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Fresh Wild Mushroom Duxelles

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Chanterelle mushroom duxelles

Duxelles are a classic way to preserve mushrooms.

The one and only mushroom duxelles. This is one of the oldest, most traditional, and especially useful recipes for preserving mushrooms there is along with simply drying, and mushroom catsup/ketchup. At it’s heart its really just a finely chopped, concentrated mushroom base-nothing too crazy. It’s a lot more though. Duxelles is a mother ingredient, one that you can use as the base for an endless amount of recipes.

Duxelles is usually made from fresh mushrooms

The recipe here is for fresh mushrooms, not dried. Even though many dried mushrooms can be reconstituted in liquid and keep a lot of flavor, that flavor dissipates a bit into the reconstituting liquid, and it’s not exactly the same as using fresh, also, some dried mushrooms concentrated into duxelles can develop bitter notes. That being said, I do dry a lot of mushrooms, and I do make duxelles from dried mushrooms. See a separate example of that here.

Chanterelle mushroom duxelles

Cast iron skillets are great at holding heat for duxelles. Note the coarse texture, it should not be a puree. 

Some mushrooms too, like hedgehogs and golden chanterelles I don’t dry, since their flavor is damaged and changed by the process, for those two species in particular, you will want to use only freshly picked mushrooms to make your duxelles.

In this recipe, I’m using hedgehog mushrooms, which are an underdog that kind of live in the shadow of their more well known cousins-various species of golden chanterelle. I use them here for a reason though: hedgehogs really shine in a preparation like this with their rich, meaty flavor, and yield a killer duxelles.

Beef and honey mushroom runzas or bielbocks

Beef runzas with honey mushrooms duxelles are portable and delicious.

Why make it?

From a preservation standpoint, one great benefit is that they can be frozen without losing quality. Blanching mushrooms in salt water and freezing is doable, but it is not my first choice. Most mushrooms react negatively to freezing, and they tend to get stringy and chewy. When made into duxelles, cooked down with fat and seasonings, they preserve much better.

Hand chopping chanterelle mushrooms for duxelles

Hand chopping gives the best texture to duxelles, but you can use a food processor on the pulse setting if you have to, just don’t make them into mush!

The better result after freezing is because the mushrooms don’t have to hold their shape since they are minced finely, bypassing the stringy, chewy texture that some get post freezing. Also, they’re being cooked with butter means that they get protected by an insulating layer of fat, which wards off freezer burn.

I should mention, that immature boletes that have not yet spored may be frozen. Thousands of pounds of porcini are processed this way and sold to restaurants around the U.S. and Europe every year from China, usually under the label “IQF” porcini. (Individually-Quick-Frozen)

Can you use a food processor? 

Yes, but pay attention to the specific mushrooms you’re cooking, and always pulse—don’t puree or you’ll end up with mushy mushroom paste. Wild mushrooms that are large and/or firm, like hen of the woods, chanterelles or chicken of the woods, are probably better (read as more efficient) done in the food processor. Soft mushrooms, like mature boletes, epecially if you’re using the pores, I would only chop by hand. Let the texture and morphology of the individual mushroom be your guide. But, yes, it’s fine to use a food processor to make duxelles, just make sure to pulse them. 

Pulsing mushroom duxelles in a food processor

Roasting the duxelles to deepen the flavor 

Here’s a great trick that isn’t mentioned in any cookbook I know of, French or otherwise when talking about duxelles. Depending on the species of mushroom you use and how much water they contain, after cooking, you might taste your duxelles and not be blown away. Don’t worry! 

If you use commercial mushrooms, expect them to be mild and need some extra attention. Chanterelle duxelles I like as is. Here’s the skinny: removing water from the mushrooms and getting color on them will deepen the flavor of the finished product, but that’s nearly impossible to do when mushrooms are cut up very fine. 

Wild mushroom duxelles recipe

Roast duxelles after cooking to evaporate water, caramelize them and get the best depth of flavor.

So, what you can do is this: after cooking the duxelles per my recipe here, spread them out onto a baking sheet, spray or brush them with oil, then cut criss-cross lines in them with a spatula. Bake the duxelles in a hot oven (425F) for 15-20 minutes, turning them over with a spatula and mixing them halfway through cooking to help deepen the caramelization.

