a modern study on detoxifying A. muscaria.)
I prepare this mushroom in a way that eliminates toxicity. This page tells something about Amanita muscaria and includes my method for making it edible. In my opinion, Amanita muscaria is a prime edible mushroom. For field guides, I recommend my friend David Arora’s encyclopedic Mushrooms Demystified (Ten Speed Press) and his beautiful smaller pocket guide All the Rain Promises, and more (Ten Speed Press). To learn about mushroom clubs and classes in the area where you live contact the North American Mycological Association. Like most late twentieth-century mushroom field guides, Arora says A. muscaria is poisonous, and does not mention its use as a culinary mushroom.
Amanita muscaria is a member of the Amanitaceae family, a family of mushrooms that includes some of the most wonderful edibles, and some of the most deadly. Amanita muscaria’s red cap with white dots make it one of the most easily identified wild mushroom. Although most people don’t know its name, it is probably the most widely recognized mushroom among the general population, thanks to its popularity as the typical mushroom of cartoons and commercial art.

Amanita caesarea is one of Italy’s most highly prized, and expensive, mushrooms. In Italy, specimens of A. caesarea in prime condition are thinly sliced and served raw with a sprinkling of an aromoatic olive oil and salt. Other edible and delicious Amanitas include Amanita vaginata, and Amanita calyptroderma. The French place Amanita rubescens amongst the best of all edible fungi. (Mushroom names seem to always be in flux. The western North American Amanita rubescens was recently renamed Amanita novinupta.) A less common, but an incredibley tasty edible amanita is Amanita velosa of my own California neighborhood.

Despite so many wonderful edible varieties, in America the reputation of all Amanitas is unfortunately severely clouded by the presence of a couple deadly family members.

While many mushrooms are called poisonous, what is usually meant is that the mushroom could cause some unpleasantness, such as vomiting or diarrhea when eaten raw or undercooked. Amanita phalloides and Amanita ocreata are poisonous in the skull and cross bones rat poison sense of poisonous — they are deadly — and furthermore no amount of cooking, and no cooking method, will alter that fact. A single phalloides cap can kill you, and if it doesn’t, it can leave you with damaged kidneys and liver.

***

Setting aside the mushrooms that are poisonous in the rat poison sense, what one culture deems to be a poisonous mushroom, and what another deems edible, though perhaps only after appropriate culinary preparation, is arbitrary, as are so many cultural choices about food. Our own American cultural attitude towards mushrooms largely derives from English attitudes and remains surprisingly fungophobic. Out of fear for Amanita phalloides and Amanita ocreata, for example, the advice published in American field guides going back to the 19th century is often to stay away from all Amanitas regardless of edibility.

Amanita muscaria is tainted by the cultural fear of poisonous mushrooms, especially of poisonous Amanitas, and also by the American, at least official, rejection of most intoxicants. The beautiful Amanita muscaria has a mythic reputation as the ancient drug of shamans, and its toxicity when eaten raw — or grilled — includes changes in mental state, along with physiological reactions such as nausea. Too many raw muscarias can kill you, but a normal person would have to eat a fantastic quantity, so death from Amanita muscariais not a significant risk to the many people who eat it for its mind-altering qualities. Read the books by Gordon Wasson on the role of Amanita muscaria in shamanistic rituals in various parts of the world for information on the spiritual aspects of muscaria consumption.

Amanita muscaria is a large gilled red-capped mushroom usually marked on the cap with white dots — the feature that plays so well in cartoons. The dots are not part of the cap. A characteristic of all Amanitas is that when young the not-yet-opened mushroom is surrounded, fetus-like, by a white felty egg-like enclosure or sack. Most Amanitas, when mature, have some residue of this white felty sack on their cap. Usually, though, it is in the form of one or more large patches, but in the case of A. muscaria, the sack breaks up into many small patches — the white polka dots of the mushroom cartoonist.

