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    Home » Wild Mushroom Recipes

    Classic Fried Puffballs

    Published: Aug 26, 2016 Modified: Jan 20, 2023 by Alan Bergo This post may contain affiliate links 23 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe

    If you've found a puffball mushroom before and you haven't had them fried yet (the classic puffball recipe), grab some flour, egg, and breadcrumbs and get to work next time you come score one.

    Fried Puffball Mushrooms

    Puffballs can be delicious, but I've found that some people get turned off at the texture, which can be a little soft. If you're wondering how to cook a puffball you've found, this is probably the most tried and true way I know to prepare them. 

    Harvesting a puffball mushroom

    I love the texture of a properly prepared puffball, the quality of which I usually judge by the caramelization of the mushroom itself, in other words, I want puffballs fried golden brown, because they taste better.

    Puffballs poorly browned will have an awkward feeling in the mouth, kind of like a thin, flaccid marshmallow. If they're browned though, they take on nutty hints of cheesy, mushroomy goodness.

    Cleaning and peeling a puffball mushroom

    Hitting puffballs with the classic flour/egg/breadcrumb method makes them into crispy little cutlets that hold their shape just like a piece of meat would, or anything that's been breaded really.

    Although the mushroom itself gets kind of steamed inside it's crispy breadcrumb coating, somehow it works. Granted, it's hard to make fried food taste bad and I don't bread and fry food to eat all the time, but I do keep it in the bag of tricks for when it's useful because it tastes great.

    Cleaning and peeling a puffball mushroom

    After you've fried your puffballs up you can do whatever you want with them. Plenty of recipes will dump stuff all over them like cheese, gravy, etc. Generally, I like a lighter touch, although I did make a lasagna with them the other week.

    Breading a puffball mushroom

    An Italian, Italian American, and also Argentinian and Mexican tradition (Via Italian immigration in WW2) is the "Milanesa" (named for the Northern Italian town of Milan) or breaded cutlet, which could be from the traditional veal, or from chicken pork or beef.

    Most of the time, it's served straight up, maybe with a little lemon on the side, or my favorite-an arugula salad, lemon and a little olive oil.

    Breading a puffball mushroom

    In the picture, I had it with an arugula salad and a few capers made from dandelion buds. Sometimes I serve capers fried too-held at room temperature and sprinkled on things. Just dredge them in flour, fry until crisp, set on a towel to dry until you need them.

    Frying and cooking a puffball mushroom

    The finished product is great all by itself served with a green salad or your favorite vegetable side, but it's also good used to make puffball parmesan, which you can do by smothering the fried slices in some mozzarella, tomato sauce and parmesan. 

    Fried puffball mushroom 8
    Fried Puffball Mushrooms
    Print Recipe
    4.15 from 49 votes

    Fried Puffball Mushrooms

    Breaded, fried puffball mushrooms
    Prep Time30 mins
    Cook Time45 mins
    Total Time1 hr 15 mins
    Course: Main Course
    Cuisine: American
    Keyword: Fried Puffballs, Puffball mushroom
    Servings: 4 People
    Calories: 237kcal
    Author: Alan Bergo
    Cost: 5

    Equipment

    • 1 Cast iron skillet or 10 inch frying pan
    • 3 Mixing bowls

    Ingredients

    • 8 oz Fresh puffball mushrooms puffball mushrooms vary in size
    • 1.5`1 teaspoon Kosher salt
    • ½ teaspoon Fresh ground black pepper
    • 1.5 cups All purpose flour
    • Panko breadcrumbs
    • 3 large Eggs beaten well with a splash of half and half
    • High heat cooking oil like grapeseed, as needed, for frying

    For serving (optional)

    • Fresh arugula or whatever greens you have/prefer
    • Fresh lemon juice or wedge
    • Extra virgin olive oil

    Instructions

    • Preheat an oven to 225, or to a warm setting.
    • Mix the flour with the salt. If you can grind the salt in a spice grinder to make it fine, do it.
    • If you haven't already, slice off the root end of the puffball and inspect for any bug damage, the flesh of the mushroom should be perfectly white, not at all greenish-yellow.
    • Using a long, sharp slicing knife, slice the puffball into ½ inch or so slices. Liberally coat the mushroom slices in flour, then tap off the excess and dip them in beaten egg, then the panko breadcrumbs.
    • Heat a generous amount of oil in a pan (¼-1/2 a cup should be good depending on the size of your mushroom slices and the size of your pan) on medium heat.
    • When the oil is hot and a breadcrumb sizzles in it, add the puffball slices and cook until golden brown on each side. Watch the heat, and increase or decrease it slightly, keeping an eye on the mushrooms so you don't burn them.
    • Pay close attention to the amount of oil in the pan, the breadcrumbs are going to soak up oil, and you don't to let the pan get dry, think of it like a shallow deep-fry. If the pan gets dry, add more oil.
    • Once the mushrooms are browned, place them in the warm oven on a cookie sheet with a resting rack to prevent the heat from being trapped and steaming the crispy crust until you're done with the rest.
    • When the mushrooms are all fried, sprinkle them lightly with some nice salt if you have, or just kosher salt, dress the arugula or other greens with the lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste, then serve immediately.

    Video

    Notes

    I recommend making these for 2-4 people at a time. Trying to fry your whole puffball, if it's large, will require a hood vent or outside cooking. 

    Nutrition

    Serving: 3oz | Calories: 237kcal | Carbohydrates: 38g | Protein: 11g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Cholesterol: 140mg | Sodium: 935mg | Potassium: 282mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 203IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 30mg | Iron: 3mg

    More

    Puffball Mushrooms

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Jack Guard

      August 27, 2016 at 8:36 am

      if you could learn to grown these commercially you'd be a Kazillionaire! 🙂 Imagine the top end restaurants ordering these babies……wow……I recently found a small field where about 25 of them come up every year-----GOLD….

