Puffballs family are edible as long as the inside flesh is white, and hasn't turned yellow or brown.
I've yet to try and puffballs, as I have found out they will go from white flesh, to yellow flesh while in the fridge. Mind you it was a quite a few days between picking and getting to prepare it.
I have heard that you should cut all puffballs down the middle to make sure you don't have a toxic and potentially deadly Amanita species.
For example, I have uploaded what I initially thought was a weird puff ball, but turned out to be an amanita. Wanted to get back to the location to see what the others grew into, but never got the chance.
So you can see that there are similarities between the buff ball and the amanita still in its sac, so cutting puffballs in half is a good precaution.
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/3600134
How to safely try eating new fungi.
NZ is a petty fungi-phobic culture, so full of fear of trying wild fungi. Once I found this way of trying new fungi, it gave me ways to try new things without worrying that I am doing to make my family sick. The good news if you eat fungi and you get upset tummy, nausea, diarrhea it is just a passing symptom and although unpleasant will give not lasting harm. The nasty fungi are the ones that kill your kidneys / liver and this takes a day or so to start to show up.
a) Follow your fungi through its life cycle. That is know what it looks like when very young, through to mature. In this way you can notice if it is indeed the fungi you think it is. Some fungi when young are easily mis-identifiable eg mistaking amenita for puff ball. And gill color can change as the fungi matures.
b) Harvest a fungi. Then cut a small amount off. Cook / prepare as you are planning to do. Then eat / feed this to a healthy adult who has no liver problems. Put remainder of fresh fungi in fridge. This is so if something does go wrong, you can take it with you to medical people so they can ID / research it etc. Don't have alcohol with this sample, and no more for a day or so. Wait at least 5 days. If no problems go to step (c)
c) Now prepare a dish of this fungi, again putting a sample aside. Then feed this to adults with healthy kidneys / livers. Hopefully not gastric upsets, or any nasty problems kicking in after a day or two.
d) Know you have an edible fungi, so you can feed to kids, family etc.
Also the more mature a fungi is, the more mature the spores are. And it is the mature spores that can often cause tummy problems. So the older the more likely to get a reaction. Also the mature ones can often be full of fungi fly maggots. They enter through the stem, and eat out the insides. So looks ok from the outside, but the inside can be eaten out.
Posted by davidwhyte
