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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Amanita Muscaria: A Poisonous Edible Mushroom

 
Amanita Muscaria or Fly Agaric Mushroom in a field

A mature fly agaric, the well-known version with a red cap from Europe. 

With it’s bright red cap and white spots, the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is probably the most well known of all wild mushrooms in the world. It’s also one of the only mushrooms I know that I would call edible, hallucinogenic and potentially poisonous.

While many people in North America know it as the mushroom from Alice and Wonderland, it’s also been credited with everything from the origin of Santa Claus and Christian Christmas celebrations, to being the mythical Soma drink of the ancient Vedic culture. In this article I’ll tell you everything I know about this fascinating fungus: the good, the bad, the weird, and the in-between.

Young Fly Agaric or Amanita Muscaria Mushroom

A young fly agaric.

Identification

These mushrooms are widespread and mycorrhizal, forming a symbiotic relationship with trees in temperate and boreal forests in the northern hemisphere. With their brilliant red and white cap, fly agarics are pretty easy to identify. Cooking them is more complicated. Here’s a few key points on identifying them.

Amanita Muscaria guessowii showing anulus and bulbous stem

Note the bulbous base and ring around the stem.

Amanita Muscaria

  • Always grow directly from the ground.
  • Have a brilliant red generally covered with warts that are the remnant of the universal veil that covers the young mushrooms as they grow. The warts are typically visible, but can be removed by rain.
  • Amanita Muscaria var. guessowii, found in North America, has a yellow or reddish-orange cap.
  • Young buttons are often completely covered in white warts.
  • The mushrooms will usually have a volva at the base of the stem- the remnants of the universal veil that covered them when they were young.
  • Very young mushrooms can resemble puffballs, but instead of being pure white they’ll have a mushroom cap inside when cut in half.
  • The stem base is often bulbous or swollen.
  • These are large, sturdy mushrooms, but the cap easily detaches from the thick stem.

Look A Likes

Amanita flaviconia is a look a like where I live. It’s much smaller than muscaria which can be as large as dinner plates. Amanita pantherina is another and should be avoided as it contains higher amounts of ibotenic acid. Fly agarics are also related to deadly amanitas like A. bisporigeria.

Muscaria Variation Guessowii

This is the version we have in the Midwest that I see and harvest on occasion. I see them almost exclusively with young aspen stands in the fall and late summer. It’s widespread and common.

Yellow Amanita muscaria var guessowii

Amanita muscaria guessowii.

History and Mythology

There’s all kinds of stories and legends about the famous red-capped mushrooms. Here’s a few of my favorite anecdotes.

Vikings

Some people claim Viking berserkers would eat or Amanita pantherina before going into battle to induce their legendary berserker rage. I’m skeptical, but some people definitely believe it. This theory seems hotly contested and others say the consumable in question was a plant.

Soma

Gordon Wasson’s research and study of the mushroom is pretty well-documented in his book Soma: Divine Mushroom of Immortality. The book’s thesis postulates that Amanita muscaria mushrooms are the true identify of a sacred plant used in religious rituals in Indo-Aryan culture, or what’s now Punjab in India.

amanita muscaria minnesota variety

Amanita guessowii in Minnesota. These are large mushrooms. 

Koryak

Gordon Wasson says the Koryaks, a nomadic Lapland people who herd reindeer that probably have the most colorful reputation with these mushrooms, and the use of them has become something of an urban legend. Apparently the mushroom is important in entheogenic traditions and rituals.

A shaman eats the mushrooms, and a portion of the narcotic compound is filtered into his urine, which participants drink to experience a hallucinogenic effect. While it sounds disgusting, it’s entirely probable with what we know of mushroom toxicology. Personally, I’ll pass.

Amanita muscaria guessowii

Another flush of guessowii from a different patch. Note the red center on the caps that more closely resembles the classic cherry-red muscaria. I often see slightly color variations.

Use as a hallucinogen

The most well-known aspect of fly agaric mushrooms are their hallucinogenic properties. I’m not trying to tell anyone to eat muscaria to get high, unless you want to go to the hospital. But, as I have a bit of experience in the area and other websites tip-toe around it, I’m sharing what I know.

Amanita muscaria guessowii buttons

Small buttons.

Muscaria is labeled as a poisonous mushroom or even deadly in most field guides. This is probably due to the death of Italian Count de Vecchi in the United States (link at the bottom of the post to that) and the number of poisonings and occasional deaths that occur from consuming it for a hallucinogenic experience.

amanita muscaria guessowii in a field guide

Most people I know that have taken muscaria say it feels like you’re drunk. I’ve never used it personally, but I know a couple people that do. Muscaria are very different from common magic mushrooms, and should be treated with caution.

