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🧪 Bad Science 1914

Salt Test for Poisonous Mushrooms

Sprinkle salt on the gills. Yellow means poison, black means dinner. Printed as the best rule.

From
Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis's Cook Book
Published
1914
Yikes Scale
Call poison control

Exactly as printed, 1914

The flesh is pure white, and the stem is long, white, and round.

The best rule is to sprinkle a little salt on the spongy parts or gills of one of the mushrooms and let it stand for some minutes. Be sure to allow plenty of time. If it turns yellow the mushrooms are poisonous. If black, they are edible.

To make mushroom catsup pack 2 pounds of mushrooms in layers with 1 pound of salt in a saucepan, and let stand until the salt is fully dissolved.

Household Discoveries and Mrs. Curtis's Cook Book, 1914. Public domain; transcription unaltered.

So what happens if I make it?

The test does nothing. Neither does colour, smell, bruising blue, warts on the cap, or growing in a cluster. There is no kitchen test that identifies a poisonous mushroom, and there never was.

Amanita phalloides is the one that matters. It tastes pleasant, and it produces no symptoms at all for six to twenty-four hours — by which time the amatoxin is absorbed and the liver damage is already under way.

Notes from the 21st century

  • Three separate books print a version of this. The salt test, the silver-spoon test, the onion test. Repetition across the shelf is what made it look like knowledge.
  • The page moves straight on to catsup. Having settled edibility, it bottles two pounds of mushrooms under salt — a low-acid food, sealed, stored warm. That is a botulism setup.
  • Identification is by species, or not at all. The only method that works is knowing the mushroom. That is a matter of a field guide and an expert, not a test at the stove.

Also in this book

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