es. In this way, what might at
first be dangerous becomes harmless, because the preliminary boiling and
rinsing have removed the noxious elements.

My personal experience confirms the efficacy of this rustic method.
At home, we very often make use of the ringed agaric, which is reputed
extremely dangerous. When rendered wholesome by the ordeal of boiling
water, it becomes a dish of which I have naught but good to say. Then
again the smooth-headed amanita frequently appears upon my table, after
being duly boiled: if it were not first treated in this fashion, it
would be hardly safe. I have tried the blue-turning boletes, especially
the purple bolete and the Satanic. They answered very well to the
eulogistic term of beef marrow applied to them by the mushroom picker
who scouted my prudent counsels. I have sometimes employed the mottled
amanita, so ill famed in the books, without disastrous result. One of
my friends, a doctor, to whom I communicated my ideas about the boiling
water treatment, thought that he would make the experiment on his
own account. He chose the lemon-yellow amanita, which has as bad a
reputation as the mottled variety, and ate it at supper. Everything went
off without the slightest inconvenience. Another, a blind friend, in
whose company I was one day to taste the Cossus of the Roman epicures,
treated himself to the olive tree agaric, said to be so formidable. The
dish was, if not excellent, at least harmless.

It results from these facts that a good preliminary boiling is the
best safeguard against accidents arising from mushrooms. If the insect,
devouring one species and refusing another, cannot guide us in any way,
at least rustic wisdom, the fruit of long experience, prescribes a rule
of conduct which is both simple and efficacious. You are tempted by a
basketful of mushrooms, but you do not feel very sure as to their
good or evil properties. Then have them blanched, well and thoroughly
blanched. When it leaves the purgatory of the stewpan, the doubtful
mushroom can be eaten without fear.

But this, you will tell me, is a system of cookery fit for savages: the
treatment with boiling water will reduce the mushrooms to a mash; it
will take away all their flavor and all their succulence. That is a
complete mistake. The mushroom stands the ordeal exceedingly well.
I have described my failure to subdue the cepes when I was trying
to obtain an extract from them. Prolonged boiling, with the aid of
bic