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

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Potted Chanterelles

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Potted chanterelles

Young chanterelles. If you’re chanterelles are older, you’ll want to chop them fine for this recipe.

Every thing that’s edible has different stages of growth, and some stages are better than others. Broccoli, cauliflower and romanesco for instance, get very bitter after they’ve bolted and gone to flower. If they’re not harvested young enough, chickens tend to get tough, and need to be marinated and cooked low and slow for good results.

The same rule applies to chanterelles, and with most mushrooms I’ve cooked. After the margin of a chanterelle’s cap has turned upwards, they start to get floppy and flaccid and lose their chewy texture, which is one of their strongest points. Of course the larger mushrooms can always be made into duxelles, or soup, but there’s something about the shape of the perfect button that gets me and the whole kitchen staff excited.

This recipe is a means of preserving those perfect little buttons. The idea is borrowed from the old English method of serving potted shrimp preserved under a layer of clarified butter, very similar to rillettes-a sort of meat spread made from confit poultry or pork.

Potted chanterelle mushrooms
Covering cooked chanterelles with clarified butter
Potted chanterelle mushrooms
Make sure they’re completey covered
Potted chanterelle mushrooms
After the butter sets it forms a hermetic, air-tight seal

The method couldn’t be easier, slowly cook some chanterelle buttons with shallots, garlic and herbs in clarified butter, then pack them into a small terrine or container and wait a few days. That’s it.

This method would also be great with older chanterelles that are finely chopped, or made into duxelles, which will make it more of a spread.

Potted chanterelles

  1. Potted chanterelle mushrooms
    Print Recipe
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    Potted Chanterelles

    Ingredients

    • 4 oz young chanterelle buttons
    • 1 tablespoon shallot diced 1/4 inch
    • 1 garlic clove lightly crushed with the back of your hand
    • 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
    • Kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
    • Clarified butter as needed, about 1 cup, plus a little extra for browning the mushrooms
    • 1 fresh bay leaf

    Instructions

    • Heat a tablespoon or so of clarified butter in a saute pan. Brown the chanterelle buttons slowly over medium heat, until thoroughly cooked and browned. Add the shallot, garlic, bay leaf, and thyme to the pan and cook for a few minutes more. Finally, season the mixture to taste with salt and pepper. Discard the garlic clove.
    • Pack the chanterelle-shallot mixture into a small crock or other non-reactive container, cover completely with melted clarified butter, top with the bay leaf, then chill until the butter is set. Allow the chanterelles to age under the butter for a few days before eating.
    • To enjoy the chanterelles, allow the crock to come to room temperature before digging in, since it's much easier to spread the butter on toast to go along with the mushrooms.

    Notes

    Your proportions will vary according to the size of the container you use to store the chanterelles, as long as they're completely covered with clarified butter, you're good to go.
    You can vary this plenty of ways, using animal fats like duck fat or lard would be great, switching up the herbs and using something like summer savory would be good too. The chanterelles can be switched out for whatever you like too, but I definitely recommend the youngest possible buttons of whatever species you're using.
    This is great served on toast-make sure to smear the mushroomy-herb butter all over it!

Related

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kat

    June 30, 2021 at 10:04 am

    Hello! These look amazing. I’ve been looking for a way to pot or marinate and preserve my mushrooms without vinegar. My question is, how long would this recipe last if sealed and refrigerated?

    Thanks so much! I have a big flush of chanterelles at the moment, and I’m very excited to try several of your recipes!
    Kat

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      June 30, 2021 at 10:59 am

      Hey Kat, so this isn’t a preservation method for long-term storage. I’d suggest making this first: https://foragerchef.com/fresh-wild-mushroom-conserve/

      Reply
      • Kat

        June 30, 2021 at 11:25 am

        Thanks for getting back to me! I did find the conserve and was eager to make that as well. I’ll be sure to eat the potted ones quickly in that case.

        Thanks again! This entire collection of recipes looks amazing. It’s going to be a busy week!

        Reply

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  1. September Blog 2015 – Summer heat continues as the calendar slides into fall | Ellen Evert Hopman says:
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FORAGER | CHEF®
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Author: The Forager Chef’s Book of Flora
James Beard Award ‘22
Host: Field Forest Feast 👇
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Alan Bergo
Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water Long, fun day snatching crayfish out of the water by hand with Sam Thayer and @danielvitalis for @wild.fed 

Daniel and Sam were the apex predators, but I got a few. 

Without a net catching crayfish by hand is definitely a wax-on wax-off sort of skill. Clears your mind. 

They’re going into gumbo with porcini, sausage and milkweed pods today. 

#crayfish #ninjareflexes #waxonwaxoff #normalthings #onset🎥🎬
Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizo Working all day on preps for cattail lateral rhizomes and blueberries for this weeks shoot with @wildfed 

Been a few years since I worked with these. Thankfully Sam Thayer dropped a couple off for me to work with. They’re tender, crisp and delicious. 

Sam mentioned their mild flavor and texture could be because they don’t have to worry about predators eating them, since they grow in the muck of cattail marshes. 

I think they could use a pet name. Pond tusk? Swamp spears? Help me out here. 😂

Nature makes the coolest things. 

#itcamefromthepond #cattail #rhizomes #foraging #typhalatifolia
I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so I liked the staff meal I made for Mondays shoot so much we filmed it instead of the original dish I’d planned. 

Cooked natural wild rice (not the black shiny stuff) is great hot, cold, sweet or savory. It’s a perfect, filling lunch for a long day of berry picking. 

I make them with whatever I have on hand. Mushrooms will fade into the background a little here, so I use a bunch of them, along with lots of herbs and hickory nut oil + dill flowers. 

I’m eating the leftovers today back up in the barrens (hopefully) getting some more bluebs for another shoot this week w @wild.fed 

#wilwilwice #wildrice #chanterelles #campfood #castironcooking
Baby’s first homegrown mushrooms! Backyard wine Baby’s first homegrown mushrooms! Backyard wine caps on hardwood sawdust from my lumberjack buddy.

Next up blewits. Spawn from @northsporemushrooms

#winecaps #strophariaaeruginosa #allthemushroomtags
It’s wild cherry season. I’ll be picking from It’s wild cherry season. I’ll be picking from my favorite spot tomorrow a.m. and have room for a couple helpers. It’s at an event on a farm just south of St. Cloud. 

If you’re interested send me a message and I’ll raffle off the spots. Plenty of cherries to go around. I’ll be leading a short plant walk around the farm too. 

#chokecherries #foraging #prunusvirginiana #summervibes
Special thanks to the beach in Ashland for hooking Special thanks to the beach in Ashland for hooking it up with on-site garnishes. Beach pea flowers taste strong and leguminous, similar to vetch, or like a rich tasting pea shoot. 

#lathyrusjaponicus #beachpeas #peaflower #foraging #northshore #bts
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