Description of Amanita muscaria in a field guide as being poisonous

Eating too many muscaria caps can also be fatal, and as mushroom foraging is gaining in popularity, it’s something that will probably continue to increase as more people discover the hobby.

A fatal dose of muscaria has been said to be 15 caps, dried or fresh, but the size and weight aren’t usually specified. To make things more risky, the compounds are thought to vary in concentration between collections. My friends in the mycological community have told me spring mushrooms can contain much more muscimol than fall mushrooms.

For more on poisonings from ingestion of fly agarics, see the 30 Year Poisoning Study by the North American Mycological Association at the bottom of this post.

Amanita muscaria guessowii

Amanita muscaria var guessowii in Wisconsin. 

Preparation

To prepare Amanita muscaria as a narcotic dried mushrooms are usually boiled in water and taken as a tea, or eaten dried as for psilocybin mushrooms like the liberty cap. Muscaria should never be eaten fresh.

I did a podcast with a man who ate fresh muscaria and his experience terrified me. Please don’t do that. Some people also claim you can smoke muscaria, but that seems like an urban legend to me and most information I see seems to disagree. I wouldn’t try that either.

The gills of Amanita muscaria guessowii

Toxicology

Fly agaric mushrooms contain ibotenic acid. When the mushroom is ingested fresh or dried, the acid converts into the psychoactive compound muscimol by losing carbon dioxide (decarboxylation).

Legal Status

Possession of Amanita muscaria or muscimol is legal in every state except Louisiana as of this writing. As a young mushroom-hunting line cook who needed some extra cash, I can also tell you that dried muscaria is sold under the table in Wiccan and alternative religion stores across the United States every year.

To dry the mushrooms for sale or consuming they can be treated like any other mushroom. Rinse and spot clean the mushrooms if needed, then cut into slices and dehydrate at 145F (high setting) until crisp and bone dry and stored in a pantry. Dried mushrooms appear to lose their potency over time.

Amanita Muscaria var guessowii

Cooking

Besides being a potentially toxic hallucinogen, muscaria is edible and a documented, traditional food in Japan, although the tradition is only said to be found in a small area around Ueda. The mushrooms are boiled to detoxify the psychotropic compounds, and then eaten after fermenting in brine, often in miso soup.

A man with cooked amanita muscaria in Japan

A man boiling muscaria in his restaurant in Japan. Photo credit: David Arora.

To prepare muscaria for culinary purposes, they can be cut into slices and boiled. Some boil it twice. Mycologist David Arora was the first person I heard of who showed this to other people, and I’ve cooked and eaten a good number of muscaria inspired by his research.

Japanese-inspired Amanita muscaria pickles

Japanese-style muscaria pickles.

The fermented muscaria I’ve made were great in miso soup. If you want to know how to make the mushrooms safe to eat, there’s a link below. This could be potentially dangerous and should only be attempted by skilled foragers who can identify amanita mushrooms.

Look A Likes 

Amanita flaviconia

Amanita pantherina 

References

A Study of Cultural Bias in Field Guide Determinations of Edibility Using the Iconic Amanita Muscaria as an Example

North American Mycological Society: Poisoning of Count Achilles de Vecchi

Healthline.com: Can you Smoke Magic Mushrooms?

Japanese Amanita muscaria Mushroom Pickles (Fermented) 

Related

Previous Post: « Ramp Leaf Infused Soy Sauce (Fermented)
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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. olli

    October 8, 2015 at 6:02 pm

    worthy of a note is also almost identical, Amanita Aprica, which can be identified unlike A.Muscaria’s wart-like cap, as having a more smooth, uniform white , later breaking cover on it’s cap.

    Amanita Aprica is liver damaging.

    Reply
    • Sam

      October 14, 2016 at 1:41 pm

      olli, I think you’re confused about it. Do you have a source that proves your claim? http://www.amanitaceae.com/content/uploaded/pdf/aprica.pdf states someone had a reaction in his tongue and felt something where his liver is, but seemed fine otherwise, and only had a small piece of the shroom. the one who ate it to toxic levels, who may have had a different species, had no report of liver damage.

      Reply
    • Debbie Viess

      October 14, 2016 at 1:52 pm

      Aprica has the same or very similar toxins that are found in muscaria: ibotenic acid and muscimol. It does NOT contain amatoxins, which are the liver destroying toxins found in the Death Caps and Destroying Angels.

