Any mushroomer here?

[Wade Lippman]

The only mushroom forum I can find says they will get back to me about whether or not I am approved to post, but I have seen mushroom posts here, so here goes.

I found this in a park today; in a grassy area surrounded by large conifers.
273599
The ruler is 12 inches.
Is there ANY possibility it is something other than what I think it is?

I used to be seriously into mushroom hunting, but gave it up 30 years ago when I had children; didn't think they should lose their father because I was foolish. Back then I would eat anything without a second thought; well I did give Amanita rubescens a second thought, but they were delicious.
Now I have lost all my confidence, but of course I haven't even looked at mushrooms in years.

[Ryan Mooney]

Not really a mushroomer but I'd bet my tummy on it that its an edible puffball. There are only a couple of mushrooms I really feel comfortable identifying and puffballs are the main one. The only cases where you have to be concerned are small "puffballs" which can reveal themselves to be poisonous mushrooms when you cut them open and find gills or the start of gills and the fake "pigskin puffballs" which is usually rough on the outside often black on the inside (although they start white) and always harder than a true puffball which is sorta spongy. This looks nothing like any of the pigskins I've seen though.

The one caveat I'd add is that that one is looking a little long in the tooth. If there is any brown on the inside when you cut it open its past its due date and I'd give it a skip because no longer delicious (and possibly more likely to cause upset stomach). That's my main complaint about giant puffballs; they go bad so fast.

[Wade Lippman]

When I cut it open it was snowwhite throughout, with no insects at all. And no gills or stalk...
One website said that if it was over 4" in diameter it was either a giant puffball or a soccer ball.
But the penalty for being wrong is pretty stiff, so I just wanted some confirmation. Thanks.


35 years ago I was backpacking in Idaho and a woman brought back a puffball she found to add to our stew. It was obviously a button amanita and showed gills when I cut it open. But I knew what I was doing then!

Well, I am having it with scrambled eggs for dinner tonight, so lets hope.

[Ryan Mooney]

Yeah, I'm probably overly cautious but generally avoid most anything with gills myself and I certainly wouldn't try to ID one without handling it at my very low level of skill. I avoid all white gilled mushrooms because that rules out a large portion of the poisonous ones up front (amanita's primarily :D). I will eat fairy ring mushrooms, chaneterells and morels on my own as there are some easy checks to make 100% sure they are ok and have no poisonous analogs if you carefully make those checks and shaggy manes if I'm with someone I can cross check with :D I'd like to eventually have the time/energy/experience/training to actually identify more but never have.

We used to get some HUGE giant puffballs above my grandpa's ranch. I remember one that weighed in at a bit over 60lbs and I know a few were picked up that were bigger than that. Basically impossible to eat all of it before it went bad even with a small crowd. The two ways I always liked them was sliced into steaks then tossed in flour+salt+pepper and fried in butter the other was cubed into a stew. Oddly I don't think we ever did them with eggs for some reason, I'll have to try that next time I find one. Its been a couple of years since I've found a really nice puffball like you have there, kind of miss them.