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Pickled Milkcap Mushrooms

When you read about preserving milkcap mushrooms, you might read about salting, fermenting or brining, which if you’re not already an intrepid experimenter can sound like some strange wizardry. One of my favorite things to do with mushrooms is to pickle them, after which I add them to salads, stir fries, and whatever else I want, they’re not something I generally serve cold, rather pickling is the best way to keep the texture of fresh mushrooms. I use the pickles just like I would fresh, taking into account the fact that they will have a little bit of a bite, which can be just what the doctor ordered sometimes.

pickled saffron milkcap mushrooms

Pickled saffron milkcaps

Pickled Milkcap Mushrooms

Great with a plate of cured meat, heated up in a butter sauce, sauteed and put on a steak-pickled mushrooms are more than something to eat cold.

If you’ve ever pickled mushrooms before, you’ll notice a variation in the technique here. The mushrooms are first blanched in salted water, the reason being that milkcap mushrooms will give off slimy mucilage when pickled in their own juice, as do honey mushrooms. Blanching them before canning and pickling reduces the mucilage so your pickles aren’t slimy. 

Makes 5 pint jar full of pickles

Ingredients

  • 5 lb young saffron milkcaps
  • 1 gallon salted water + 5 cups water
  • 1 cup white vinegar
  • 5 tsp salt
  • A few small sprigs of hard herbs the length of your thumb: rosemary, thyme, sage, or summer savory would be great.
  • A few cloves of garlic, crushed lightly

Method

  1. In a large stock pot, bring the gallon of salted water to a boil. Working in batches, blanch the mushrooms until just wilted, about 2 minutes per batch, then remove, cool, and reserve.
  2. In a small stock pot, bring the water, salt, garlic and herbs to a simmer for a few minutes, then add the vinegar.
  3. Pack pint canning jars full of the mushrooms, then pour the pickle liquid over the mushrooms and fill the jars leaving 1/2 an inch of headspace, then process the jars in a waterbath canner for 15 minutes.

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Previous Post: « Hericium Mushrooms
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  1. Nauru wycieczki

    February 18, 2013 at 1:26 am

    Good website! I really love how it is easy on my eyes and the data are well written. I am wondering how I could be notified when a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your RSS feed which must do the trick! Have a nice day!

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    • Alan Bergo

      February 18, 2013 at 5:48 pm

      There is a subscribe widget on the top lefthand corner of the homepage, let me know if you don’t get updates and I’ll keep working on it. I’m pretty new to wordpress-A

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Trackbacks

  1. September 1st, 2016 – Zoran Tasovac says:
    September 1, 2016 at 9:58 pm

    […] the end of the day I collected some 5 pounds of Indigo Milky mushroom. They were pickled using this recipe. This is the end […]

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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. 

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

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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 
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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.

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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. 

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