# Those big, white hand sized mushrooms that pop up in your front yard. Safe to eat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 27, 2006, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320 "2006-09-27T04:21:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/81 "2006-10-05T15:07:04Z")
That’s just ridiculous; nobody is claiming to be perfect. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/82 "2006-10-05T15:15:18Z")
In fact, let’s just look carefully at that post of yours, **Dingbang**. For a start, you omitted **slaphead** ’s second paragraph, which in fact deals with most of your comments about depth of knowledge and whether or not it is a simple task. And the rest of your post is… actually… a big straw man. There is no need to hurriedly gain the necessary skills and there is no need to apply them under adverse conditions. I’m not sure what your point is any more, but you’re resorting to intellectual dishonesty to try to defend it. Why? ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/83 "2006-10-05T15:24:14Z")
[QUOTE=Dingbang] You describe a situation in which you are 100% focused, 100% on your game that day, in perfect conditions regarding lighting, your own vision, etc. But is that the real world? Could I ever see a cow in a field and think it’s a horse? Maybe, if the lighting is poor, my contacts are cloudy, I’m distracted by the helicopter flying overhead, etc. [/QUOTE] Yeah, but you’re then going to be picking the thing up, taking it home, cleaning it off and looking at it again on the kitchen table with your recognition book handy. 🆒 After you’ve changed out of your wet clothes, put your specs on and had a coffee. They’re not hamburgers, you know - gotta prepare them before you chow down, as well as making sure you didn’t miss any slugs, maggots, rotten bits or whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/84 "2006-10-05T15:26:57Z")
Sure you are. Hey, I’m giving you props for your mad mushroom skills, just pointing out that this overinflated confidence can get a person in trouble. [QUOTE=Mangetout] **The risk to me \*\* of accidental poisoning from picking the wrong fruits** is absolutely zero\*\*, because I know how to positively identify both plants. In the same patch of woodland are some sweet chestnut trees, also a horse chestnut, which is superficially similar in many ways, except that the nuts are poisonous. \*\*The risk to me is absolutely zero \*\* because I know how to positively identify them. it’s just something that isn’t going to happen to me; this isn’t some blasé handwaving; I just happen to know what I’m doing. **Mistakes happen, yes, when people _don’t_ know what they’re doing**. [/QUOTE] This is a good one, too: > [@](#): > > originally Posted by gonzomax: > Many years ago a mexican restaurant in the Detroit area killed I think 16 people. They added local mushrooms to their sauce. Many more were sick. They thought they knew what they were doing. > Mangetout’s reply: Still, they clearly did not know what they were doing. If you learn to properly identify edible mushrooms, it is **perfectly safe.** If you don’t, anything could happen. So, i.e. other people make mistakes but I don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/85 "2006-10-05T15:37:19Z")
[QUOTE=Dingbang] So, i.e. other people make mistakes but I don’t. [/QUOTE] Yes, but people make mistakes _ **when they don’t know what they’re doing** _. It’s that simple. People make the same sorts of mistakes when they go out picking berries or nuts or wild salad leaves _without knowing what they’re doing_, with similar consequences. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/86 "2006-10-05T19:56:59Z")
Identifying morels from other mushrooms really is as simple as telling the difference between a cow and a horse. Which is to say, anyone who’s ever been shown a cow and a horse, and had the key features of each pointed out to them, could do it. If you just sent someone into a field who had never seen either (even in pictures), and told them to tell you which was which, yeah, you’d get a lot of mistakes. And someone who had seen horses, but never a cow, might well think that a cow was just a funny sort of horse. The only difference between mushrooms and hoofers in this regard is that most people have seen cows and horses, while most haven’t seen the different kinds of mushrooms. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/87 "2006-10-05T20:53:50Z")
A more apt comparison might be the [problems of identification encountered by deer hunters](http://www.snopes.com/critters/mishaps/hunters.asp): > [@](#): > > Yet in 1999 an exotic beast apparently confused a hunter in Montana who brought down an unusual critter on the Cascade Hutterite Colony near Fort Shaw. Only after he and his partner tagged and field dressed their 300 pound trophy and presented it at the local meat processor’s did they begin to suspect all was not as it should have been. The processor refused to handle the carcass, so the befuddled hunters next took the animal to the state-run game check station where they were informed that their “deer” was in fact a llama. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/88 "2006-10-05T21:09:32Z")
