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Award-winning chef, author and forager Alan Bergo. Food is all around you.

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Pickled Morel Mushrooms

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pickled, mushroom, morel,

Never heard of pickling morel mushrooms? You’re missing out. Drying morels is great, their flavor gets concentrated and rich and they make a wicked sauce. There’s a bit of a trade off in their texture though, which happens when you dry any mushroom. After drying, mushrooms get a bit more chewy, and just aren’t as succulent as fresh.

Part of the issue of pickled morels sounding odd is that you generally think of pickles as something you eat cold, but they’re just as good if not better warmed up or used any way that you’d like to serve fresh morels.

Since they’re pickles, they’re a bit acidic, but that acid can be a real benefit if you know what to do with them. Slipping them into a sauce or gravy will fool anyone you know, I guarantee you. The acid added to them in the pickling process also makes them a shoe-in for a vinaigrette or salad, the possibilities are really endless.

pickled morel mushrooms

Small morels have the best texture for pickling, but larger ones will still taste good.

Before I wrote this recipe a while back, I’d pickled plenty of wild mushrooms, for some reason it never occurred to me to pickle morels though. I was looking through an old Roman cookbook of mine one day, and saw a cooking method I recognized as a basic pickle. The method called for morels to be cooked with verjus (acidic juice of unripe grapes) and oil. I knew I had to try pickling them, a couple years later I’ve used the basic recipe for hundreds of pounds of these guys.

Pickled, mushroom, morel,

pickled morel mushrooms
Print Recipe
4.67 from 3 votes

Pickled Morel Mushrooms

Yield:  4 half pint canning jars or two pints jars
Prep Time5 mins
Cook Time25 mins
Servings: 4 pints

Ingredients

  • Roughly 1.5 lbs fresh small morels
  • 3 cups water
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 5 black peppercorns
  • 1 cup champagne vinegar
  • A few small sprig of fresh thyme
  • 1 Large clove garlic Thinly sliced
  • 1 Tablespoon Cooking oil

Instructions

  • Wash and clean the morels to remove grit, making sure to leave the morels whole.
  • Heat the oil and garlic until the garlic is lightly browned and caramelized, but not burnt. Add the water, salt, thyme, vinegar and pepper  then bring to a simmer. Add the fresh morels and cook, about 3-4 minutes, until they wilt and decrease in size. Discard the garlic.
  • Place the morels and the pickling liquid into 1/2 pint or pint canning jars and process in a water bath canner for 15-20 minutes.

Notes

Small morels will yield the best pickles since they'll keep their firm texture. That being said, larger ones can still make great pickles too, but I like to cut them into pieces before adding to a dish.

 

More

Forager’s Guide to Morel Mushrooms

Related

Previous Post: « Legend Of The Peckerhead Morel
Next Post: Stinging Nettles: Harvesting, Cooking and Recipes »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Nancy

    May 29, 2016 at 7:35 am

    How much oil and garlic do you suggest for 1.5 pounds of morels?
    Thanks!

    Reply
    • Tom Smith

      June 22, 2020 at 3:38 am

      Its listed in ingredients above.

      Reply
  2. Natalie

    May 10, 2018 at 4:15 pm

    I have read that you should not can morels because they can release toxins…is there/this a safe repine to use?

    Reply
  3. Natalie

    May 10, 2018 at 4:16 pm

    I have read that you should not can morels because they can release toxins…is there/this a safe recipe to use?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 14, 2018 at 10:10 am

      I wouldn’t put it on here if I haven’t eaten it or made it myself. Yes, it’s safe, be careful about believing everything you read, make sure people quote sources and it’s not just hearsay.

      Reply
  4. brant gaar

    May 24, 2020 at 4:23 pm

    5 stars
    How much oil does the recipe call for? Thanks for an idea I never knew about. It is great to have another Morel option.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      May 25, 2020 at 10:12 am

      Thanks for catching that typo. I adjusted it. 1 Tbsp is fine.

      Reply
  5. Bob Atkinson

    July 18, 2021 at 6:10 pm

    Can you pickle blanched and frozen whole small morels?

