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Indigo Milkcaps Preserved In Herb Oil

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indigo milk cap recipe lactarius indigo recipe

Delicious blue mushrooms! Sounds like a joke or a drug, right? Indigo milkcaps a.k.a lactarius indigo are pretty cool. They’re one of the only blue foods that you can eat that I know of, with the exception of a couple berries and potatoes.

I can still remember the first time I found one, baffled by the vibrant blue. Most of the indigos I found at first were huge and bug damaged, but over the past few years I’ve been able to get some nice, unspoiled ones if the stars, and the rain align.

Indigo Milkcaps, Lactarius Indigo Preserved In Olio Santo_-2

The first time I ate them I was a little disappointed though, the mushrooms cooked up good enough, but they turned brown after being sautéed in a pan. I kind of gave up on ever being able to preserve the color of the blue mushrooms, that is until I saw a jar of pickled mushrooms on a Russian recipe website (I forget which one). There was a mix of different mushrooms in the jar of pickles, but here and there I spotted long streaks of blue, then it hit me about the simplicity of why the mushrooms lost their blue color.

Citric Acid or Vinegar: The Key to Keeping Your Lactarius Blue 

Here was my “aha” thought: browning something in a pan is going to do just that. The reaction to fat and a pan is what robs the mushroom of it’s blue color. Cooking the mushrooms in a wet method, where they don’t have dry contact with a pan, will preserve it’s color. Considering that you might want to just pickle them, but not so fast-there’s a catch.

blanching indigo milkcaps, lactarius indigo

Blanching and draining

The caveat to cooking lactarius and preserving in jars, from my experience, is that the mushrooms develop a sort of mucilage, which makes them pretty slimy when preserved in their own juice and stuffed tightly in a jar. Honey mushrooms and amanitas do this too, and I’ve found give off much more of the stuff than lactarius, but it’s still there nonetheless.

In a nutshell, I wanted to preserve lactarius indigo in a tasty way, and keep it’s blue color, but I also didn’t want it to be slimy. After a couple experiments I got the result I wanted.

Here’s what you do. You take your lactarius and blanch them in a seasoned pickling liquid, which also acts as a preservative. From there, you drain the mushrooms thoroughly and then pack in some flavored oil. The preliminary blanching leaches away the snot effect, but it also functions as a way to impart flavor, as well as lower the ph for their stasis in the fridge.

The olio santo here is something I adapted from one of the greats of Italian cooking: Guiliano Bugialli, and I’ve been using variations of it for years. It’s a great way to flavor oil without having chunks of aggressive things in it like garlic. It’s a great, simple recipe, perfect for garnishing grilled meats or vegetables, or perfuming something that will be around for a while, like these blue mushrooms. In Italian Olio Santo translates to “holy oil”, which I always thought was fun, I remember telling employees at a couple different restaurants I was “anointing” things with it. 🙂

These are a lot of fun, and great as a little snack. I’ll mention too: it’s a total misnomer that mushrooms pickles should be eaten cold, quite the contrary. One of my favorite ways to eat pickled or preserved shrooms is warm in the morning with some eggs or with toast, the crunch is an awesome foil for the chew of the mushrooms. Next time you find some indigo milkcaps, give it a try.

indigo milkcap recipe, lactarius indigo,

  1. indigo milkcap recipe, lactarius indigo,
    Print Recipe
    0 from 0 votes

    Indigo Milkcaps Preserved In Herb Oil

    Prep Time30 mins
    Cook Time5 mins
    Course: Snack
    Cuisine: Italian
    Keyword: Lactarius indigo, Olio santo

    Ingredients

    • 2 lb lb indigo milkcaps cleaned and sliced 1/2 in
    • 2 qts water
    • 1 qt apple cider vinegar or white vinegar in a pinch
    • 2 Tbsp kosher salt
    • 1 recipe olio santo herb oil, follows

    Instructions

    • Bring the water, salt, and vinegar to a boil.
    • Add the mushrooms and simmer until wilted and thoroughly cooked, about 5 minutes depending on the size of your pot. Remove the mushrooms and drain on a towel to weep excess liquid.
    • Pack the mushrooms in sterilized pint jars, then fill almost to the brim with the olio santo, making sure that the mushrooms are completely covered with oil, and not exposed to air at all. Refrigerate the mushrooms in their jars, then allow to sit for awhile to improve in flavor-I'd try some after a week.