My own interest in Amanita muscaria is culinary. My interest was piqued many years ago when I read a field guide that said that while the mushroom is poisonous, in Japan it is pickled and eaten as food. After reading this I called my mycologist friend, David Arora, author of Mushrooms Demystified, and All the Rain Promises, and more. David lists Amanita muscaria as poisonous in the current editions of his books. The first reference book David turned to after I called him said that the mushroom is poisonous, but that the author had a friend who eats it regularly with no ill effects. Stating that Amanita muscaria is poisonous, but that it is commonly eaten as food by a friend or by people somewhere else, is a recurring feature of books on mushrooms. As early as 1900, George Atkins wrote in his book, Studies of American Fungi, that while the mushroom is “deadly as ordinarily found,” it is eaten “. . . as food in parts of France & Russia, and it has been eaten repeatedly in certain localities in this country without harm.”

Foreign authors write in the same vein. A recent Lithuanian field guide states that the mushroom is poisonous, but that it is eaten in the mountains of France and Austria. The most popular Italian field guide, Bruno Cetto’s I funghi dal vero, volume 1 says that muscaria is poisonous, but that it is eaten cooked and pickled in Russia, France, and in the Lake Garda region of the Italian Alps.

So, what is going on? First, there is the old semantic problem that by custom all mushrooms are labeled poisonous, whether they might make you a little sick or whether they might send you to your grave. Also, no effort is made to clarify whether a mushroom’s ill effects are countered by cooking — which they often are. While field guides are accurate guides to classification, in the area of edibility, they can be more of a guide to local preference and prejudice than scientifically accurate.

Consider, outside the realm of fungus, the case of the famous puffer fish. This fish is clearly highly toxic. A small amount of puffer fish toxin kills you. On the other hand, prepared properly, if the organs, such as the liver, are removed without puncturing, it is perfectly safe to eat and is, in fact, eaten in great quantity, and at great cost, most famously in Japan. American food magazines frequently run glossy spreads on Japanese fugu restaurants. If the same attitude were applied to a mushroom such as A. muscaria, a food far less dangerous than puffer fish, mushroom field guides would not label the mushroom poisonous, and it would be served in restaurants — as it is in Japan in the Nagano Prefecture.

***

Despite references to the mushroom as being “poisonous” I figured that there were enough references to pickling the mushroom that it would be safe to eat it if I began culinary preparations the way mushroom pickling is begun — with boiling. In consultation with David Arora I begin eating Amanita muscaria after having boiled it in lightly salted water for a few minutes. Even though I had confidence that the boiled mushroom would be perfectly safe to eat, I worked up, one day at a time, from a tiny piece of cap, to a quarter cap, to half a cap, to a whole cap, and the only effect, which increased as the quantity of cap eaten increased, was one of great pleasure, because the Santa Cruz, California, variant of A. muscaria is big, thick, and sweet tasting.

This is how I prepre Amanita muscaria for the table. First, I choose firm, healthy caps. After cleaning them I slice them thinly and then boil them in a plentiful supply of lightly salted water — 1 teaspoon per quart (liter) of water. I empahsize plentiful water — and I emphasize the salt. It is my opinion — though I have not tested this scientifically — that both the plentiful amount of water and the salt are necessary to insure that that toxicity is leached out into the water — which is thrown away. After the mushrooms are drained, then I continue with the dish, preparing them by frying in butter or olive oil, or preparing them in a light oil and vinegar dressing, or in some other way.
Since the initial testing period, David has fed hundreds of people Amanita muscaria following my method with no ill effect. David has also now visited Nagano Prefecture, Japan, and seen the Japanese Amanita muscaria harvest, eaten at a restaurant that serves the mushroom, and tasted the famous Japanese muscaria pickles. One of his photographs from that trip is published below.

Over the last couple of years two people have contacted me to say that even after boiling the mushroom the way I suggest that either they, or a guest, have felt ill effects. It may be that there is something about how they boiled the mushroom that was different from my own method — perhaps less salt or not as much water. But it is also possible that the mushrooms have varying quantities of the toxin, some much more than others, enough so that all the toxin is not cleared in the first boiling.

Following is a letter that I recently received from a reader, GS of Traverse City, Michigan. Note that he refers in his letter to meeting an Italian woman who regularly eats Amanita muscaria.