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      July 19, 2021 at 7:58 am

      Hi Bob. Technically yes but I wouldn’t. I also don’t blanch morels, I would steam or sweat.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Forager|Chef – Channeling Michel Bras: The Little Gargouillou says:
    September 10, 2013 at 11:39 am

    […] See my recipe HERE […]

    Reply
  2. Forager|Chef – Trout With Spring Vegetables: Winter Shades Of Green says:
    December 27, 2013 at 12:42 am

    […] 6 or so pickled morels (recipe here) […]

    Reply
  3. Cream of chanterelle soup recipe says:
    April 13, 2014 at 12:33 pm

    […] 1 recipe pickled chanterelles (I have a recipe for pickles here) […]

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  4. Fried Shad Roe With Pickled Morels And Bacon says:
    April 15, 2015 at 6:18 pm

    […] depending on size, plus some of their pickling liquid for seasoning the sauce, see my recipe here for a […]

    Reply
  5. Fried Shad Roe With Pickled Morels And Bacon says:
    December 17, 2019 at 12:27 pm

    […] The flavor of shad is almost more like something you might get from a land animal, that being said, if shad roe is out of season, some mild liver like chicken, duck, veal, or bison would be a great substitute for the roe. The sauce has plenty of room for variation. It's a great example of using pickled mushrooms in a warm method-a technique that seems to surprise people when I mention it. Just because pickled mushrooms are cold doesn't mean they have to stay that way. Obviously substitute other pickled mushrooms if you like. Last but not least, you need to know that if you overcook the shad roe, it will suck. Overcooked shad will tastes like some funky meatloaf, and the eggs tend to get a little crunchy. You can under-cook the shad and reheat in the sauce gently if it gets cool after you remove it from the pan. See my recipe for pickled morel mushrooms here. […]

    Reply

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Alan Bergo
Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Oeufs de Gaulle is a classic morel recipe Jacques Pepin used to make for French president Charles de Gaulle. 

You bake eggs in a ramekin with shrimp topped with creamy morel sauce and eat with toast points. 

Makes for a really special brunch or breakfast. Recipe’s on my site, but it’s even better to watch Jacques make it on you tube. 

#jacquespepin #morels #shrimp #morilles #brunchtime
Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each Morels: the only wild mushroom I count by the each instead of the pound. 

Good day today, although my Twin Cities spots seem a full two weeks behind from the late spring. 2 hours south they were almost all mature. 

76 for me and 152 for the group. Check your spots, and good luck! 

#morels #murkels #mollymoochers #drylandfish #spongemushroom #theprecious
The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natu The first time I’ve seen fungal guttation-a natural secretion of water I typically see with plants. 

I understand it as an indicator that the mushrooms are growing rapidly, and a byproduct of their metabolism speeding up. If you have some clarifications, chime in. 

Most people know it from Hydnellum 
peckii-another polypore. I’ve never seen it on pheasant backs before.

Morels are coming soon too. Mine were 1 inch tall yesterday in the Twin Cities. 

#guttation #mushroomhunting #cerioporussquamosus #pheasantback #naturesbeauty
Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a Rain and heat turned the flood plain forest into a grocery store. 

#groceryshopping #sochan #rudbeckialaciniata #foraging
Italian wild food traditions are some of my favori Italian wild food traditions are some of my favorite. 

Case in point: preboggion, a mixture of wild plants, that, depending on the reference, should be made with 5-23 individual plants. 

Here’s a few mixtures I’ve made this spring, along with a reference from the Oxford companion to Italian food. 

The mixture should include some bitter greens (typically assorted asters) but the most important plant is probably borage. 

Making your own version is a good excercise. Here they’re wilted with garlic and oil, but there’s a bunch of traditional recipes the mixture is used in. 

Can you believe this got cut from my book?!

#preboggion #preboggiun #foraging #traditionalfoods
Oh the things I get in the mail. This is my kind Oh the things I get in the mail. 

This is my kind of tip though: a handmade buckskin bag with a note and a handful of bleached snapping turtle claws. 😁😂 

Sent in by Leslie, a reader. 

Smells like woodsmoke and the cat quickly claimed it as her new bed. 

#buckskin #mailsurprise #turtleclaws #thisimylife #cathouse
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