Mushroom Preserves

Shaggy Mane Ink

“Leave mushrooms on the counter until they turn into a black, inky mess, then puree this goop and eat it” sounds like instructions in a recipe for someone on a quest to make themselves sick. For the unfamiliar, Shaggies are part of a group of mushrooms called inky caps because the mushrooms quickly turn to…

Lobster Mushroom Confit

I’d struggle to think of anything that wouldn’t be good seasoned and cooked covered in fat with herbs, and lobster mushroom confit is no exception. Even though mushrooms will never get fork tender like a pheasant thigh, or a goose leg, they’re still great candidates for confit, but especially chunky, ones like lobster mushrooms. Lobster…

Salted Wild Mushrooms in Brine

Once I started reading about traditional ways to preserve mushrooms around the world, one of the first ones I came across was salted wild mushrooms, an old stand-by used in plenty of places, but most notably Eastern Europe. It’s not that popular in America, but one trip to a market with an Eastern European ownership…

Wild Mushroom Ketchup

Have you ever run up to a massive chicken or hen of the woods, only to find it just a tiny bit past being good for the pan? Ever thought there might be something useful you could make with all the edible mushroom biomass you walk past, but pass up? Enter mushroom ketchup. Mushroom ketchup…

Wild Mushroom Fermentation

I fermented my first wild mushrooms about 7 or 8 years ago. Every cook has stages they go through as they learn, and fermentation, at that point in time, was my obsession. Similarly, another cook where I worked was fixated on candying things, all the things: carrots, jalapeños—you name it, if it could fit in…

How to Freeze Wild Mushrooms

If you’re a mushroom hunter, even a beginner, you’re going to have excess shrooms, and that’s a good thing. But you’ll want, and need to have some solid methods for preserving them in your bag of tricks to make the most of your harvest. Drying and pickling are my favorite methods. But, if you’ve ever…

Ischnoderma Kimchi

Ischnoderma resinosum is a great all-around mushroom, and I managed to snag a few at the end of the season before it got too cold. I’d made a note to ferment some up to see how I liked them. Sure, There’s plenty of mushrooms you could ferment like this, but some are better than others….

Pork Terrine with Chanterelles and Foie Gras (Pate de Girolles)

When I was in Provence on vacation a few years ago, some of the best food I had wasn’t in fancy restaurants, it was in small places, you know, spots where locals hang out. The good spots, independent and run by families, most of them. One of the best memories I have of eating was…

Blue Chanterelle Jerky

When I started pulling apart clusters of blue chanterelles / Polyozellus multiplex in my kitchen, just handling them told me one of the first things to do. These are fascinating mushrooms, with a scent that’s almost smoky, and a texture that’s tender and soft. I thought they could make even better jerky than hen of…

Wild Mushroom Conserve with Walnut Oil

I have a lot of different ways I like to preserve mushrooms I’ve learned or come up with myself over the years. This method is one of the more interesting ones, and, I can’t take credit for it. When I started working at Heartland, with it’s daily changing menu that the staff collaboratively designed, one…

Beefsteak Mushroom Relish

Cutting up my first beefsteak mushroom (Fistulina hepatica) was a mess. My cutting board looked like a murder scene, my hands were tacky and red, there was sticky trim scraped off of the knife in little piles around the board. In the end though, I did get a nice pile of dice from it to…