BovistaNigrescens01

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Bovista Nigrescens is edible only when young

These mushrooms can be found from the summer onwards, and is often an early hint to keep your eyes open as the main mushroom season is is on it's way. The flavor is light and indistinctive and I've not been able to do much with these other than in mixtures with other mushrooms.

The giant puffball is an easy mushroom to prepare for cooking as it is little effected by maggots, and it's smooth shape means that it often need only be wiped with a damp cloth.

Various books offer the following advice:
Lycoperdon species are well suited for favoring soups and stews.
The giant puffball lends itself to being cut into steaks, dipped in beaten egg covered in bread crumbs and fried, especially in the pan juices after frying bacon. Try also grilling one side of a thick slice, then turning it over and grilling the other, adding cheese slices and seasoning.

3,000 B.C.: Skara Brae, Orkney: The latest wonder drug to come into fashion is the puffball fungi - to be later named Bovista Nigrescens. The inner tissue of the puffball resembles what later ages will call cotton wool. When applied to minor cuts, it acts as a blood-clotting agent. [The outer skins of puffballs were found in large numbers here, when excavated in modern times.]

Genus of fungi belonging to the class Basidiomycetes. There are about 35 species, all found in temperate regions. They are small puffballs, up to 8 cm/3 in in diameter, and differing from Lycoperdon species mainly in having a mass of sterile, threadlike tubes or fibers among the spores. B. plumbea and B. Nigrescens are found on heaths and pastures in Britain. They have no stem, but are held to the ground by a thread; when this is broken by the wind, the puffball is blown around, releasing its spores as it goes.

IN the first of the two orders just noticed, the hymenium neither melts nor becomes dusty; in the last it melts, and in the present order it dries into a dusty mass of threads and spores. From the remote resemblance which this mass sometimes bears to a lock of soft brown wool, the order has been called Trichogastres (thrix, Gr., wool or hair). The most picturesque of forms are found in the genus Geaster; but although we have a dozen indigenous species, none of these are common. In these the peridium or covering is double, the outer one, bursting and dividing into separate lobes, falls back in a stellate manner at the base of the ball formed by the inner peridium, which latter ultimately opens and discharges its spores from the summit. Although useless, these are very curious and. Interesting fungi, and are not possessed of the strong and unpleasant odor of the members of the last group.

The genera Bovista and Lycoperdon, which follow, may be distinguished from each other by the bark of the former at length shelling off, and of the latter remaining attached in the form of scales or warts. There are but three species of Bovista indigenous to Britain, distinguished chiefly by the color of the peridium. B. Nigrescens is blackish, and B. plumbea of a lead color Although we have never heard of the former being eaten, it is stated that the latter furnishes a very palatable dish. Bo vista plumbea and Lycoperdon pyriforme have, however, been so confounded together, sometimes in name and sometimes in the individuals themselves, as evidenced by the fact that figures of the latter have been given with the name of the former, that one seems disposed to doubt whether both have not been eaten the one for the other, and whether both may not be esculent, though perhaps not excellent. Two species of Bovista are very common in pastures, and resemble little round balls, which, when ripe, discharge their dust-like spores from openings in the top of the papery perineum; the third species, B. ammophila, is not common.

There is scarcely a dweller or stroller into the country that has not seen the giant puffball (Lycoperdon giganteum), sometimes attaining the size of a child's head, and in its earlier stages of a dirty whitish color, becoming browner by age, in which latter condition, if broken, it emits a cloud of snuff colored impalpable dust. Very few persons are, however, aware that when in its young and pulpy condition this Lycoperdon is excellent eating, and, indeed, has but few competitors for the place of honor at the table. It is especially esteemed in Italy, and would be with us, not only on account of the impossibility of confounding it with other species, on which account the repast may be enjoyed without fear, but also for its own intrinsic value. Unfortunately this fungus deteriorates very speedily after gathering, and should be discarded if, when cut, any yellow marks or stains are visible, for then it is too old. When the cut surface of the puffball is white as snow, then cut it up into slices of a quarter of an inch in thickness, and fry it in fresh butter, adding according to your taste a sprinkling of pounded sweet herbs, pepper, and salt. Mrs. Hussey recommends that each slice be dipped in the yolk of an egg and sprinkled with chopped sweet herbs and spice. Then, she says, "they are much lighter and more digestible than egg omelets, and resemble brain fritters."

Our late friend, B. Ward, Esq., of Salhouse Hall, who, by the bye, was a connoisseur in edible fungi, writes, "We have a delicious dish in this fungus, which is not uncommon in some seasons in these parts. Sliced and seasoned with butter and salt, and fried in a pan, no French omelet is half so good in richness and delicacy of flavor. I am too glad to seize upon them when I can get them; of course, in the soft pulpy state." This is not the only testimony we have of their excellence. Another connoisseur says, "The puffball makes such an excellent omelet, and is so much better than any mushroom I ever before tasted, that it ought not to be called mushroom. "To this we may add our own experience, derived while this work was first passing through the press. A gardener brought us a large puffball, equal in size to a half-quartern loaf, and which was still in its young and pulpy state, of a beautiful creamy whiteness when cut. It had been found developing itself in a garden at Highgate, and to the finder its virtues were unknown. We had this specimen cut in slices of about half an inch in thickness, the outer skin peeled off, and each slice dipped in an egg which had been beaten up, then sprinkled with bread crumbs, and fried in butter, with salt and pepper. The result was exceedingly satisfactory; and fin ding this immense fungus more than our family could consume whilst it remained fresh, we invited our friends to partake, and they were as delighted as ourselves with the new breakfast relish, to them, and to us - the first, but we hope not the last, experiment upon a fried puffball.

The great puffball has an ancient reputation for the stanching of blood, and was consequently dried and preserved by many a good housewife in days gone by, and is still considered by some of the antique dames of the past generations as a sovereign remedy for a cut finger. The use of the spongy portion as a tinder must also be reckoned amongst the achievements of the past. When burnt, the fumes of this fungus are said to possess a stupefying narcotic property; in this form the Lycoperdon is still occasionally employed to stupefy bees, so that their hives may be robbed of the honey without danger. Lately these fumes have been proposed and recommended as an anesthetic in the place of chloroform. But the most important of all uses is that of food, to which we have already alluded.