Not to mention that I’ve discovered that even mushrooms from the grocery can be dangerous. After 2 incidents of praying for swift death (one of which involved a lot of hugging the porcelain god _and_ the sink. This is impressive when you consider that I have never, ever thrown up since I was a little kid) post-ingestion of chanterelles from the grocery store or a snooty French bistro, I have sworn off the lovely buttery tasting things permanently. ☹ I’ll stick with white mushrooms, portabello, and shiitakes from now on. ☹ ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/89 "2006-10-05T21:22:55Z")
[QUOTE=lizardling] I’ll stick with white mushrooms, portabello, and shiitakes from now on. ☹ ☹ [/QUOTE] [Careful!!](http://www.sph.umich.edu/~kwcee/mpcr/2003Case.htm) > [@](#): > > Man ate a Portobello mushroom sandwich in a restaurant. Symptoms: dizzy, loss of balance, nausea, vomiting. Next day weak but OK. > [@](#): > > _Agaricus bisporus_ [common grocery store button mushroom.] 1 case where man ate 15 cooked in oil. Symptoms: nausea and abdominal cramps. Onset 30 minutes. 2nd case due to Portabello consumed with wine in a restaurant. Symptoms about 8 hours of diarrhea, sweating and nausea. [http://www.sph.umich.edu/~kwcee/mpcr/2002Case.htm](http://www.sph.umich.edu/~kwcee/mpcr/2002Case.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/90 "2006-10-05T22:23:02Z")
[QUOTE=Chronos] The only difference between mushrooms and hoofers in this regard is that most people have seen cows and horses, while most haven’t seen the different kinds of mushrooms. [/QUOTE] That, I believe, is precisely the reason for the tension in this thread. For the record, in case I’ve come across wrong; I am not an expert mycologist by any stretch of the imagination; I can identify many of the common genera with relative ease, but I can probably only identify a few dozen species with complete certainty, but as I say, that’s all it takes; you don’t have to know everything or absorb a superhuman amount of information; you just have to learn the methods of identification for a small number of wothwhile edible species, and stick to them absolutely. It isn’t a case of making mistakes, because there isn’t really any subjective judgment required; if you follow the method, you simply can’t go wrong, or to put it another way, the only way to go wrong is to fail to follow the method. If you’re prepared to simply pass over anything you cannot identify, or are even the slightest bit doubtful about, and return home empty handed, then there just isn’t any measurable risk. If someone can drag up a citation showing that the mexican restaurant guys followed the proper methods of identification in accord with a detailed reference source, reached a firm conclusion, and still ended up with deadly fungi, I’ll retract everything I have said in this thread, but I’m sure that won’t be found to be the case; what will have happened is that someone said “Hey, look, mushrooms in the yard! They look tasty - let’s put them in the sauce!”, or something like that. ---
**Author:** ![lizardling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f4b2a3/32.png) [@lizardling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lizardling)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2006, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/91 "2006-10-06T22:02:04Z")
[QUOTE=Fear Itself] [Careful!!](http://www.sph.umich.edu/~kwcee/mpcr/2003Case.htm) [http://www.sph.umich.edu/~kwcee/mpcr/2002Case.htm](http://www.sph.umich.edu/~kwcee/mpcr/2002Case.htm) [/QUOTE] …You know, your username is actually very appropriate for this thread. 😃 And those deer hunters probably got a shitload of shit for that llama misidentification. _shakes head_ ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/92 "2006-10-07T15:31:18Z")
[QUOTE=lizardling] …You know, your username is actually very appropriate for this thread. 😃 And those deer hunters probably got a shitload of shit for that llama misidentification. _shakes head_ [/QUOTE] [That deer has fangs Clem](http://personal.smartt.com/~brianp/page01.html)! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2006, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/93 "2006-10-07T22:44:23Z")
Went out foraging in the New Forest today and came back with a basketful of goodies; some fantastic ceps which are (unusually, for these parts) completely free of insect damage - these I sliced and threaded on fishing line and hung in the airing cupboard to dry. There were lots and lots of _Agaricus bisporus_ (thought to be the wild ancestor of the common farmed mushrooms sold in shops) - these were great lightly fried and served on toast. The most common fungi we saw, though, were the false chanterelles and lots and lots of different _Amanita_ species - mostly _Amanita rubescens_ - ‘the blusher’ - which is poisonous unless boiled and drained (why bother eating it?), but we also saw one little patch of deathcaps and some lovely _Amanita muscaria_, with their classic white-spotted-red caps. I love finding these (even though they are poisonous), because not only are they very pretty, but they are often a good indicator that ceps can be found nearby, as they seem to thrive in exactly the same habitat. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2006, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/94 "2006-10-08T01:06:45Z")