      The universal veil of aprica actually grows into the cap skin, so it cannot be removed with a fingernail. The warts on muscaria, pantherina and gemmata can be easily removed. None are recommended for the table, despite the fact that those toxins are water soluble.

      Aprica has caused serious poisonings, but not deadly poisonings and not liver damage.

      BTW, the universal veil on an amanita is called a volva not a vulva. Two very different structures, on two very different organisms.

      Reply
      • MaRi

        October 15, 2016 at 9:47 am

        actually the volva is the cup-like remnant of the universal veil left surrounding the base… & yes, they most definitely are two very different structures!! lol ;P

        Reply
        • Debbie Viess

          October 21, 2016 at 11:07 am

          Glad that we are in agreement on that spelling and those diffs! 😉

          AS to the volva … that is merely another word for the universal veil, which takes many forms as the young amanita grows and develops. Warts on an amanita cap are also part of the volva, as are the rings around the base of a muscaria, or bits of flocculent material on the stems of blushers or lepidellas. A volva is NOT merely a cup at the base of an amanita stem, but all of these structures, too.

          Reply
          • Sam

            October 21, 2016 at 11:21 am

            Deb’s right.

  2. Robert Rowe

    September 15, 2019 at 5:34 pm

    I just found a “flush” of these this morning, after a week or so of regular rain and beginning of MN’s cool fall weather. Near Pine City MN, in the grass at a field edge below some larger 3rd growth pin oaks mixed with younger aspens/poplers/white pines/fir trees. Came here on searching Google for species verification- Would post some pictures if it were possible.

    Reply
    • Geo

      September 22, 2019 at 7:14 pm

      They are in mountain iron MN now too, I wish I knew exactly what they were!!

      Reply
  3. don francis

    September 23, 2019 at 6:30 pm

    I ate about a 1/2 teaspoon of The Orange- Red Aminita Muscarta Guessowii. In 45 minutes saw brighter lights, a sense of well being and got into Pink Floyd. Did another half a teaspoon and crashed out and slept great! No hangover.

    Reply
  4. Mike

    October 28, 2019 at 11:59 pm

    Do u have to add salt when boiling amanita, fly type?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      November 1, 2019 at 11:25 am

      Salt seasons the mushrooms and makes them taste good.

      Reply
  5. Desmond

    September 12, 2021 at 12:45 pm

    I happen it stumble apon a good size patch of Amanita after they are dried wood is there a place that buys them they are the yellow to orange caps with the white dots any info wood be helpful or if I can’t sell them at all
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 12, 2021 at 2:57 pm

      Consult your local Wicca or alternative religion store. Health stores will think you’re crazy.

      Reply
  6. Mirja

    September 17, 2021 at 6:44 pm

    5 stars
    Just sauteed a few up, delicious! Got a bunch I’m gonna cook up later this week and ferment some.

    Reply
  7. Michael DeLuca

    October 1, 2021 at 9:03 am

    This is phenomenal information, thank you. I am extremely grateful for the frankness, exhaustive detail and perhaps most of all the lack of hype/woo/handwaving. Really great.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 1, 2021 at 9:50 am

      Thanks Michael, yeah the woo-woo is strong with A. muscaria, I don’t play that at all.

      Reply
  8. Lance Shaver

    October 10, 2021 at 6:05 pm

    I just picked 3 rather large shrooms can I just dry them and eat them. Will this cause me to hallucinate and how much of it can I eat safely without boiling it just picking and drying them

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 11, 2021 at 8:52 am

      If you have to ask me questions like that you need to re-read this article.

      Reply
  9. Salmon

    October 16, 2021 at 10:05 pm

    I found a bunch of these growing in my yard here in upstate NY today 10/16/2021. After collecting and cleaning I have them in my dehydrator.

    I read in the article here that the stems taste like calamari when cooked, question, while I read also that only the caps are active are the stems also? Or should they just be used in the described cooking method or discarded?

    Thanks also, very recent article here. Everything I was finding was from early 2000’s 😁

    Reply
  10. Eric B Rasmusen

    October 20, 2021 at 4:10 pm

    https://www.fungimag.com/archives/Count.pdf is a link for the Count who Died. The link in th article is dead. Thanks for writing the article.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 20, 2021 at 5:12 pm

      Thanks Eric. I updated it.

