The toxins in the mushroom, Amanita muscaria, are water soluble. This applies to the two psychoactive compounds, ibotemic acid and its decaroxolated derivative, muscomol as well as the small quantity of muscarine found in the mushroom.

There is a long documented history of detoxifying Amanita muscaria through boiling. I have published an extensive history of the edibility of this mushroom in Economic Botany (2008). You will find the article, below.

The basic instruction is simple. Gather mushrooms in good condition. I personally suggest washing them before boiling them, although what you see in the photograph is a pot of muscaria being boiled in Ueda, Japan, in 2019 by a man who was demonstrating how to make muscaria pickles, a regional specialty. He did not clean the mushrooms first. He washed them thoroughly after a 30 minute boil, and that is when he rid them of any dirt that had not boiled off.

The key to safely detoxifying this mushroom is to boil in plentiful water. For example 100g (4oz) fresh mushroom (caps and stems) cut into slices in 4 liters of water (1 gallon). A single 15 minute boil will eliminate enough of the toxins to make the mushroom edible.

As always, salting the water improves the mushroom’s flavor.

After boiling, rinse well. Your mushroom will still retain a slightly sweet taste and a slighly crunchy texture. Use this pre-boiled mushroom in any dish where you usually use mushrooms.