diff --git a/src/config.rs b/src/config.rs
index d79c03db3..93e7a429d 100644
--- a/src/config.rs
+++ b/src/config.rs
@@ -209,6 +209,11 @@ pub fn get_config() -> &'static CookbookConfig {
     return CONFIG.get().expect("Configuration is not initialized");
 }
 
+/// Fallible version of get_config(), because it's not loaded when testing
+pub fn try_get_config() -> Option<&'static CookbookConfig> {
+    return CONFIG.get();
+}
+
 pub fn translate_mirror(original_url: &str) -> String {
     let config = CONFIG.get().expect("Configuration is not initialized");
 
diff --git a/src/cook/cook_build.rs b/src/cook/cook_build.rs
index 819484215..39cdb7809 100644
--- a/src/cook/cook_build.rs
+++ b/src/cook/cook_build.rs
@@ -23,7 +23,9 @@ fn auto_deps_from_dynamic_linking(
 ) -> BTreeSet<PackageName> {
     let mut paths = BTreeSet::new();
     let mut visited = BTreeSet::new();
-    let verbose = crate::config::get_config().cook.verbose;
+    let verbose = crate::config::try_get_config()
+        .map(|s| s.cook.verbose)
+        .unwrap_or(true);
     // Base directories may need to be updated for packages that place binaries in odd locations.
     let mut walk = VecDeque::new();