[Photo by Barbora Batokova] Gyromitra esculenta Fries, was originally Helvella esculenta Persoon. Up to World War II, the mushroom was considered edible, even excellent, although we note a whisp of caution creeping into the 1900 Mcllvaine assessment and again into Krieger’s assessment. Assessments now, in most countries, are negative. The internet is full of references to its poisonousness, including from government and science-based web sites.

1863, UK: Edible. Charles Badham, Esculent Funguses of England.

Genus 23. HELVELLA.

Bot. Char. Substance fleshy; margins sinuous; only the upper portion of the pileus sporiferous.

Esculent species: H. crispa, lacunosa, and esculenta.

1875, UK: M. C. Cooke, Fungi: Their Nature and Uses – “It is rarely found in Great Britain, but is more common on the continent, where it is held in esteem.”

1900, USA: Charles McIlvaine, Toadstools, Mushrooms, Dungi, Edible and Poisonous; One Thousand American Fungi – Edible. It was always enjoyed. Mr. Charles H. Allen, San Jose, Cal., writes to me that G. esculenta grows plentifully in his region, and that it is not only edible, but he has found it one of the best. But the species, though long ago esteemed highly in Europe and by many in America, now rests under decided suspicion. It is not probable that in our great food-giving country anyone will be narrowed to G. esculenta for a meal. Until such an emergency arrives, the species would be better let alone. Note: Where does the “suspicion” come from. Could Mcllvaine possibly not know that many mushrooms require cooking to detoxify them? He remarks that the mushroom was “long ago esteemed highly in Europe and in America.” What has changed? Was the detoxification system traditionally used lost? Were people suddenly consuming the mushroom without proper preparation? But I think in terms of culinary history, and the history of mushroom edibility, and in terms of where we are today with respect to the edibility of this mushroom – routinely considered poisonous in American field guides — the focus needs to be on why Mcllvaine didn’t get focused on how the mushroom was prepared for consumption. Throughout the mycological literature, including in American field guides, there is little to no attention paid to how a mushroom can be detoxified. Rather, mushrooms are deemed edible OR poisonous, and what we see here is the shifting from the boolean yes, to the boolean no. In fact, the mushroom, like many others, is conditionally edible. And if the focus of the mushroom edibility assessment were on the methods of making mushrooms edible, when possible, then Mcllvaine would not be concluding a paragraph that opens with stating a mushroom is delicious and edible to stating that one should “be better left alone.”

1934, USA Edible: Louis C. Krieger, The Mushroom Handbook – The False Morel, like the True Morel, is enjoyed and highly praised by many who regularly make a practice of eating it. The literature of mushroom-poisoning shows, however, that up to 1907 over 160 cases of poisoning were recorded as due to this species. Its poisonous principle, helvellic acid, has been isolated. It is completely soluble in hot water, and parboiled specimens, therefore, should be innocuous, provided the water is poured off (but see Dearness, 24’, for a death due to parboiled specimens). The poisonous properties disappear, or are much lessened, in dried specimens.

It is difficult to come to a conclusion with regard to the edibility of this species. The writer has had letters recommending it as one of the very best mushrooms, yet, in view of its record, it would appear that extreme caution should be used in preparing it for the table.

It is possible that the amount of poison varies in plants from different localities. It is also possible that there are two, different, closely allied species or varieties concerned, one edible, the other poisonous. Of Panus stipticus, for example, it is known that there are two forms, one luminescent, the other non-luminescent, and yet the two are indistinguishable by their structure (Buller, 24′). Natural insensitivity of the eaters to the poison, may be the explanation.”

Gyromitra esculenta is a fabulous tasting mushroom with a pleasant texture. It was given its esculenta eptiteth in 1800 by Christian Persoon. The next year, in 1801, he revised Carl Linnaeus’ name for the morels, from the genus Phallus to the Genus morchella, the name that has survived the intervening centuries. We thus have the mycologist working on the morel, an obvious esculentus, in French cookbooks it being the number two named French mushroom, after the truffle, having been the donor of the esculenta epithet to Helvella esculenta, later reclassified by Fries to Gyromitra esculenta. There can be no question, Persoon and his circle, saw these two mushrooms as being on an equal footing. Persoon settled in Paris on 1803, so, again, we can be certain he was familiar with French cuisine and its culinary judgements.

