Puffballs: edible while they're young

White balls scattered across a clearing or woodland edge are familiar to many: these are puffballs. When pressed, old ones release a puff of brown dust, which is how they got their name. But few people know that young white puffballs are perfectly edible and even tasty. The key is to pick them at the right time and not confuse them with dangerous lookalikes.

Let's look at how to recognize an edible puffball, when to pick it and how to tell it apart from poisonous lookalikes.

What puffballs look like

Puffballs (Lycoperdon and Bovista) are mushrooms with a distinctive round or pear shape and no usual cap and stem.

• Shape. A ball, a pear or a club, from a few centimeters to very large.
• Surface. White or cream, smooth or covered with tiny spines and warts.
• Flesh. In a young mushroom it's pure white, firm and uniform, like a marshmallow.
• Change with age. Over time the flesh turns yellow, then brown, and becomes powdery spores.

This group also includes the common fen puffball. All these mushrooms grow on soil, in clearings, meadows and forests, often in groups.

When puffballs are edible

One simple, unbreakable rule applies to all puffballs.

A puffball is edible only as long as the flesh inside is pure white, firm and uniform. Such a mushroom is tasty; it's fried and added to dishes. As soon as the flesh starts turning yellow or brown, the mushroom is overripe and no longer fit to eat.

That's why every puffball must be cut in half before cooking. A white, uniform center means the mushroom is young and edible. Any other color or pattern inside is a reason to throw it out.

What puffballs must not be confused with

It's the cut test that saves you from two dangerous mistakes.

1. False puffball. Scleroderma, the earthball or false puffball, is poisonous. It looks like a puffball from the outside, but the flesh inside turns dark early, purple-black, with white veins. A white puffball never has that.
2. A death cap or amanita in the egg stage. A young death cap in its egg stage is also white and round. But when you cut it, you can see the outline of the future cap, stem and gills, while a puffball's flesh is solid and uniform.

So the golden rule is: cut every mushroom. Pure white, uniform flesh means an edible puffball; any pattern, dark color or outline of a mushroom inside is a reason to leave your find behind.

How to pick and cook puffballs

A few tips will make picking puffballs enjoyable and safe.

• Take only young white mushrooms. Check each one by cutting it.
• Ignore the old ones. Leave brown, dusty puffballs alone; they're no longer usable.
• Cook them fresh. Puffballs don't keep well, so it's best to cook them the same day.
• Clean them simply. Peel off the outer skin and cut the flesh into slices for frying.

A puffball needs no complicated preparation: it's fried in slices like a steak or added to scrambled eggs or soup. The flavor is delicate and mushroomy. We've gathered general foraging safety guidelines in a separate article.

Sources

• "Key to the Fungi of Ukraine" (Kyiv, Naukova Dumka publishing house).
• Lycoperdon perlatum on GBIF, the global biodiversity database.
• Lycoperdon on MycoBank, the international fungal nomenclature database.
• Lycoperdon perlatum on Wikipedia.