Cooking with Magic: The Psilocybin Cookbook was developed to provide readers with the knowledge and understanding to properly cook with and consume magic mushrooms in interesting and delicious recipes. Additionally, the book is beautifully illustrated with stunning full-color illustrations of mushroom phylogeny sketches developed in consultation with the Erowid Foundation, a non-profit educational & harm-reduction resource with vast online information about psychoactive drugs, plants, chemicals, and technologies.
About the Author
David Connell is a U.S. Air Force veteran and writer who made a conscious decision to explore psilocybin and psychedelic mushrooms for therapeutic use after spending years battling on VA prescribed medications to treat depression and anxiety stemming from his service in the U.S. military. David then teamed up with psychedelic illustrator Snowflake Vyrostek to put together this fantastic work of culinary and visual art.
Why did he write it?
David decided to embark on his journey to publishing this book for a few simple reasons. He felt that there were others out there like him. Individuals who could potentially benefit from psilocybin as an alternative and complementary tool in their struggles with depression, anxiety, and addiction. He also wanted to share what he had learned about cooking with and safely using this remarkable fungal ally of humanity.
Can you really cook with Magic Mushrooms?
To put it plainly, yes. The main way Dave explores and uses Magic Mushrooms is through food. He believes that by connecting psilocybin usage to cooking, we deepen the spiritual and emotional aspects of using this potent psychedelic. This is backed up by history itself. For at least as long as we have had fire, man has consumed Magic Mushrooms in various forms, whether it was Dionysian wines, brewed teas, or other ways lost to the ages.
It makes sense that we should take the act of feeding yourself, your friends, and your family, something that for thousands of years was not only an act of necessity, but of love and sharing with your community, and bind our use of psychedelics to the purely human ritual of cooking and sharing food. In fact, Branden and Dave have grown quite fond of adapting their daily microdosing routine into the creation of pies, main dishes, drinks, and more. I have selected a handful of these recipes to share with the hope that it will inspire others to do the same.
So what's this book all about?
As all mushroom fans know, eating little fun-guys, as Dave and his partner Branden like to call them, can be a trying experience. As much as we love and appreciate them, neither of them enjoys the sensation of chewing on dried out, fibrous fungi stalks. Our experiences learning to integrate small, measured quantities of shrooms into food and drink inspired us to collaborate in our kitchen on this definitive guide to cooking with psilocybin-containing mushrooms.
They hope that this book helps you experience your fun-guys in new, healthful and meaningful ways. With that in mind, they have decided to make all the recipes as health-conscious as possible-while still being delicious and a little indulgent from time to time. You'll find that everything here has no added sugars and is lactose-free; we have also included gluten-free substitutions throughout. Happy cooking, and many best wishes as you embark on your journey with food and fungi!