Parsing Krieger’s text. What are the positions of the narrative’s observers? What does it mean to be “edible?” Where does the fault for poisoning rest? Note the lack of focus on detoxifying processes.

Krieger: The False Morel, like the True Morel, is enjoyed and highly praised by many who regularly make a practice of eating it. Here, we see the perspective of the view being split. Within the group of false morel eaters, it is enjoyed and highly praised. The two esculentas, the “false” and the “true” are both understood within this group as being equally delicious. The narrator, however, including us, the readers, stand outside this group. We are observing. The eaters are the they.

Krieger:The literature of mushroom-poisoning shows, however, that up to 1907 over 160 cases of poisoning were recorded as due to this species.The literature of mushroom poisoning stands outside the literature of edibility. Those poisoned, clearly, d not consider the mushroom one that to be “enjoyed and highly praised.” As matter of principle, this is a self-referential reference that cannot offer any insights into a mushroom’s edibility. All it can tell you is that the people who ate it ate it in such as way as to poison themselves. Mushrooms are not poisonous. The toxins in mushrooms are in the mushroom’s flesh, but can either be deactivated through heat or rinsed out with water. The exceptions to this are few. The people who eat it and enjoy it and see is as being on a par with morels, like Persoon, who named it, have done something to the mushroom to render it edible. This is implied, by all mushrooms that are labeled edible, including the morel, which is also poisonous, even possibly fatal, when eaten raw, and is also poisonous when eaten undercooked to the extent that it cause neurological problems, besides gastric distress. Always keep in mind that the people who end up in the hospital are those who have not properly detoxified the mushroom. The statistics from Finland bear this out. No fatalities amongst people who detoxified the mushroom.

Krieger:Its poisonous principle, helvellic acid, has been isolated. It is completely soluble in hot water, and parboiled specimens, therefore, should be innocuous, provided the water is poured off This is a true statement. The toxin is soluble in water. It is also volatile with a boiling point of 87.5C, so the mention of hot water implies that he was aware of the use of boiling water to detoxify the mushroom even if he is not specifically aware that “helvetic acid” is volatile. As Kreiger mentions later, toxicity is also eliminated through drying — and that is because the toxic compound evaporates out of the mushroom as it dries. Again, though he does explicitly state that the toxin if volatile, he at least knows that in practice drying neutralizes it, which is true. What I think the most important sentiment here is his use of the world “should.” He distances himself from the water solubility — steps back from endorsing its efficacy with his “should be innocuous.” Had he had confidence in the efficacy of boiling to detoxify the mushroom, he would have written, “It [the toxin} is completely soluble in water, and parboiled specimens, therefore, will be innocuous, provided the water is poured off.” He is not the last mycologist to distance him or herself from the efficacy of proven detoxification methods — the literature on Gyromitra esculenta is rife with comments like that. Also not, that he has distanced himself from consumption of the mushroom. If he had eaten it, then he’d be able to say that it was rendered edible.

Krieger:(but see Dearness, 24’, for a death due to parboiled specimens). He undercuts his own statements by then citing this poisoning from someone who it is said died from eating “parboiled specimens.” What can we say? I have not been able to find this poisoning report, but as the toxin is water soluble and also as it’s boiling point os 87.5C, far behind the boiling point of water it is simply impossible to be poisoned by a volatile water soluble compound that has been properly boiled. The poisoning statistics from Finland, the primary Gyromitra esculenta consuming country today, there has not been a single fatality from cooked mushrooms, though four people have died eating them raw in the previous 100 year. One has to keep ones critical faculties open! The report has to be at fault. The person who was poisoned had to have mis reported the detoxification procedure. Because, it is a matter of science. A volatile water soluble toxin with a boiling point below the boiling point of water will be driven from the mushroom when it is boiled. Full stop.