After baking, the duxelles will have lost a noticeable amount of water, and will have a rich, robust flavor. This is especially useful if you’re making large batches of duxelles, or are using mushrooms that are wet. Try it. 

Frozen chanterelle mushroom duxelles in an ice cube tray

Freeze duxelles in an ice cube tray to have them ready at a moment’s notice.

Freezing 

After I make duxelles, they’re going straight to the freezer–either in a vacuum sealed bag pressed flat for quick thawing, or my personal favorite: the ice cube tray. Duxelles frozeon in an ice cube tray can be frozen in a re-sealable vacuum bag, or wrapped in parchment and frozen in a Ziploc, then presto! Take a chunk out whenever you need for that special sauce or stuffing

Venison roulade with chanterelle mushroom duxelles stuffing

Venison pot roast with duxelles stuffing. You could use many different cuts from many different animals here. Recipe link below. 

Recipe Ideas 

  • Duxelles are an instant stuffing, mix them with a touch of ricotta cheese for ravioli filling, or just all by themselves, for a very rich stuffing, such as in a type of pasta where only tiny amounts of filling are used, as with tortellini.
  • Gravies and any savory sauce are a natural place to add a tablespoon or two of duxelles, they will thicken it slightly, and allow a sauce to be further thickened by adding a tbsp or two of butter.
  • Spread on toast, duxelles make a fine appetizer, kind of like a mushroom tapenade.
  • If you add a little bit of oil and some vinegar to taste, you have an instant, powerful mushroom vinaigrette.
  • A little dollop makes a great garnish, maybe swirled in a cream of mushroom soup, or something earthy, like a soup made from potatoes or root vegetables.
  • To create some mushroom dumplings, you could add 1/4 cup of duxelles to my recipe for puffball Parisienne gnocchi here, just omit the puffball powder
  • Whisk duxelles into eggs for an omelet for a special breakfast

Frozen chanterelle mushroom duxelles in an ice cube tray

Derivative Recipes 

Examples of how I might use duxelles in recipes. 

Pot Roast with Duxelles Stuffing (Venison, beef, pork, lamb, etc) 

Duxelles sauce for fish (skip the venison trotter if you want) 

Mushroom and Beef Runzas / Bierocks

Duxelles Pan Sauce 

Hen of the woods fritters

 

Wild mushroom duxelles recipe

Chanterelle mushroom duxelles
Print Recipe
4.12 from 9 votes

Classic Wild Mushroom Duxelles

A duxelles of mushrooms is one of the oldest, time-tested ways to preserve your harvest. This is a small batch, scale as needed for large harvests. I mostly make this in quantities of 2+lbs, but making a small batch will help you get the feel for the process.
Prep Time15 mins
Cook Time20 mins
Course: Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine: French
Keyword: Duxelles, Mushroom Duxelles, Wild Mushroom Duxelles
Servings: 1 cup

Equipment

  • Chef knife or food processor

Ingredients

  • 1 lb fresh wild mushrooms cleaned caps and stems roughly chopped.
  • 1 Tbsp shallot diced ¼ inch or chopped roughly
  • ½ tsp kosher salt
  • ¼ Teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
  • 2 tbsp oil plus a little extra for roasting afterword
  • ¼ cup dry sherry dry white wine can be substituted
  • 1/2 teaspoon fresh chopped thyme

Instructions

  • Finely chop the mushrooms by hand, or pulse the mushrooms in a food processor until they're finely chopped, but be careful not to over-process them. Traditionally you would chop them by hand, and it will give the best texture.
  • Heat a large saute pan with the oil. Heat the pan until hot and nearly smoking, then add the mushrooms and shallots, and stir to coat with the oil. Cook for a minute or two, stirring occasionally.
  • Add the salt, pepper and the herbs. Continue to cook, lowering the heat to medium to prevent scorching. Cook the mixture for ten minutes, until the mushrooms have given up their water and the pan starts to look dry.
  • Deglaze the pan with the sherry or wine, then cook off the liquid again until the pan is dry, stirring the pan to coat the mushrooms with the juices. From here, if you like the flavor, you can cool the duxelles and refrigerate them for a few days, or freeze right away for later. If the duxelles taste mild to you, as may happen if you're making a large batch, proceed to drying them out in the oven.