I used to work in a machine shop. The only time anyone got hurt was because they ignored the simple safety procedures we all were trained to follow. If you call not following safety procedures a mistake, then I can be certain I would never make that mistake. My confidence is based on my commitment to safety, not that I am confident that it could never happen to me. In fact, it was because I was fully aware that it _could_ happen to me that I was always careful to follow procedure. I have no problem with **Mangetout’s** confidence. His confidence is based on his commitment to following safety procedures, not that he is some sort of hotshot that is above safety procedures. If you always have both hands on the touch buttons when you cycle the machine, you will never cut off your fingers even though you run a machine that has cut off the fingers of idiots that willfully defeated the safety mechanisms and didn’t follow safety procedures. They made a mistake I know I would never make. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 8:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/95 "2006-10-09T08:29:54Z")
Yesterday evening I stumbled across a patch of mushrooms in a wooded area; visually, I was fairly sure they were _Agaricus augustus_ - all of the descriptors (perhaps ten different criteria) matched quite closely, but the smell was wrong (‘inky’ instead of almonds) and there was a small amount of yellow discolouration of the cap when broken(which I subsequently found out would not be abnormal for the species). I left them there. Thing is, I’m reasonably sure that they are in fact just slightly atypical specimens of _Agaricus augustus_, but ‘reasonably sure’ is not sure enough. ---
**Author:** ![Dingbang](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@Dingbang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dingbang)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/96 "2006-10-09T18:59:09Z")
Yesterday evening I stumbled across an animal in a grassy area; visually, I was fairly sure it was a \*bos taurus \* - all of the descriptors (perhaps ten different criteria) matched quite closely, but the smell was wrong (“horsey” instead of milky) and there was a small saddle on the back (which I subsequently found out would not be abnormal for the species). I left it there. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2006, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/97 "2006-10-09T19:32:32Z")
[QUOTE=Dingbang] …and there was a small saddle on the back (which I subsequently found out would not be abnormal for the species). [/QUOTE] [Indeed](http://3945.org/BlazingSaddlesMongo%20small.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/98 "2006-10-10T04:44:56Z")
[Trouble flares as mushroom rustlers stalk countryside](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2396010,00.html) > [@](#): > > GUARDS are being employed in the French countryside to protect wild mushrooms amid pitched battles between pickers salivating over the best harvest in living memory. With noses broken, insults flying, windscreens smashed and tyres slashed, rural communes are using tough restrictions in an attempt to end the “cep wars”. > Many mayors have introduced licences that authorise locals to search for mushrooms but ban strangers. The system is gaining ground after sun and rain produced ideal conditions for ceps, chanterelles, Craterellus cornucopioides and other wild mushrooms. > > With France gripped by what one commentator described as “la folie des champignons”, guards are being paid to patrol woods in search of unauthorised pickers. > > Several dozen people are being investigated by the state prosecution service on suspicion of mushroom theft and breaking the French Forestry Code. They face fines of up to €300 (£202), although the penalty can rise to €1,500 for professional traffickers. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2006, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320/99 "2006-10-10T07:41:55Z")
Wow. So there is a quantifiable risk involved! - I might get beaten up. Seriously though, I can understand why it gets so intense; the ceps I picked at the weekend (four smallish specimens and one large) have finished drying now, and I reckon it would cost me upwards of £20 to buy that quantity of dried ceps in the shops here. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/those-big-white-hand-sized-mushrooms-that-pop-up-in-your-front-yard-safe-to-eat/374320.md?page=4)