recipes for mushroom preservation

As my mushroom cultures are starting to produce fruits right now i was thinking about ways of how to preserve them. The amounts I'm getting this year i can easily sell fresh, but next year i should harvest a lot more.
I already have some experience with canning mushrooms in a vinegar-based brew, and of course drying/freezing is another possibility, but I'm guessing other methods should work also.

So if anyone knows about techniques of salting, fermenting, smoking, or whatever other method i didn't think about to cure mushrooms, any advice would be appreciated.

Also if anyone has interesting recipes for canning feel free to post them here. I always work with a brew of 40% vinegar (from white wine), 60% water, suggar and salt (I haven't measured salt and sugar yet, until now i worked by taste only). In combination with different spices and herbs this gives great pickles

Best regards,
Florian Kogseder

My family is Russian, and mushrooms are a HUGE part of our culture. My mom used to salt them for the winter, but we also used to dry them, which is a pretty sweet deal. You slice them up, put a string / thread through the slices, and hang them in front of a space heater (or sunny window or whatever) for a few days. When they're nice and dry, store as you would anything else you've dried at home (so, beware of mold). When the time comes, pop a handful in your soup/stew and cook as you would fresh. Ta-da! Doesn't require any equipment or experience.

Thanks. That's what i was hoping for. Some input as how other cultures prepare their mushrooms. Do you know exactly how this salting technique works and how they should be stored? Do yu have to use oil for storage or is it even possible to store them without air exclusion? Or are they fermented like sauerkraut?

I've built a nice closet for drying with a space heater, but of course that's only interesting fro folks who dry bigger amounts of mushrooms, veggies, herbs and fruit

Best regards

I've used this pickle recipe 3-4 times and they've come out very tasty.

http://foodpreservation.about.com/od/Pickles/r/Mushroom-Recipe-Pickled-Chanterelles.htm


The chanterelles don't reduce in size much but I've used it with regular store bought mushrooms which cooked down a bit further so you'll want to start with about 1 1/2 times the volume.

I think that drying is the most common overall strategy for preserving mushrooms. Obviously, it works better with a drier, longer lasting mushroom like a shiitake than an oyster mushroom, for example. Canning, pickling and freezing are less popular, partly because they need to be cooked at some point anyway, I think.
John S
PDX OR

Drying is VERY useful!

I dry more than any other method of preservation. I can deal with dried foods and it's usually easiest for me

For wild picked chanterelles last year we ended up with about 20 lbs.
10 lbs were eaten fresh, mixed with eggs, on the grill etc.
5 lbs went to the dryer and ended up as 2 1/2 quarts, one quart went to Ianto Evans, he has a great program.

Roughly 2 1/2 lbs were dried and then powdered and then mixed with salt and a bit of spices.

All the rest were pickled and I think we ended up with 6 pints, most were given as gifts with a don't open before date.

I asked my mom to send me her brine recipe for the salting. She scanned me a couple of pages from her ~ 1940s Russian cooking book. The following is my translation. Note - Russians don't really process their pickles (and they LOVE their ferments). This is a direct translation of the cooking book. Use at your own risk. Sorry it's so long

Here goes.

Drying - works best with boletes. prior to drying, wipe the mushrooms with a dry towel. Do not wash, as they will not dry as well. Once dry - if they become moist for any reason, they can be sorted (remove and moldy ones) and re-dried.

Cold salting - good for Russula, and lactarius species (Lactarius resimus, woolly or bearded milkcaps, Saffron milk caps, aka Red pine mushroom). The first two need to sit in cold water for 5-6 h, the latter (saffron milkcaps, also called red pine mushrooms) only need a rinse. Once ready, place a layer of mushrooms in ceramic, glass, or wooden containers, and sprinkle with salt. For each 1 kg of mushrooms, Lactarius resimus and woolly/bearded milkcaps take 50 g of salt, whereas red pine mushrooms take 40 g. Keep on layering shrooms and salt until full. Cover with a wooden circle that fits within the container and place a weight on top. Once the mushrooms reduce in volume, place more mushrooms and salt in the container, until full. Cover with the wooden bit + weight. After 5-6 days, check whether the mushrooms are getting salty. If not, increase the weight on top. Mushrooms will be ready in 1-1.5 months.

