Once I started reading about traditional ways to preserve mushrooms around the world, one of the first ones I came across was salted wild mushrooms, an old stand-by used in plenty of places, but most notably Eastern Europe. It’s not that popular in America, but one trip to a market with an Eastern European ownership or customer base will show you plenty of jars of salted mushrooms in brine, from porcini, to milkcaps, to mixes, slippery jacks–all kinds of stuff. If you’re in the Twin Cities, Paradise Market in Maple Grove is a good example if you want to see for yourself.
I’d made salted mushrooms before, but my first attempt was, not good, and, if you’ve tried the method yourself, you may have had a similar experience. I took a few cases of fresh oyster mushrooms, layered them generously with salt and herbs according to some random recipe online, pressed them with a weight, and put them in the fridge. After a few weeks, I tasted the finished product, and they went quickly, silently to the pig bucket so I could hide my failure and wasted product from the rest of the staff. It was awful, if you’ve ever tasted something so salty it makes tap water taste sweet, you’ll know what I mean.
Lactarius thyinos made up a good amount of my salted mushrooms. It’s a good treatment for milkcaps.
If you’ve tried to make salted mushrooms before and hated them, it’s probably not your fault, or the mushrooms fault, for that matter. In hindsight, I know now, ten years later that I might’ve saved my oyster mushroom experiment by rinsing or submerging them in water a couple times as you might with sauerkraut, but that’s another piece of knowledge that comes with experience, and relies a bit on personal taste.
There was a question that still bugged me though too: if salted mushrooms taste so bad, why are they widely known and referenced by people from Eastern Europe I know, and sold commercially? (The short version is that it’s a good way to preserve the texture of fresh mushrooms, just like with mushroom conserve and pickles, just with no acid).
Lactarius indigo went in for the rainbow effect.
The key: Measuring your salt
The real disconnect, as I see it, is that salted mushroom recipes, at least the ones I see, generally don’t use exact amounts of salt. Additionally, there’s a subtle distinction to make between salting mushrooms (what I would call dry salting) and preserving them in brine. To further complicate things, phrases like “use a handful” or “sprinkle salt over each layer” can be interpreted in wildly different ways from person to person, and the failures on either end of the spectrum can result in either dangerous or near inedible results, from too little salting or over-salting, respectively.
Now, It’s unlikely someone could under-salt salted mushrooms, but hey, I’ve seen people do some weird things over the years, and I’ve botched plenty of things myself. Either way, measuring your salt in a brine instead of relying on the natural water content of mushrooms (which is highly variable) and using an exact percentage like I recommend here removes any guesswork from the final product.
Salted mushrooms, soaked, and chopped, make a great pierogi filling with cabbage, potato and cheese.
How much salt is safe?
When I made my salted oyster mushrooms, oh, say ten years ago, I had no idea how much salt to add, or rather, how much salt is needed for something for it to be shelf-stable in a pantry along with other canned goods. In short, the most well documented answer is a fully saturated brine, or something very close to it, fully saturated just referring here to water saturated with salt until it can’t take anymore.
There’s a little wiggle room, with the threshold around 20-26%, or 20-26 grams of salt for every hundred grams of water. I’m recommending a brine concentration of 20% here as a place to start, including some citric acid or lemon as an additional preservative. As an aside, over the 2 years I played with this recipe, I made a few jars with 15% brine, and while the lower salinity was nice, and I’m still alive, I’d like to see some case studies, journalistic articles or similar references specifically on lower salt ranges as they pertain to mushrooms before I recommend decreasing the salinity to others.
Cooking
What to do with salted mushrooms? Eastern Europeans are said to eat them straight-up, cold with vodka or alcohol, and although I appreciate the ascetic purity, it’s a little hard core for me. Since they’re very salty, I’m much more inclined to use them in a place where they’re seasoning can be diluted and smoothed out. There’s plenty of ideas online to look at, (googling in Russian is helpful) and from what I can see, they’re often part of cold winter salads, and added to soups, the latter being the first thing I tried.
Probably the best idea though, came from my friend Mathew Normansell, (who also gave me the idea to iron out the details in this post), is adding them, rinsed and chopped, to pierogi with some kind of mild cheese and/or cabbage filling, although I’ve seen a traditional recipe from Spain that calls for salted saffron milkcaps to be baked with rabbit in parchment, which also sounds good, if it were to be adapted to a wet braise. Whatever you do, I find it very helpful to soak and rinse them until I feel like they’re ready to add to something.
