FIELD BOOK OF COMMON GILLED MUSHROOMS 



Many mushrooms have a* farinaceous or branny taste or 

 odor, or both taste and odor are of this character. Some have 

 thought that all species having this meal-like flavor are edible, 

 and indeed many of them are, and no dangerously poisonous 

 species is known to have it. But occasionally a species has 

 this flavor combined with or followed by a bitter or otherwise 

 disagreeable flavor which would at least render the mushroom 

 undesirable if nor unwholesome. So that rules designed to 

 aid in the selection of edible species have their exceptions and 

 their weak points as well as the rules designed to protect us 

 against the poisonous species. There is, therefore, no escape 

 from the necessity of acquiring a knowledge of each species 

 we would utilize, sufficiently clear . and exact to enable us to 

 distinguish it from all others. Whatever value investigators 

 and experimenters, who are willing to take some risks for the 

 good of others, may find in such rules or general principles, it 

 is evident that they are not sufficiently definite, exact and 

 reliable for general use. To any one willing to avail himself 

 of the experience of others and to apply himself sufficiently to 

 learn to recognize the species they have found to be edible, 

 nature opens a field productive of much palatable and nutri- 

 tious food, which is too often left to decay where it grew. 



But some care is necessary in the selection of specimens of 

 species known to be edible. The plants selected should be in 

 good condition. Well grown, sound, fresh specimens only 

 should be chosen. Old, partly decayed, water-soaked, worm- 

 eaten or withered plants should be discarded. Even young 

 and sound ones should not be kept too long before they are 

 cooked. They are in some cases very perishable and deteri- 

 orate rapidly. If more have been collected at one time than 

 are needed for a single meal it will generally be better to cook 

 them all at once and keep them in a refrigerator in the cooked 

 rather than in the raw state. As a rule it is better to cook 

 them the same day they are collected. In the case of the 

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