Last year after contacting you I decided to trying eating Amanita muscaria by preparing it by slicing it thin and boiling it once in slightly salted water, to leach out any toxins, then frying it in butter. I must say the flavor and texture is very good. I did experience a mild headache, and a feeling of mild nauseous, that lasted only about 20 minutes. I tried eating it 3 times last year with the same effect. After talking to a friend who met an Italian women who collects and enjoys eating it. She prepares it by boiling it 3 times in water before eating it. So this year I decided to trying eating it again, by preparing the mushroom, cutting it in thin slices and boiling it in 3 changes of slightly salted water for 5 minutes each time. Then I fried down the mushrooms and added fresh chicken eggs and it was delicious and I had no ill effect. I have found this a safe and enjoyable way to eat Amanita muscaria. For anyone sensitive to eating wild mushrooms a small quantity of prepared mushroom, less then a teaspoon, might be a wise way to test out the prepared mushroom the first time. The mushroom holds its texture very well after boiling and I plan on canning it to store it for later enjoyment. Thanks again.

I think this letter speaks for itself, and suggests that multiple boilings in plentiful lightly salted water is the safest way to eat this mushroom.
In closing, in addition to A. muscaria’s reputation as a drug for shamans, or as a pickle for a Japanese meal, I’d like to add that to mushroom collectors muscaria is known as a beacon, an omen of good tidings. It is what mushroom collectors call an “indicator” mushroom. Where muscaria is growing boletus edulis, the porcini of Italy, is likely to grow too.

This photograph, taken in Nagano Prefecture by David Arora, was first published in the Amanita monograph published by Bollettino del Gruppo Micologico “B. Bresadola” in Trento, Italy, 2000

This photograph, taken in Nagano Prefecture by David Arora, was first published in the Amanita monograph published by Bollettino del Gruppo Micologico “B. Bresadola” in Trento, Italy, 2000

