How to test mushrooms for edibility: Myths and Reality

"Silent Hunt" - like any hunting - a dangerous occupation if its laws are violated. Therefore, many mushroom pickers are concerned with the question: how to test fungi for toxicity and minimize the risks of poisoning?

5 commandments of mushroom picker

1. Deadly poisonous mushrooms must be known in person

It's easy to remember the main signs of deadly mushrooms.

• All of them are plate-like.

There are inedible tubulars, but there are no deadly poisonous ones among them. So, with lamellar specimens - special care.

• The most poisonous of them belong to the family of fly agarics: a panther fly agaric, pale toadstool, a fly agaric( white toadstool), a fly agaric spring.

They are united by two signs: thickening-volva at the root of the leg;collar ring under the bonnet. Just two signs - and a quiet killer will not fall into your basket!

• The fringed galerina is the most poisonous specimen, similar to the summer summer,

but grows in coniferous forests where this species does not occur. Her business card is a thin fringe on the inside edge of the bonnet and a ring inside her. In order not to poison yourself with a fringed gallery, you do not need to search for honey under the coniferous trees in the summer.

• Patuillard's rake is 20 times more toxic than red fly agaric.

A cautious mushroom pickup will be a sharp, unpleasant smell, similar to technical alcohol, and a quick reddening of the pulp, full of poison. You must break the first copy of the find before you send it to the trash.

There are many other fungi in the forest - potential poisoners, but they do not lead, as a rule, to death.

2. Distinguish mushroom-twins

Often inedible species are disguised as valuable so that even an experienced person is difficult to distinguish them. Check the fungi for toxicity will help the following table.

Edible	Toxic	How to distinguish?
White mushroom Birch bark	Bile fungusSatanin mushroom	Pulp of inedible twins at the break turns pink or blushes.
Butter, flywheel	Pepper mushroom	The double has a very bitter taste
Summer spruce	Galerina fringed	The double grows in coniferous forests, has a fringe on the bottom of the cap.
Openck present	Serno-yellow opozhenokKirpichno-red	Do not have a double ring on the leg;the plates are not creamy, as in the present day.
Champignon	Pale toadstool	The toadstool plates are always white, and the mushrooms have pink and brown.
Raw green	Pale toadstool	The russule has no ring and a volvus with a thickening on the stem.

Board

If the find causes doubt in the edibility, do not take it;in extreme cases - put separately from other trophies, so that it does not come into contact with them.

3. Refuse to collect previously popular, but in fact dangerous forest gifts

These include: a thin pig, green leaf, a line.

• Piglet thin - a time bomb. It contains an antigen protein that can accumulate over the years, and then trigger an autoimmune clotting reaction. Sudden death from a heart attack, stroke or thrombosis - and few will guess that the reason for this was a prolonged mushroom intoxication.
• Green - contains substances that are not excreted from the body. Accumulating, they worsen the work of the kidneys, muscle fibers, thicken the blood.
• Lines - contain hydromirin. Its concentration in a particular batch of fungi in our ecological environment is unpredictable. And even if you cook them according to all the rules and use several times in a row - you can get a heavy "blow" on the kidneys and liver.

4. Do not collect mushrooms in industrial areas and in dry weather

From the track - no less than 200-300 meters, otherwise the lead of exhaust gases will get stuck in the kidneys and bones and lead to disability. And overgrown and wormy specimens are already full of rot and waste products of the larvae - it's hard to find more visible poison.

5. Do not believe the myths of

Do not trust some common signs.

• If mushrooms eat insect larvae, then it is edible. This is not true: substances that are harmless to insects can be fatal to humans.
• If the find is pleasant to the taste, then it is edible."But all the fly agarics are tasty and poisonous at the same time."
• All young individuals can be eat without fear. Yes, in most cases, the poison accumulates with age, but the toadstool, for example, is fatal from the very "childhood".

Thus, the main work on the inspection of trophies is carried out in the forest: poisonous and poisoned in the basket should not be.

Can I check mushrooms for edibility by folk remedies?

The definition of "mushroom poison" with the help of household products is a dangerous myth. How to check mushrooms without knowing the composition of the poisons, or the substances reacting to them?"Tested funds" reveal completely different substances.

• Testing with onions, vinegar, milk, which try to use as indicators of toxins, actually shows the presence of enzymes such as tyrosinase( dark onions from it), pepsin( milk is curdled).These enzymes are found in many food products, which does not mean that they are unfit for food.
• Silver things, dropped into the water with mushrooms, darken from amino acids containing sulfur - this is also not poison. There are a lot of them in meat, fish, seeds - protein-rich food.
• But the substances that cause poisoning, improvised funds to clean water can not be withdrawn. Currently, the "indicator ticket", which determines the toxin of the pale toadstool and the entire deadly Amanite family, has been patented, but its mass application has not yet been heard.

So that the delicacy does not become a poison

Even good mushrooms can cause health problems for various reasons.

1. Mushroom dishes are heavy food for the body. People with diseased liver, kidneys, gastrointestinal diseases, hypertension and metabolic disorders should be prepared for health problems when using them. They are safe for those who are healthy.
2. The shelf life of the collected mushrooms is a day, then their edibility decreases rapidly.
3. Do not roll mushrooms tightly. Disputes of botulism in the home are not destroyed. The rod of them develops without oxygen, the consumption of fungi from such a can in 60 cases out of 100 ends in a lethal outcome. You can insure yourself by boiling the contents for 15 minutes. But who wants to eat such a dish?

Advice

You can not cook and store mushrooms in containers made of aluminum, zinc or in ceramic glazed pots. They will lose their edibility

Mushroom picking - "quiet hunting" - is not at all a safe exercise: you need to be careful and know your opponent well, so as not to suffer from your own trophies.

Read the article on how to dry mushrooms at home