    Print Recipe
    5 from 1 vote

    Olio Santo

    Makes 2 cups

    Ingredients

    • ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
    • ½ cup flavorless oil like canola or grapeseed
    • 2 fresh bay leaves
    • 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
    • 3 cloves of garlic crushed
    • Zest of one lemon peeled into strips

    Instructions

    • Combine all the ingredients in a small sauce 1 qt sauce pan and heat the mixture until hot but not boiling, and the garlic begins to sizzle, then remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool and infuse overnight for the best flavor.
    • After the oil has infused, strain and reserve it until needed. The flavor will keep better under refrigeration.

    Notes

    This makes a little more than you'll need for preserving the mushrooms. Play with the flavors however you want, but traditionally olio santo is only made with garlic, chili, lemon and bay.

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. pete hautman

    September 26, 2014 at 3:04 pm

    It may be that the acid in the pickling liquid is what preserves the blue color, much the same way that adding a little lemon juice or vinegar to a purple cabbage sauté preserves the blue/red color. In any case, I love this idea, and if we ever have another L. indigo year like this one was, I’ll be giving it a try! Thanks for the post (and for all your others.)

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      October 7, 2014 at 9:54 am

      Pete, I’ve been doing experiments with more of them. It is indeed the acid that preserves the color. Your comment helped me pin point that. Thank you.

      Reply
  2. Jeremy

    July 8, 2016 at 8:23 am

    could you pressure can with this recipe without ruining the flavor/texture? My refrigerator space is precious these days.

    Thanks for the recipe!

    Jeremy

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      August 5, 2016 at 4:54 pm

      Absolutely.

      Reply
  3. Cammy freed

    August 14, 2016 at 9:01 pm

    Hi,
    Fantastic recipe! Thank you for sharing this. I have just one question.
    How long will the mushrooms usually keep after canning? I boiled my cans and lids prior to adding mushrooms and olio.
    Thanks!
    Cammy.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      August 16, 2016 at 6:45 pm

      Well the mushrooms haven’t been canned per se, this is more like a refrigerator pickle, although they are blanched in a shelf stable liquid with a PH lower than 4.2 which is industry standard for water bath canning. They’re not held in the liquid though, they’re held in oil. Giardiniera is often canned like this, but it’s often done commercially in pressure canning methods that bring the internal temperature above 220 F, which makes things shelf stable without a low PH. Long story short, I would use them within a month or two, if you see white mold spots on the mushrooms, it’s time to throw them out. The less air in the containers, the better too, and it’s important that the mushrooms are always completely covered with oil to keep them away from bacteria. I may have to ammend the post, thanks.

      Reply
  4. Tor

    August 21, 2018 at 11:32 pm

    So I want to pressure can these for shelf life.
    But can I use 1 full
    Cup olive oil as we don’t cook with the other oils.
    Also safe to pressure can jars with oil?
    I think I will leave out the Chili as I love the earthy unique taste of the indigo..☺️

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      August 22, 2018 at 9:02 am

      You’ll be fine water batch canning these, just make absolutely sure everything is completely underneath oil. I think a waterbath would be fine, I haven’t tried pressure canning these, but you likely could. I would leave in the chili, it’s not going to overpower the mushrooms. Your choice though. Generally preserves like this I refrigerate.

      Reply
      • Tor

        August 22, 2018 at 9:21 am

        Thanks so much. Being I want to shelf these and low acid, I probably have to pressure can to be safe. Though water bath is so much faster. But we have so many little ones and just want to play safe. I have just never pressure canned oil.

        So I can use a full cup of Olive oil?? Rather than another oil?

        Thanks I will likely keep the chilli flakes.
        Also thinking of drying some like you said.
        Love the idea of homemade pasta in broth.
        With homesteading and 14 kids we like to make our own food and that includes pasta with fresh ground grain and my middle aged kids love experimenting with new exotic flavours. They are not scared to try anything.

        Reply

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