      Reply
  11. Nikolas

    April 8, 2022 at 9:47 am

    Great information in my opinion, by the way I made a very effective cream of fly agaric not too long ago

    Reply
  12. John Collier

    June 22, 2022 at 7:49 am

    Im in Eastern NC and I think they have found me. I see amanitas everywhere and we have the yellow muscaria in our area along with brown , I pick these and microdose as it seems to help and increases sensory and awareness and brings you closer to nature. I usually take about a quarter dried cap a day but not everyday.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      June 22, 2022 at 7:51 am

      Thanks for the info John. Not a lot of people share their experiences with it as an entheogen.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Edibility of Amanita muscaria: followup to the Arizona Highways fiasco says:
    December 22, 2013 at 11:39 am

    […] remove the psychoactive and toxic compounds from A. muscaria, leaving behind what they claim is an innocuous and tasty edible.  These typically involve boiling the thinly sliced mushroom in a large volume of water, often in […]

    Reply
  2. Amanita Muscaria | An Artist's Guide to Mushrooms says:
    May 12, 2014 at 2:09 pm

    […] More information on the eating and foraging of Fly Agarics. […]

    Reply
  3. 14 October, 2016 22:13 | Foraging CT says:
    October 14, 2016 at 5:13 pm

    […] https://foragerchef.com/amanita-muscariafly-agaric/#comment-276681 has an "olli" who lists Amanita apricata as a liver damaging Amanita muscaria lookalike. […]

    Reply
  4. The Psychedelic Mushroom Behind Christmas - Lucid News says:
    December 18, 2020 at 3:12 pm

    […] muscaria is known as Fly Agaric due to its practical use as a household fly killer. It’s said that placing crushed Fly Agaric in a dish with milk will attract flies, subsequently […]

    Reply

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Alan Bergo
Sometimes I forget we have good traditions in Amer Sometimes I forget we have good traditions in America too. Case in point: bourbon. 

TIL about American traditions, and the role of the white oak in aging. Tasted some of that sweet nectar too. 

The rye finished in rum barrels smells like pure maple syrup 🤤. @angelsenvy

#bourbon #whiskeyrow #angelsenvy #whiteoak
Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I co Summer veg PSA: One of the edible plant parts I cover in my book you might not know are squash and pumpkin shoots. 

Tender and delicious, these are eaten around the world. The US is still coming around, but I see them occasionally at farmers markets. 

I like to give them a dip in boiling water to wilt them quick, then toss them with some fat or stir-fry them quick. The little curly-cues make them look like fairy tale veggies to me. 

#squashshoots #cucurbitaceae #eatmoreplants #kehoecarboncookware
Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickwe Shaved cattail rhizomes with smoked trout, chickweed, lemon, hickory nut oil and tarragon from the @wild.fed shoot. 

I spent a couple days trying to cook the rhizomes, and it works, but raw is my favorite prep. 

I add some smoked trout both for the salty pop and because it’s fun to mix aquatic edibles. Runner bean flowers for a splash of color. 

#cattails #foraging #chickweed #runnerbeans #saladsofinstagram
Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water by hand with Sam Thayer and @danielvitalis for @wild.fed 

Daniel and Sam were the apex predators, but I got a few. 

Without a net catching crayfish by hand is definitely a wax-on wax-off sort of skill. Clears your mind. 

They’re going into gumbo with porcini, sausage and milkweed pods today. 

#crayfish #ninjareflexes #waxonwaxoff #normalthings #onset🎥🎬
Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizo Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizomes and blueberries for this weeks shoot with @wildfed 

Been a few years since I worked with these. Thankfully Sam Thayer dropped a couple off for me to work with. They’re tender, crisp and delicious. 

Sam mentioned their mild flavor and texture could be because they don’t have to worry about predators eating them, since they grow in the muck of cattail marshes. 

I think they could use a pet name. Pond tusk? Swamp spears? Help me out here. 😂

Nature makes the coolest things. 

#itcamefromthepond #cattail #rhizomes #foraging #typhalatifolia
I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so much we filmed it instead of the original dish I’d planned. 

Cooked natural wild rice (not the black shiny stuff) is great hot, cold, sweet or savory. It’s a perfect, filling lunch for a long day of berry picking. 

I make them with whatever I have on hand. Mushrooms will fade into the background a little here, so I use a bunch of them, along with lots of herbs and hickory nut oil + dill flowers. 

I’m eating the leftovers today back up in the barrens (hopefully) getting some more bluebs for another shoot this week w @wild.fed 

#wilwilwice #wildrice #chanterelles #campfood #castironcooking
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