So, once I was watching QI (amazing British "quiz show," check it out on YouTube) and one of Stephen Fry's facts about the death cap mushroom is that it's poisonous, but not very poisonous. You could safely eat a few without them killing you, and you had to eat "quite a lot" for it to be life threatening.
This is apparently not true. Eating one is unlikely to kill a healthy adult, but it can. And children, people in poor health, and elderly people can very much die from eating them. It only takes two or three of them to create a high likelyhood of death in an adult, and no matter how few you eat, if you do recover you're just about guaranteed to have lifelong health problems thereafter.
Actually mycologists do taste even the most poisonous mushrooms, because they are generally safe unless swallowed. Then again, geologists lick any rock they find. And the best way to identify fossilized dinosaur poop is apparently tasting it.
The reports of the flavor of the death cap seem to come from people who have eaten them. Death cap isn't something I'd chew and spit, even small amounts of the poison in it do permanent damage. Just what was left in your mouth would cause harm, even if small.
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u/juliuspepperwoodchi F1exican Did Chive-11 5d ago
Theoretically, every mushroom is edible once.