Apparently there are several types of mushrooms which resemble death cap mushrooms but are perfectly safe to eat. Anybody, except for very experienced foragers, can make a mistake. I'll never understand why Erin Patterson told the police she bought the mushrooms for her Beef Wellington instead of saying she foraged for wild mushrooms and made a mistake. The second explanation is plausible; the first one isn't.
I didn't know you were supposed to taste a dish you were cooking until I started watching cooking shows like Masterchef. However, like you, I wouldn't be able to taste whether a dish needed more salt or more spices or whatever, so I don't. Did Erin regularly taste dishes as she was cooking? If she did, then the fact that she didn't this one time is highly suspicious.
The previous illnesses of her husband don’t match the story. Does she forage everything for food? Lampshades, too? If you remember, he was supposed to attend the dinner and avoided the last moment.
We may yet see Erin change her story to foraging the deadly mushrooms by mistake since we’re not privy to her current defense. Her husband’s previous illnesses may contradict an accident depending on the forensic evidence gathered thus far.
I find the disposal strange, very clumsy indeed. The mushrooms could have been dried weeks earlier and dehydrator disposed in another town or Melbourne suburb, never to be found. She could have purchased a new one and dried a known safe variety, when forensically tested, no evidence. Local tips in small towns are vastly different.
I’ve read that but it lacks context. Seems an odd outburst in her first week but maybe she was joking, sarcastic, it might have been that kind of workplace back then. I think it was 20+ years ago.
Foraging would be addictive if you lived in an area of abundance. Good for her. I too foraged mushrooms growing up. I didn’t eat mushrooms but loved the process, such an adventure.
Yes, i can believe that she might be a very spiteful person.