The breadcrumb trail: Home » Amanita Muscaria First, Catch your Hare Website and Blog for William Rubel Author and Cook Specializing in Traditional Cooking
Contact :: My Book, The Magic of Fire
Home Hearth Cooking Bread Samburu How to Contact Me Blog	Amanita Muscaria My wife, Sonia, with a basket of Amanita muscaria in Lithuania Note: Mushroom field guides usually classify Amanita muscaria as poisonous. However, this mushroom is not poisonous in the standard English sense of the term — a substance, a small part of which, if ingested, can cause serious injury, or even death. It is “poisonous” in the field-guide sense that there are ways of ingesting it that may make you feel nauseous, or that might intoxicate. Mushroom field-guide edibility ratings tend to be based more on the cultural prejudices of the author’s culture than the author’s careful evaluation of the scientific evidence. Amanita muscaria is one of a large number of mushrooms that includes toxins that can affect you — in the case of muscaria by making you intoxicated — but whose toxins are water soluble, and can therefore be washed away through boiling. Once mushrooms of this type have been properly prepared for eating there is no longer anything toxic about them. (See Alan Phipps Master’s Thesis (2000) on the place of Anaminta muscaria in the traditional diet of Sanada, Japan, for a modern study on detoxifying A. muscaria.) I prepare this mushroom in a way that eliminates toxicity. This page tells something about Amanita muscaria and includes my method for making it edible. In my opinion, Amanita muscaria is a prime edible mushroom. For field guides, I recommend my friend David Arora’s encyclopedic Mushrooms Demystified (Ten Speed Press) and his beautiful smaller pocket guide All the Rain Promises, and more (Ten Speed Press). To learn about mushroom clubs and classes in the area where you live contact the North American Mycological Association. Like most late twentieth-century mushroom field guides, Arora says A. muscaria is poisonous, and does not mention its use as a culinary mushroom. Amanita muscaria is a member of the Amanitaceae family, a family of mushrooms that includes some of the most wonderful edibles, and some of the most deadly. Amanita muscaria’s red cap with white dots make it one of the most easily identified wild mushroom. Although most people don’t know its name, it is probably the most widely recognized mushroom among the general population, thanks to its popularity as the typical mushroom of cartoons and commercial art. Amanita caesarea is one of Italy’s most highly prized, and expensive, mushrooms. In Italy, specimens of A. caesarea in prime condition are thinly sliced and served raw with a sprinkling of an aromoatic olive oil and salt. Other edible and delicious Amanitas include Amanita vaginata, and Amanita calyptroderma. The French place Amanita rubescens amongst the best of all edible fungi. (Mushroom names seem to always be in flux. The western North American Amanita rubescens was recently renamed Amanita novinupta.) A less common, but an incredibley tasty edible amanita is Amanita velosa of my own California neighborhood. Despite so many wonderful edible varieties, in America the reputation of all Amanitas is unfortunately severely clouded by the presence of a couple deadly family members. While many mushrooms are called poisonous, what is usually meant is that the mushroom could cause some unpleasantness, such as vomiting or diarrhea when eaten raw or undercooked. Amanita phalloides and Amanita ocreata are poisonous in the skull and cross bones rat poison sense of poisonous — they are deadly — and furthermore no amount of cooking, and no cooking method, will alter that fact. A single phalloides cap can kill you, and if it doesn’t, it can leave you with damaged kidneys and liver. *** Setting aside the mushrooms that are poisonous in the rat poison sense, what one culture deems to be a poisonous mushroom, and what another deems edible, though perhaps only after appropriate culinary preparation, is arbitrary, as are so many cultural choices about food. Our own American cultural attitude towards mushrooms largely derives from English attitudes and remains surprisingly fungophobic. Out of fear for Amanita phalloides and Amanita ocreata, for example, the advice published in American field guides going back to the 19th century is often to stay away from all Amanitas regardless of edibility. Amanita muscaria is tainted by the cultural fear of poisonous mushrooms, especially of poisonous Amanitas, and also by the American, at least official, rejection of most intoxicants. The beautiful Amanita muscaria has a mythic reputation as the ancient drug of shamans, and its toxicity when eaten raw — or grilled — includes changes in mental state, along with physiological reactions such as nausea. Too many raw muscarias can kill you, but a normal person would have to eat a fantastic quantity, so death from Amanita muscariais not a significant risk to the many people who eat it for its mind-altering qualities. Read the books by Gordon Wasson on the role of Amanita muscaria in shamanistic rituals in various parts of the world for information on the spiritual aspects of muscaria consumption. Amanita muscaria is a large gilled red-capped mushroom usually marked on the cap with white dots — the feature that plays so well in cartoons. The dots are not part of the cap. A characteristic of all Amanitas is that when young the not-yet-opened mushroom is surrounded, fetus-like, by a white felty egg-like enclosure or sack. Most Amanitas, when mature, have some residue of this white felty sack on their cap. Usually, though, it is in the form of one or more large patches, but in the case of A. muscaria, the sack breaks up into many small patches — the white polka dots of the mushroom cartoonist. My own interest in Amanita muscaria is culinary. My interest was piqued many years ago when I read a field guide that said that while the mushroom is poisonous, in Japan it is pickled and eaten as food. After reading this I called my mycologist friend, David Arora, author of Mushrooms Demystified, and All the Rain Promises, and more. David lists Amanita muscaria as poisonous in the current editions of his books. The first reference book David turned to after I called him said that the mushroom is poisonous, but that the author had a friend who eats it regularly with no ill effects. Stating that Amanita muscaria is poisonous, but that it is commonly eaten as food by a friend or by people somewhere else, is