If anyone’s out there with Eastern European background or knowledge of other traditional recipes using salted mushrooms, reach out so I can add them here.
Caution: This is extremely salty
Salted mushrooms are salty. Really salty, which is why they should be rinsed or soaked until you find them palatable before adding to a dish. That being said, I know a good handful of people who regularly prepare mushrooms just like this, and enjoy them, with well-known mushroom hunting chef Chad Hyatt being one of them who told me that it is one of his go-to methods for preserving hot and spicy milkcaps, rinsing them after cooking before pureeing them into hummus. I’ve gotten some messages from people claiming “mushrooms are never salted like this in my country!” or “Your salt ratio is wrong/too much”. Here’s the deal. People preserving mushrooms like this a long time ago wouldn’t have measured their salt, so, at least here there’s a template that makes sure people know what they’re eating is safe.
Indigo milkcaps, hedgehogs, chanterelles, Lactarius thyinos, all small buttons here made for my favorite jar.
Salted Wild Mushrooms in Brine
Ingredients
- 800 grams (Scant 2 lbs) wild mushrooms, especially milkcaps and other firm mushrooms like chanterelles
- 350 grams water or as needed to fill the jar
- 70 grams kosher salt
- 1 large clove garlic
- 1 dried bay leaf
- 1 dried hot chili, such as Thai or equivalent (optional)
- 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
- 1-2 sprigs fresh rosemary thyme, or savory
- 1/8 teaspoon citric acid as a preservative, or a dash of lemon juice
Instructions
- Blanch the mushrooms in unseasoned, rapidly boiling water until completely cooked and wilted, about 4-5 minutes. Remove the mushrooms, drain and cool. Save the mushroom blanching liquid for making soup, or freeze for another purpose, etc.
- Pack the hot mushrooms into a wide mouth quart mason jar.
- Meanwhile, bring the remaining ingredients to a rapid boil. Pick out the aromatics and stuff in the jar with the mushrooms, then pour the boiling liquid over the mushrooms and fill up the jar to cover the mushrooms completely, wiggling a chopstick or other utensil around to remove air pockets.
- Screw the lid on tight, then turn the jar upside down to seal. Alternately, process the jar in a waterbath for 15 minutes.
- As long as they form the hermetic seal, the salted mushrooms are shelf stable, but should be refrigerated after opening.
- To use the mushrooms, soak or rinse them (generally 20-30 minutes of soaking is good for me) before using.
- As they’ll still be a little salty, I've enjoyed them in fillings, sauces, and places where they can be mixed with other things that can absorb salt. You will not be sauteeing them like fresh, but, rinsed and dressed with some oil they make an decent snack and conversation piece with cold spirits, salami, cheese, olives, etc.
Notes
Fresh herbs (rosemary is pictured) are optional here, but they add a great flavor to the mushrooms that will stay. Whatever herbs you add, a little goes a long way. Rosemary, thyme, and savory are what I’d recommend to start with, and give a flavor reminiscent of cured olives to the finished product.
My two cents Alan. In most discussions of brining vegetables (especially cucumbers for dills, etc) the water content of the vegetable comes up as a variable because of its tendency to dilute the initial brine. Below I’ve very quickly Googled info on the Chanterelle which is reported at 90% water. Is that all available for the diluting effect? Don’t know. How long will achievable dilution take? Again ? Here’s the key … What is the minimum acceptable dilution … because it is certain that over time your brine will not be at 20%. Will the process mimic brined dill pickle production? Is that a reasonable proxy? Let’s look at that.
I’m gonna work on that … Regards …
Link to Chanterelle info:
https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chanterelle%23Nutrition&ved=2ahUKEwjWxq6yndfqAhXOKM0KHStlCqsQFjADegQICxAM&usg=AOvVaw2dxJb-K_TxGxnbl_SC3CWY
20% brine is overkill on purpose here, they’re fine.
If 4.5%-5% brine is sufficient for vegetables, why would mushrooms be any different? I’ve been using that percentage for years for pickles, kraut, green beans, etc., and I’m still here.
I would think, without having tried it, that 20% would be much too salty. Over 5% for vegetables is too salty for me.
