Many refugees from Syria got poisoned by mushrooms because a common edible Syrian mushroom looks very much like a poisonous German mushroom.
Happens to some SE Asians in North America too, because the edible straw mushroom from SE Asia resembles one here called “death cap”. Amanita phalloides. What’s fucked up is right before it kills you your symptoms actually improve, so people get discharged from the hospital and think they are going to be ok. I forage mushrooms but I stay away from white gilled mushrooms completely.
Yeah I had my yard full of destroying angels last summer, when they first showed up I was all “sweet! Mushrooms!” Because they look real similar to agaricus. But then I saw the white gills, and was all :(.
And I made sure to tell my kids not to mess with them and why.
I never thought about this being possible and now I can’t help but laugh at how deceptive nature is.
Just follow standard survival advice. Don’t forage for mushrooms. Starving to death is better than poisoning yourself and starving to death.
There are over 400 spp of mushroom in my area, but only 23 or so are edible. I’ll pass.
Even some of the ones that are edible still secretly want to kill you. From the Wikipedia entry for “chicken of the woods”:
In some cases eating the mushroom "causes mild reactions … for example, “swollen lips” or in rare cases “nausea, vomiting, dizziness and disorientation” to those who are sensitive. This is believed to be due to a number of factors that include allergies to the mushroom’s protein or toxins which are only somewhat stable at high temperatures.
I’ll eat portabellos if they come on pasta or pizza (though I’ve started taking them off the latter because they turn to rubber in the microwave) but I sure as hell am not going out of my way to order any dish that features them (mushrooms) as the main protein.
pizza
microwave
I don’t think the mushrooms are the problem in that situation
Bite me, I don’t have the counter space for a toaster oven and I’m not heating up the actual oven every time I want a leftover slice.
If the pizza is made from quality ingredients to begin with, it survives microwaving decently well. Mushrooms just refuse to play ball.
If you have a stove I can definitely recommend heating your pizza in a dry (with no oil) frying pan. Set the temperature medium-low and heat a slice or two at a time for a few minutes. It comes out like it was freshly cooked.
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I finally got around to trying this. I don’t see the point. By the time the cheese was re-melted, the crust turned into a hard cracker and it took ten times longer than the microwave. It’s quite possible I had the stove up too high (it’s an electric stove and I had it on 4/10), but I’d still say the point goes to the microwave for being quicker and having greater margin for error.
Hmmm, it’s hard to debug pizza remotely, but maybe the heat wasn’t high enough, it normally only takes a minute or two to heat through and cooking it for longer probably would make the base go hard.
Thanks for reporting bavk though, and I’m sorry you had a suboptimal pizza result.
I learned this hack shortly before being diagnosed with celiac and lactose intolerance haha, after a lifetime of eating cold slices
I can confirm it works well, though
Oof, that sucks. It seems like the universe really does enjoy a cruel prank sometimes. I hope you’ve found something equally enjoyable to fill the pizza shaped hole in your meals.
I did, thanks! I just eat tacos and stuff when I need my comfort food fix
Don’t use mushroom ID apps and don’t trust random guidebooks from Amazon, they’re probably AI-generated crap.
The deadly mycotoxin orellanine, which is present in Cortinarius rubellus, the deadly webcap, may not cause symptoms in those who ingested the mushroom until one or two weeks have passed – after detectable traces of the toxin are already gone, and late-stage kidney failure has already begun. Connecting the sickness with certainty to a misidentified wild mushroom that was eaten weeks earlier with no obvious ill effects is not always possible.
Yeah, nope.
This is basically vegan rabies