Krieger: (but see Dearness, 24’, for a death due to parboiled specimens). He undercuts his own statements by then citing this poisoning from someone who it is said died from eating “parboiled specimens.” What can we say? I have not been able to find this poisoning report, but as the toxin is water soluble and also as it’s boiling point os 87.5C, far behind the boiling point of water it is simply impossible to be poisoned by a volatile water soluble compound that has been properly boiled. The poisoning statistics from Finland, the primary Gyromitra esculenta consuming country today, there has not been a single fatality from cooked mushrooms, though four people have died eating them raw in the previous 100 year. One has to keep ones critical faculties open! The report has to be at fault. The person who was poisoned had to have mis reported the detoxification procedure. Because, it is a matter of science. A volatile water soluble toxin with a boiling point below the boiling point of water will be driven from the mushroom when it is boiled. Full stop.

Krieger: It is possible that the amount of poison varies in plants from different localities. It is also possible that there are two, different, closely allied species or varieties concerned, one edible, the other poisonous. Of Panus stipticus, for example, it is known that there are two forms, one luminescent, the other non-luminescent, and yet the two are indistinguishable by their structure (Buller, 24′). Natural insensitivity of the eaters to the poison, may be the explanation. And here we get to a passage that is astonishing in light of modern science. It makes no difference how much or how little toxin is in a specimen of Gyromitra esculenta as long as the person preparing it for consumption slices the mushroom into pieces, and boils it in plentiful water for at least five minutes, twice. Think about alcohol. Methanol’s boiling point is 78C. The toxin in Gyromitra’s boiling point is 87.5C. Water boils at 100C. So. In one saucepan boil beer, with its alcohol level of say, 4.5-7%, wine 11%-14.5%, and corrected hard liquor at 20% alcohol, “40 proof.” If you boil each of these saucepans for five minutes at a rolling boil, all the alcohol will have dissipated. Same with Gyromitra esculenta. Only, for the mushroom, because the volatile water soluble toxin is imbedded inside the mushroom’s flesh, it is safer to boil twice. This “it is possible that the amount of poison varies in plants from different localities” is a nonsense. It also brings us back to Diascordes, and the single most important text on mushroom toxicity written in the year 50CE. This is before the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, and a few years after the execution of Jesus. In that text, mushroom toxicity was related to where it grew — Kreiger’s location issues — and had nothing to do with how it was prepared in the kitchen for consumption. Herein lies a deep cultural bias.

2023. Tom Volt “Tom Volk’s Fungus of the Month for May 2002.” [The following text mirrors both Mcllvaine and Krieger, even though this is one-hundred-twenty-year after Mcllvaine. It begins establishing edibility, then, showing no interest in the how the mushroom is edible to the people for whom it is edible, they succumb to the gloom of people poisoned by their own ignorance.] So although many people have eaten this mushroom for many years, in my opinion you are playing a game of Russian roulette (no offense intended to any Russians or to any NRA members reading this…) if you decide to eat Gyromitra esculenta or even other Gyromitra species. First of all there is the possibility of getting sick just from inhaling the fumes from the parboiling. There is a second possibility of ingesting incompletely removed toxins when you eat the mushrooms. Third, there is the likelihood that gyromitrin is a cumulative carcinogen, which may cause problems in the short term or only after many year of ingesting or inhaling the toxin. There are many people who tell me they have eaten these false morels for many years without any problem. I reply to them that they have been lucky so far. Certain populations of the mushrooms are known to contain different amount of the toxin, so it’s possible they have been eating mushrooms with less toxin. Eating mushrooms from a different “patch” of false morels could give a very different result, depending on their concentration of toxin. The scariest part of this is that we don’t know the long-term cumulative effects of ingesting small amounts of the toxin each year. So even though you might find lots of false morels while out morel hunting, and you’re very temped to eat them because of their large size and meaty texture, I do not recommend eating false morels. If you must eat them, please do not feed them to children or to pregnant women, who are especially vulnerable to the toxin. You should also avoid eating them on consecutive days to prevent dangerous buildup of the toxin. ONLY *YOU* ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR EATING HABITS. Do not feed this mushroom to others without fair warning. Better yet, have them read this page.