a recurring feature of books on mushrooms. As early as 1900, George Atkins wrote in his book, Studies of American Fungi, that while the mushroom is “deadly as ordinarily found,” it is eaten “. . . as food in parts of France & Russia, and it has been eaten repeatedly in certain localities in this country without harm.” Foreign authors write in the same vein. A recent Lithuanian field guide states that the mushroom is poisonous, but that it is eaten in the mountains of France and Austria. The most popular Italian field guide, Bruno Cetto’s I funghi dal vero, volume 1 says that muscaria is poisonous, but that it is eaten cooked and pickled in Russia, France, and in the Lake Garda region of the Italian Alps. So, what is going on? First, there is the old semantic problem that by custom all mushrooms are labeled poisonous, whether they might make you a little sick or whether they might send you to your grave. Also, no effort is made to clarify whether a mushroom’s ill effects are countered by cooking — which they often are. While field guides are accurate guides to classification, in the area of edibility, they can be more of a guide to local preference and prejudice than scientifically accurate. Consider, outside the realm of fungus, the case of the famous puffer fish. This fish is clearly highly toxic. A small amount of puffer fish toxin kills you. On the other hand, prepared properly, if the organs, such as the liver, are removed without puncturing, it is perfectly safe to eat and is, in fact, eaten in great quantity, and at great cost, most famously in Japan. American food magazines frequently run glossy spreads on Japanese fugu restaurants. If the same attitude were applied to a mushroom such as A. muscaria, a food far less dangerous than puffer fish, mushroom field guides would not label the mushroom poisonous, and it would be served in restaurants — as it is in Japan in the Nagano Prefecture. *** Despite references to the mushroom as being “poisonous” I figured that there were enough references to pickling the mushroom that it would be safe to eat it if I began culinary preparations the way mushroom pickling is begun — with boiling. In consultation with David Arora I begin eating Amanita muscaria after having boiled it in lightly salted water for a few minutes. Even though I had confidence that the boiled mushroom would be perfectly safe to eat, I worked up, one day at a time, from a tiny piece of cap, to a quarter cap, to half a cap, to a whole cap, and the only effect, which increased as the quantity of cap eaten increased, was one of great pleasure, because the Santa Cruz, California, variant of A. muscaria is big, thick, and sweet tasting. This is how I prepre Amanita muscaria for the table. First, I choose firm, healthy caps. After cleaning them I slice them thinly and then boil them in a plentiful supply of lightly salted water — 1 teaspoon per quart (liter) of water. I empahsize plentiful water — and I emphasize the salt. It is my opinion — though I have not tested this scientifically — that both the plentiful amount of water and the salt are necessary to insure that that toxicity is leached out into the water — which is thrown away. After the mushrooms are drained, then I continue with the dish, preparing them by frying in butter or olive oil, or preparing them in a light oil and vinegar dressing, or in some other way. Since the initial testing period, David has fed hundreds of people Amanita muscaria following my method with no ill effect. David has also now visited Nagano Prefecture, Japan, and seen the Japanese Amanita muscaria harvest, eaten at a restaurant that serves the mushroom, and tasted the famous Japanese muscaria pickles. One of his photographs from that trip is published below. Over the last couple of years two people have contacted me to say that even after boiling the mushroom the way I suggest that either they, or a guest, have felt ill effects. It may be that there is something about how they boiled the mushroom that was different from my own method — perhaps less salt or not as much water. But it is also possible that the mushrooms have varying quantities of the toxin, some much more than others, enough so that all the toxin is not cleared in the first boiling. Following is a letter that I recently received from a reader, GS of Traverse City, Michigan. Note that he refers in his letter to meeting an Italian woman who regularly eats Amanita muscaria. Last year after contacting you I decided to trying eating Amanita muscaria by preparing it by slicing it thin and boiling it once in slightly salted water, to leach out any toxins, then frying it in butter. I must say the flavor and texture is very good. I did experience a mild headache, and a feeling of mild nauseous, that lasted only about 20 minutes. I tried eating it 3 times last year with the same effect. After talking to a friend who met an Italian women who collects and enjoys eating it. She prepares it by boiling it 3 times in water before eating it. So this year I decided to trying eating it again, by preparing the mushroom, cutting it in thin slices and boiling it in 3 changes of slightly salted water for 5 minutes each time. Then I fried down the mushrooms and added fresh chicken eggs and it was delicious and I had no ill effect. I have found this a safe and enjoyable way to eat Amanita muscaria. For anyone sensitive to eating wild mushrooms a small quantity of prepared mushroom, less then a teaspoon, might be a wise way to test out the prepared mushroom the first time. The mushroom holds its texture very well after boiling and I plan on canning it to store it for later enjoyment. Thanks again. I think this letter speaks for itself, and suggests that multiple boilings in plentiful lightly salted water is the safest way to eat this mushroom. In closing, in addition to A. muscaria’s reputation as a drug for shamans, or as a pickle for a Japanese meal, I’d like to add that to mushroom collectors muscaria is known as a beacon, an omen of good tidings. It is what mushroom collectors call an “indicator” mushroom. Where muscaria is growing boletus edulis, the porcini of Italy, is likely to grow too. This photograph, taken in Nagano Prefecture by David Arora, was first published in the Amanita monograph published by Bollettino del Gruppo Micologico “B. Bresadola” in Trento, Italy, 2000 F This photograph, taken in Nagano Prefecture by David Arora, was first published in the Amanita monograph published by Bollettino del Gruppo Micologico “B. Bresadola” in Trento, Italy, 2000