Author Topic: Drying mushrooms (Read 3701 times)

arobwk · « **on:** October 22, 2017, 04:50:18 pm »

Am seeking best tried and tested method for drying Oyster mushrooms. I have a glut of the lovelies and don't want to waste. Obviously sun-drying is not on the cards!!

macgro7 · « **Reply #1 on:** October 22, 2017, 04:56:20 pm »

My grandma slices them and puts on a string and hangs on top of the oven when she's cooking.

cloddopper · « **Reply #2 on:** October 24, 2017, 01:16:41 pm »

I put oven drying mushrooms onto Google

Resulting as :-

Directions

1.
Preheat the oven to 170°F, using the convection function if you have it. Brush the mushrooms clean and cut them into 1/4-inch slices.

2.
Arrange the mushrooms on drying screens and place in the oven. Prop open the oven door with a wooden spoon to vent steam. Dehydrate until leathery, 2 to 3 hours.

Then you will need to store them in small air tight jars , better still small heat sealed vac pack bags in usable portions .

Just make sure you use quality vac pack bags like the embossed ones from Wischenfelder . co . UK as they are the only heavy duty ones I've been able to find in 10 or more years of vac packing & heat sealing things .

pgkevet · « **Reply #3 on:** October 24, 2017, 04:00:33 pm »

60 years ago my folks used to gather ceps on Mardley Heath and then slice them up and spread them out onto sheets of newspaper in my bedroom on the floor. Heating was modest back then - a wall mounted electric 2-bar. Once dried.. several days and my room stank of mushrooms.. they'd be stored in muslin bags hung above and to the side of the cooker (heat but no steam) and used as needed.

cloddopper · « **Reply #4 on:** October 27, 2017, 02:45:19 am »

The environmental health People would have a duck fit in todays world if you did that and the printers were still using heavy metal inks .

pgkevet · « **Reply #5 on:** October 27, 2017, 05:32:23 pm »

Quote from: cloddopper on October 27, 2017, 02:45:19 am

The environmental health People would have a duck fit in todays world if you did that and the printers were still using heavy metal inks .

Along with the ink on the chips, the leaded petrol, asbestos garage roofs and water tanks, and DDT for mozzies and never being alone wth a strand. We also climbed trees, swam in the mill pond, ate raw veggies and fruit scrumped from the fields and hedgerows used petrol primus stoves and had just heard about the new wonder weedkiller paraquat. My mum died this year at 98.

arobwk · « **Reply #6 on:** October 28, 2017, 04:16:10 pm »

Newspaper? - I've given that a miss! Unfortunately cooking for one means oven not routinely used to give off much ambient heat so I tried the in-oven method, but perhaps something amiss with thermostat - most stuck to the cooking paper I placed them on. Bit of a disaster actually - not a lot salvaged for the cupboard. There's always next year!
As to the fresh ones that I used copiously (lightly fried): not sure I'm convinced about the Oyster's culinary merits - not particularly tasty I find, but any food-for-free is not to be scoffed at.

cloddopper · « **Reply #7 on:** October 28, 2017, 07:27:36 pm »

Something wrong with the thermostat ? That's why you slip a wooden spoon betweenn th door & the door seal so you get a gentle warm convection drying heat .

I found the pizza mesh & oven chip mesh sections best rather than using baking paper or greaseproof paper as the dry heat can circulate through the mesh screens

arobwk · « **Reply #8 on:** November 04, 2017, 03:53:55 pm »

I have one of those oven-chip mesh things cloddopper - I'll maybe give that a try next year as this year's flush of oysters has gone by.
In passing: last year, my parents' lawn (many silver birch surrounding) produced a good number of what I reckoned to be chanterelles, but I wasn't quite confident enough to harvest at the time. Fully researched on identification, I've been prowling their lawn this year, but, darn it, nary a one! Either a fickle year for chant's or a dog-walking neighbour has sussed and beaten me to them (un-fenced garden) in the dark of night!! Very disappointed obviously.

cloddopper · « **Reply #9 on:** November 13, 2017, 11:37:41 am »

why not have a practice run with some white closed cup mushrooms out the shop so long as they are white with no sign of bruising they should be under 14 hrs old .

store the resluts in an air tight screw top jar that has a tablespoon of oven dried rice grains in it as a dessicant

Doing the rice .
Sprinkle 250 grm ( 1/2 a pound ) of any sort of rice grain on a baking tray and put it in a hot oven for about 10 min till it starts to take on a light tan , remove it , leave it 4 min to cool then pop it in an air tight screw tip jar .

It has many uses as a desiccant .. I also use it to keep newly dried seeds dessicated till I want them for sowing in the gardens or plant pots .

arobwk · « **Reply #10 on:** November 17, 2017, 07:03:59 pm »

I shall indeed do that cloddopper (i.e. experiment with "ordinary" mushrooms) - good idea. But liking the top-tip about using rice as a desiccant even more - thanks!