Drying/roasting the duxelles to finish

  • After cooking, spread the duxelles onto a cookie sheet, spray or brush lightly with oil, then cut a cross-hatch pattern in them with a spatula.
  • Bake the duxelles for 15-20 minutes at 400F, or until you like the flavor, taking them out of the oven half-way through roasting to turn them over with a spatula to reveal the light-colored mushrooms underneath and encourage even caramelization. Cool the duxelles, then refrigerate or freeze.

Notes

After cooking, a great way to preserve them is to pack into ice cube trays and freeze, then pop out the cubes seal in a re-sealable vacuum freezer bag. This is a relatively small batch, so feel free to scale it up.

 

 

 

 

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Elena

    December 18, 2014 at 6:25 pm

    I made this back in October when I found several pounds of Hydnum umbilicatum. It was my first time picking them, somehow I didn’t learn about this mushroom earlier (what a shame!). And since I was cooking them for the first time, I decided to seek some professional help 🙂
    Thank you so much! It’s delicious!
    I used duxelles mostly for “pirozhki” filling. Pirozhki are small 1-2 oz pies made of yeasted dough and any sort of filling, savory or sweet, which is completely enclosed in dough. It’s a Russian dish, but I’m aware of at least 2 versions that exist almost exclusively in Nebraska and Kansas, called runza and bierock respectively. I believe it was brought here by Volga Germans.
    Anyways, they turned out exceptionally well! Taste of duxelles reminds me of what they call “mushroom caviar” in Russia, but way more sophisticated. I will definitely keep this in mind next time I have pounds of fresh chanterelles or hedgehogs on hand. I hate freezing them since they taste pretty horrible and texture is just bad after a couple of months in the freezer.

    Reply
  2. christian biesbrouck

    June 25, 2019 at 8:40 am

    Can I use images for educational purpose?
    Please advise

    Reply
  3. Karl

    May 4, 2020 at 11:38 am

    Have you tried this with oyster mushrooms? I found a few pounds of oysters the other day and this seems like a great way to put them up.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 5, 2020 at 12:10 pm

      Oysters will be fine.

      Reply
  4. MC

    July 3, 2020 at 2:12 pm

    Lovely! Thank you for the recipe and knowledge accompanied! When preparing older or buggy chanterelles for a duxelles, do you use all parts that don’t have physical bugs or do you discard any parts like the stem that may be more bug damaged? We have SO many bug damaged chanterelles and I’d love to know more about how to utilize them! Thanks!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      July 4, 2020 at 8:01 am

      If they’re very damaged I would dehydrate them. How much of the mushroom tissue you use depends on the extent of the damage/personal preference.

      Reply
  5. Ashton Crain

    September 12, 2020 at 9:46 am

    If I were to use fresh ringlets honey mushrooms for this, would I need to dry them first or is fresh fine?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 12, 2020 at 11:53 am

      That’s fine. I don’t often make duxelles with dried mushrooms, but you can. With honey’s you just want to make sure you cook them thoroughly, and duxelles will do that for you.

      Reply
  6. Aaron J

    September 16, 2020 at 5:08 pm

    5 stars
    Made this with black staining polypore. It is so fricking tasty! Love it. Has this pepper like flavor to it I’ve mixed with into beyond meat and I’ve had it in risotto with the bsp broth. Thanks Forager Chef!

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      September 18, 2020 at 7:41 am

      Great. I’m really happy you made it with BSP too, underused mushroom there.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Roasted White Chanterelles With Thyme says:
    July 18, 2014 at 11:20 pm

    […] exception to this is that a duxelles of chanterelles is very good, but mostly I like to use larger, flimsy chanterelles for this, since cooked whole […]

    Reply
  2. Parmesan crusted shaggy mane mushroom recipe says:
    September 20, 2014 at 8:00 am

    […] a thin layer of duxelles for the mushrooms would be a great idea too, and would give you a slightly different product. […]

    Reply
  3. Swordfish with lobster mushroom stuffing, with milkweed caper sauce, or bergamot tomato sauce says:
    November 22, 2014 at 1:58 pm