— jay
Hope that you and Chad Hyatt get along. His oyster caponata is great. And yes, he advises rinsing after keeping them salted.
Thank you for this post. I’ve been wondering about this process lately. One of the last things my father bought me was a jar of mushrooms in brine. My preservation process for mushrooms has always been dehydration using liw temperatures. I’m glad you incorporated the pierogi recipe I’m half Ukrainian on my side,mom’s side and love the things. She always served them with sauteed onions, sour cream and dill, and applesauce on the side. Another version of pierogies that she made had sauerkraut and caraway seeds (not my favorite). Looking forward to a new way of preserving my mushrooms.
Thank you, Jannie O’Brien
Thank you for this post. I’ve been wondering about this process lately. One of the last things my father bought me was a jar of mushrooms in brine. My preservation process for mushrooms has always been dehydration using low temperatures. I’m glad you incorporated the pierogi recipe I’m half Ukrainian on my side,mom’s side and love the things. She always served them with sauteed onions, sour cream and dill, and applesauce on the side. Another version of pierogies that she made had sauerkraut and caraway seeds (not my favorite). Looking forward to a new way of preserving my mushrooms.
Thank you, Jannie O’Brien
Thanks for sharing. I’ve not canned mine but I do keep them in the fridge. I’ll have to give this a try and compare to my method (taken from Bonnie Morales book Kachka: A Return to Russian Cooking) …Get a mixing bowl and some non-iodized salt. Pour salt in bowl then toss a few chanterelles in and coat completely. Place coated mushrooms in a large glass jar. Repeat until jar is full then place a canning weight to hold them down. The salt will start to draw the moisture out which is what you want. The water from the mushrooms will eventually cover the mushrooms. Place jar in the fridge and it will keep for months. After a couple days you can then use them. Pull out mushrooms and rinse then place in a bowl of fresh water for a couple hours. Change the water hourly. After 2-4 hrs in fresh water you can just eat them as-is or sauté them if you want in a dish.
I have pickled chanterelles with good success.
I use the same recipe that I use for kosher style pickles.
Simple.
Salt, pickling spices garlic dill untreated or distilled water ,,time
Cool, doing Kosher pickles now. 🙂
Alan, this is very helpful. Thank you.
Last summer I salted a bunch of L. thyinos and assorted russulas. After a couple weeks I used some for pierogis. Excellent. A few weeks later I desalted and used some in a salad. Pretty good. I also made some into “hummus” per Chad Hyatt’s recipe. Very nice, and almost indistinguishable from a chickpea based hummus. I saved the last quart (in the fridge) for more pierogis and finally cracked it open last month. They had gone bad. I mean BAD bad. They smelled like that tinned rotted fish thing they eat in Scandinavia. I was surprised, because I thought I’d used a lot of salt, but who knows? I just sprinkled it on without measuring.
Next time, I’ll try your approach.
Yes, heat and specific amounts of salt is key, that’s also partly why there’s citric acid in this one too.
I’ve done this with L. piperatus (the pre-boil takes out the peppery quality). I really want to try it with L. indigo
Yes aren’t they pretty?
Yes, I love finding them, but I’m not a huge fan of how they taste (love corrugis and volemus, though)
Thanks for sharing this, Alan. I was just thinking about this very thing due to an unexpected harvest of chestnut boletes while looking for more chants. I ended up putting them on a plate
under a ceiling fan (which does a surprisinglygood ob of drying shrooms) and a heavy dose of dry salt. the salt really pulled the moisture out in no time at all but it’ll be interesting to see how they taste afterwords.
Kwe’!!
Thanks for your excellent website! I wondered if honey mushrooms would be appropriate for salting? Or would they produce too much mucilage?
Wela’lin, many thanks
Hi Alan.
I am out here with Eastern European background and knowledge of traditional recipes of marinating and pickling mushrooms. I’ve been doing it for at least 40 years. Please contact me directly since I don’t want to put a lot of criticism out here.
Hi Lenny, I sent you an email. This post is not supposed to be a specific cultural recipe, rather it’s a simple way anyone can successfully preserve mushrooms in brine safely, and a template others can make their own. I know there are many specific recipes here some people are very attached to, and that is exactly why I didn’t give this a name like “Traditional Russian Salted Mushrooms”–because it isn’t. If you have some ideas for adding variations, feel free to drop them in here.