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        August 30, 2016 at 12:40 pm

        Yes. Cultivating them would be awesome!

        Reply
        • Kathleen Putzig

          September 17, 2020 at 6:36 pm

          We have a gift of Rams Head Mushrooms. Could you recommend a recipe for me? I love the breaded fried puffballs. It’s my new favorite way to cook them!

          Reply
          • Alan Bergo

            September 18, 2020 at 7:44 am

            Try my basic roasted hen of the woods (assuming you're talking about Grifola)

            Reply
      • Joyc

        September 06, 2019 at 4:32 pm

        Unfortunately, one is lucky to find a puffball growing on it's own Cultivating them would indeed be awesome!

        Reply
    2. Rebecca A. Nyberg

      October 10, 2016 at 12:00 am

      I like them best cooked a similar way, only I dip in egg and then fresh grated Parmesan. Believe it or not, the cheese stands up well to the frying (just a bit less than medium heat, minimal oil, and in a ceramic pan worked well for me).

      Reply
    3. Melissa

      October 21, 2016 at 12:39 pm

      I don't suppose you would share that puffball lasagna recipe here? My friend gave me 2 last night and they are huge!

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 31, 2016 at 4:37 pm

        Hi Melissa, the puffball lasagna will be posted next year, the blog is written a year in advance and publishes itself.

        Reply
    4. Tyler Davis

      September 11, 2017 at 10:02 am

      Found two puffballs yesterday. Going to try this recipe tonight.
      What do I do with the butter? It's in the ingredients list, but not in the recipe steps.

      Reply
    5. William Kalenborn

      October 07, 2018 at 5:47 am

      Gotd a vollyball and teatherball pair of puffballs today in the yard for the first time. Very rainy summer. Peeled in the fridge; .Recipe hunting.

      Reply
    6. Oliver Carlin

      April 20, 2020 at 9:01 pm

      Thanks for the recipe. It looks so delicious I can't wait for Puffball season to come around and I will try it out.

      Reply
    7. shawn finley

      September 12, 2020 at 3:25 pm

      5 stars
      ya i just found about 10 of these big beautiful babies out at my hunting area. Gonna go well with my doves and goose tonight. Thanks for the recipe ????????

      Reply
    8. Jamie

      September 13, 2020 at 10:58 am

      5 stars
      Made puffball Parmigiano on homemade ciabatta bread today. Love to forage and love to cook. You've inspired me to put it all together

      Reply
    9. Fernanda Luciana Leporace

      October 02, 2021 at 8:51 am

      5 stars
      Thank you! I read your post a few weeks back...today I went for a walk snd found a spot with several puffballs. I brought one home to try it out!

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 02, 2021 at 9:19 am

        Congrats. Let me know if you have any questions.

        Reply
    10. Allison

      October 22, 2021 at 8:49 pm

      Whoa- this is wild… went on a hike today and stumbled on a mini field of puffballs so i grabbed one to try as I’ve heard they are good . I got home and Googled ‘puffball recipes’ and yours was the first to pop up. The wild part is that I was unfamiliar with Forager Chef until this week when I met you at the Airbnb in MKE! Small world!

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        October 22, 2021 at 9:01 pm

        Wow. Yep, that’s me, just your average basement dweller 😂! Great to chat with you.

        Reply
    11. Jeff Dexter

      August 30, 2022 at 3:59 pm

      Okay... found rwo somewhat large puffballs growing nearby... one was 3/4 lb. and the other 1/2 lb. Size not important. I will say that they were very slightly yellowed in the interior..... but I don't think that this had any adverse effects. (At least, I hope not.) Tried to follow the above recipe. High heat cooking oil required(?)..... geez.... the recipe does not call out a cooking temp. Must be something like medium-high(?) Tried this.... and ended up burning my hand, trying to turn the slices before they burnt up. This, they did quickly, and the taste was bad. Next batch.... I switched to a notch below medium on my electric stove. (4). Well.... not too bad. The taste was like tasteless, sugarless marshmallows with a delicious coating of fried panko crumbs. My last try was at medium-low heat. Took many minutes to attain the browning, but it did cook the mushroom much more, and bring out its flavor.... as much as can be expected. I've dealt with puffballs before.... and I realize it is difficult to coax flavor out of them. Maybe I will try the saute in butter recipe next.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        September 03, 2022 at 8:27 am

        Thanks for the feedback, I'll take a look to make sure it reads clearly. I have the tendency to assume people are familiar with cooking things that are dredged or coated in crumbs. Puffballs are really mild, and they won't be for everyone. The big issue here is that you cooked a puffball with a yellow tinge to it, which will taste awful no matter how you cook it.

        Reply
    12. doug

      September 05, 2022 at 2:19 pm

      looking at the fry, you could also do a stirfry and add it like you would tufo...?

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        September 06, 2022 at 11:47 am

        Yes, but I recommend dredging them in cornstarch and frying until crisp first.

        Reply
    13. Nancy

      September 29, 2022 at 5:37 pm

      Hi.
      Sadly my puff is greenish yellow. I have the egg wash all ready. Oh well.
      Why is it not safe to eat the green yellow center? Is it old?
      We will have to go gathering again.
      Thank you

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        September 30, 2022 at 10:16 am

        Hi Nancy, old puffballs could potentially make some people sick, more important is that it affects the flavor. It's very strong, and unpleasant. Try a bit and you'll see what I'm talking about-it's fine to eat a little taste after cooking.

        Reply

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    Chef Alan Bergo

    HI, I'm Alan: James Beard Award-winning Chef, Author, Show Host and Forager. I've been writing about cooking wild food here for over a decade. Let me show you why foraging is the most delicious thing you'll ever do.

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