    […] 2 Cups fresh lobster mushroom duxelles (basic duxelles recipe here) […]

    Reply
  4. Lobster mushrooms or hypomyces lactiflourum mushrooms says:
    November 29, 2014 at 4:17 pm

    […] be bitter. Exposing them to heat and fat, fresh or dried, by a technique like the tried and true fresh mushroom duxelles, or a dried mushrooms duxelles can eliminate bitterness and deepen their […]

    Reply
  5. Hunting and cooking aborted entoloma mushrooms entoloma abortivum says:
    November 30, 2014 at 9:35 pm

    […] and that works ok, just make sure to put some color on them after you rehydrate them. Making a duxelles and freezing is a great option, too, and would serve double duty by saving space in your […]

    Reply
  6. information on hunting and cooking chanterelles says:
    December 9, 2014 at 8:44 am

    […] would be great browned and pureed in a cream soup, or chopped finely for a duxelles, like my recipe here. As is the case with most mushrooms too, proper browning  reduces any bitterness, and really […]

    Reply
  7. White Chanterelles in Minnesota says:
    July 29, 2015 at 2:56 pm

    […] for cooking since it destroys their flavor. Pickling or conserve would be my first choice. Making duxelles and then freezing would be good […]

    Reply
  8. Scaber Stalk or Leccinum Mushroom Fritters says:
    September 11, 2015 at 4:52 pm

    […] 1/2 cup mushroom duxelles or more if you like it really mushroomy (basic recipe here) […]

    Reply
  9. Venison Pot Roast en Creppinette with Chanterelle Stuffing says:
    December 27, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    5 stars
    […] was a good mushroom hunter last year, and made plenty of chanterelle duxelles for the Winter, both to save freezer space and as I love having a seasoned concentrate around. […]

    Reply
  10. Beef and Honey Mushroom Runzas / Bierocks says:
    December 27, 2020 at 5:50 pm

    […] Cabbage and ground beef or cabbage and cheese or all three seems pretty traditional. I had a bunch of meat I needed to burn and a pile of honey mushrooms (A. mellea) in my fridge, so that’s what went in mine, cabbage would have been great too though. If you haven’t cooked much with honey mushrooms, do a little research on them, I harvest mine from oak trees and I always cook them very well, one of the reasons besides their heavy fruiting that they make great duxelles. […]

    Reply
  11. Pan Roasted Chicken Breast, Crispy Skin, and Wild Mushroom Duxelles Sauce says:
    December 27, 2020 at 5:52 pm

    […] You had a  great mushroom hunting season, you crushed the chanterelles, boletes, and all the mushrooms you wanted to get. You made duxelles, and put some in the freezer for a rainy day in the off-season. Great, but now what do you do with the duxelles? […]

    Reply

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🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Last entry. I’ve saved t 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Last entry. I’ve saved the smallest, fern gulliest plant for last. 

False Mermaid Weed (Floerkea proserpinacoides) is a good little plant Sam Thayer showed me. It’s tiny, as in all the photos are from me on my belly, in a wet ditch. It’s so small it’s hard to get the camera to even focus on it (see pic with my finger for scale). 

Mermaid weed likes wet areas, like ditches and spots that hold a bit of water (perfect mosquito habitat😁). 

Like chickweed, Floerkia greens are like nature’s Microgreens. They’re in the Limnanthaceae, (a new-ish group of brassicas) and like the Toothwort form earlier this week, you’ll taste a strong mustard-family flavor in a mouthful of their tender stems. 

They’re literally wild mustard sprouts, and, unlike other wild sprouts (garlic mustard 🤬) they stay sprouts, and, they actually taste good. 

It has a wide range over much of the eastern and western U.S., and is listed as secure globally, but is endangered in some states and shouldn’t be disturbed in those places. 

I’m lucky enough to have some large colonies near me so I do clip a few handfuls each year-my annual reward for removing some of the garlic mustard nearby, that, along with atvs, dirt bikes, and contamination from local water pollution, is one of the biggest threats to this tiny green. 

#floerkiaproserpinacoides 
#wildsprouts #mustardsprouts #ferngully #tiny #foraging #mermaid #🧜‍♀️
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Virginia Bluebells (Merten 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica) are one of the most beautiful harbingers of spring I know, as well as one of the most delicious. 