Hot salting - good for boletes and stinking russula (Russula foetens; note - considered inedible out west, but is treated to remove toxins and eaten in East European countries). Cut the legs off the mushrooms (they can be salted separately). Can cut the larger mushroom tops in 2-4 pieces, if being salted with smaller mushrooms. Wash the mushrooms; the stinking russula should be placed in cold water for 2-3 days to remove toxins. For each kg of washed and trimmed mushrooms:
salt - 2 table spoons
bay leaf - 1 leaf
pepper corns - 3 corns
cloves - 3 full cloves
dill - 5 g
black currant - 2 leaves
water - 1/2 cup

I think that the black currant leaf makes the mushrooms crunchy, as Russians use if for salting pickles as well.

Boil the water and salt in a pot. Once boiling, add the mushrooms. Stir continuously, so that they don't burn. Once the water boils again, remove all foam that rises to the top, and add the spices. Cook while stirring for: 20-25 mins for boletes, 15-20 mins for stinking russula, 10-15 mins for woolly milkcaps and other russulas. Mushrooms are ready once they start sinking to the bottom and the brine starts becoming clear.

Strain the mushrooms and remove them to a large dish to quickly cool. Once cool, place in jars, cover with the brine, and close. Brine weight should be at most 20% of mushroom weight. Mushrooms will be ready 40-45 days later.

Pickling - good for boletes, sheathed woodtuft (Pholiota mutabilis), and honey fungus (Armillaria mellea; again - same as milkcaps - is noted as poisonous in the west, prepared and loved in the east). Only use young, tight, clean specimens with no worm damage. Pickle each species separately. Clean all mushrooms; for honey fungus and sheathed woodtuft - remove the skins. Rinse all well in cold water and strain well. Per 1 kg of mushrooms, use:
salt - 1.5 table spoons
vinegar - 1/2 cup
1 bay leaf
0.1 g pepper, cloves, and cinnamon, each
2-3 g dill
1/2 cup water

Place the water, vinegar, salt, and mushrooms in a pot, and start cooking. Once they're boiling, remove the foam, add all spices and herbs, and cook for another 20-25 mins. The entire cooking time the mushrooms should be gently stirred. Once the mushrooms start sinking, they're ready. Take the pot off the stove and let them cool. Once cool, place in ceramic or glass jars and store.

Great information!
John S
PDX OR

The easiest way to deal with mushrooms in quantity when the weather is not amenable for drying is to salt them. Easy way, see http://michiganmushroomhunters.org/Mushrooms/Cleaning%20cooking%20and%20preserving.htm#Salting.
Basically it's just layering the mushrooms in salt, weighting it down, and draining off any excess liquid. They keep that way, and then you soak them in fresh water for a while before using them.

S Usvy wrote:I asked my mom to send me her brine recipe for the salting. She scanned me a couple of pages from her ~ 1940s Russian cooking book. The following is my translation. Note - Russians don't really process their pickles (and they LOVE their ferments). This is a direct translation of the cooking book. Use at your own risk. Sorry it's so long

Here goes.

Amazing! Thanks for all the work translating this. These methods all sound very interesting.
It's really amazing how much more importance mushrooms have in eastern European culture compared to here in Austria.



The link about salting also sounds interesting, I have to try this as well.
Maybe in combination with smoking them before salting.


Hopefully I can create some recipes for high-class products for marketing.

I agree that drying works well for mushrooms, but if you do want to freeze them, without taking up much freezer space, that mushroom duxelles is the way to go. A large amount of mushrooms can be concentrated and frozen in small amounts, even ice cube tray size, ready for use  in sauces, pasta, etc. I had access to a meadow that had field mushrooms every year at my last home in Somerset, the first time I've ever had more mushrooms that I knew what to do with ! More info and the recipe is on my blog The Cottage Garden Farmer