Important: Safety Warning
This page offers rules for telling edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. No such rules are reliable, and these identifications predate modern mycology. Deadly species closely resemble edible ones, and mistakes are regularly fatal. Never eat a wild mushroom on the strength of this text.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Wild Mushrooms, Puffballs, Toadstools, Etc
It may be important to know your onions but it's a matter of life and death to know your wild mushrooms. So, if you're going in for cooking some of the fine fungi that can be found 'most anywhere, especially in late summer and early fall, take along a mushroom map or book to guard against any poisonous toadstools getting into your pan. And don't think you can rely on such phoney old tests as cooking 'em with a silver coin to see if it turns black. Outside of local varieties that are well known and safely identified, one of the most trustworthy of fungi is the giant puffball, usually found in pastures.