They’re in the Borage family, along with the namesake plant, Comfrey (which I only eat a few flowers of occasionally) and Honeywort. 

The flavor of the greens, like borage, has a rich flavor some people might describe as mushroomy or fishy, but after a just a few moments of cooking (30-60 seconds) they get mild and delicious, with a subtle bitterness. It’s a good bitter though-nothing like dandelions or garlic mustard that aren’t fit to be in the same basket, let alone on the same plate. 

The shoots are sweet and delicious, much more mild than the greens. As they can grow to be over a foot long, they’re almost more of a vegetable than a leafy green, depending on when you harvest them. 

Bluebells love moist, rich soil, but you don’t have to go to the woods to get them. Many people know Virginia Bluebells as a garden plant, and they can make a great edible addition to your landscape.

#virginiabluebells #foraging #ephemerals #springwildflowers #wildfoodlove #mertensiavirginica
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Narrow-leaved Wild Leek / White Ramp (Allium burdickii) 

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Allium burdickii is not as common as the red-stemmed variety, and in every ramp patch I’ve been in, the white ramp is heavily outnumbered. 

Where I harvest, I like to leave them alone, and mark the areas where they grow with sticks or middens on the ground so I can go back in the fall and help them spread their seeds. I also try and remove garlic mustard when I see it-a much more imminent threat in my mind to ramps than foragers out to gather some leaves. 

2020 was a banner year for ramp seeds, and you can still help the plants right now (pic 7) as some seed heads are still full and would love for you to give them a shake as you walk by. 

#alliumburdickii #ramps #ephemerals #foraging #spring
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They’re a beautiful, delicious plant I eat every year, but I can’t recommend serving them to the general public. Plenty of people say these are edible, but also emetic if eaten in “quantity”. 

I can tell you, at least with E. albidum and E. americanum I’ve eaten, that some people are much more sensitive than others, so if you want to make a salad to serve people, make sure they’re comfortable eating it, and use a few leaves as a garnish. 

Funny enough, I didn’t learn about these from a foraging book. Like knotweed, I learned about them from one of my favorite chefs: Michel Bras, one of the most influential chefs of the turn of the 21 century. 

Any chef that works with wild plants owes a debt to Bras. His book, although a little dated now, still teaches me new things all the time. While flipping through the book I also caught a recipe using tansy flowers 😳 that I’d probably pass on. 

The whitefish crusted with sunflower seeds is a dish of mine from 2012, and an example of how I eat the leaves: a few at a time, as a garnish. 

#troutlily #erythronium #michelbras #ephemerals #foraging
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Plant #3: Cutleaf Toothwor 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

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Its small at first, but grows to a worthy size for eating as it flowers. It’s related to cabbage and mustard greens (Brassicaceae) and eating just a few leaves will give you a potent, spicy pop of mustard-family flavor reminiscent of horseradish. 

Eaten in combination with other things, like in a salad, the flavor becomes submissive and you’ll barely know it’s there. 

Some people eat the spicy roots shaped like canine teeth, but for the work I hardly think they’re worth it. 

A great wild spring green for the salad bowl-eat them leaves, tender stem, flowers and all🤤. 

#cutleaftoothwort #cadamineconcatenata #ephemeral #springedibles #foraging #wildfoodlove
🌱Ephemeral Week🌱 Plant #2 is Virginia water 🌱Ephemeral Week🌱

Plant #2 is Virginia waterleaf, and, I’m cheating a bit as it’s semi-ephemeral. The plant comes up in spring and goes to flower, but gives a second harvest of fresh growth in the fall, where other ephemerals I know do not. 

This is a great starter wild green-easy to recognize with the splashes of white on the leaves that may or may not be present. After you learn it though, don’t be surprised if, like me, you eventually pass it up for more delicious greens nearby. 

The plant gets tough quick, and the flavor is..meh, so I usually have small amounts of very young greens in blends of blanched and sautéed mixes. 

My favorite part is the wee flower buds, that, if you get at the right time, can be harvested in decent quantity and are good steamed as they’ll soak up oil sautéed. 

#hydrophyllumvirginianum #waterleaf #foraging #fueledbynature #weedeater
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