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

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Wild Mushroom Confit

dryads saddle pheasant back edible wild mushroom

Dryad Saddle Confit

Traditionally, confit denotes meat that has been marinated in salt and herbs, then slowly and gently cooked in its own fat, the end result being a nice and meltingly tender piece of meat. For this preparati0n I use the word confit to express the end result and texture, soft juicy, and full of flavor.

Hands down, this is one of the easiest, most flavorful,  and simplest ways to cook and preserve mushrooms, especially firm mushrooms like chicken of the woods, hen of the woods, dryad’s saddles, and very firm boletes such as scaber stalks. Remember that when freezing mushrooms you must cook them before they are frozen, since otherwise they will have a  bitter flavor with a spongy, soft  texture.

After your mushrooms are confitted, you can take them out of their liquid and reheat them, add them to a salad or whatever you like, they are very versatile.

Wild Mushroom Confit

Polypores, and young boletes are great for this, if you want to use an older bolete or agaric, remove the pores or gills before confitting.

Usually after I cook the mushrooms slowly in oil like this, I will refrigerate them, then reheat them in their juice before adding to other dishes as a garnish.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb wild mushrooms, such as young dryad saddles or boletes
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • Some herbs of your choice,I would recommend savory, thyme, or sage
  • 1 clove of garlic, lightly crushed

Method

  1. Take your mushrooms,and cut them into pieces, 1/2 in thick should be fine.
  2. Place the mushrooms in freezer bags along with a small amount of aromatic herbs, the oil, and the garlic.
  3. Close the ziploc bags, leaving one corner open just wide enough so that you can suck the air out. Suck the air out of the bag, it should look like it was vacuum sealed. This is important as it will help the mushroom not to float in the water and cook unevenly, also, if the mushrooms are to be refrigerated after poaching, this lack of air will further extend their shelf life. Double bag the mushrooms in another plastic bag and repeat, this should stop any water from entering and diluting their flavor.
  4. Now bring a pot of water to a boil, turn off the heat and add your double bagged mushrooms and then weight them down with something that will not crush them, like a small plate. All you really want to do here is keep them under the hot water and prevent them from rising, which would cause them to cook unevenly.
  5. Leave the mushrooms in the water for 20 minutes, or until they are fully cooked and have exuded their juice. then remove the bag and and freeze or refrigerate immediately.

Related

Previous Post: « Crunchy Pickled Fiddlehead Ferns
Next Post: Dryad’s Saddle or Pheasant Back Mushroom »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Rob

    July 23, 2014 at 8:41 am

    I’m wondering about the safety of this technique. Most wild mushrooms need to be cooked. But mushrooms cooked this way will never even really approach a boiling temperature, let alone the temperature that most mushrooms reach for several minutes when you fry them in hot oil.

    Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      July 23, 2014 at 10:57 am

      Hi Rob, I understand your concern. This post does assume that the cook understand those basic precautions. In light of your comment, I have amended it to have a little more clarity for those new to cooking wild mushrooms, in the hopes they don’t get some G.I. issues from preparing something like a leccinum this way. Rest assured though, left in the bag in the hot water for the time mentioned, the mushrooms will be fully cooked, I have been using this technique for years.

      Reply
      • Rob

        July 23, 2014 at 11:03 am

        Ok, thanks. I don’t see the updates, maybe I am missing something.
        I tried this with Lactarius corrugis and the results were quite good. I ate half of one yesterday and so far so good 🙂
        By the way, this blog is one of my favorites. I follow it consistently. I just fear it will make mushroom foraging and cooking a more popular hobby (!). That would mean less for those of us with a headstart.

        Reply
        • Alan Bergo

          July 23, 2014 at 11:47 pm

          Hi Rob. The updates are in the recipe method. It now says to bring the water to a boil and place the mushrooms in it, as well as a couple other little tweaks to ensure people cook their mushrooms thoroughly. I have had the GI once brought on from undercooked mushrooms (leccinum sp.), and it really sucks. The tricky part here is that I also needed to give an example of how I might use these after the slow cooking in oil. After cooking in oil, I usually heat them and their juice (past the point of boiling in a pan) to add as a garnish to other dishes, which negates any worry about undercooking. I didn’t put anything in there about that though, so I’m going to now. Thanks for your thoughts.

          Reply
  2. Carol

    October 8, 2016 at 3:47 pm

    Hi Alan,
    I really appreciate your information. It is unlike anything else I have found. The quality of your recipes, and their originality is really fabulous!
    I would like to try your mushroom confit but can you give me an idea of the volume of oil you would normally use? Do you just cover the mushrooms?
    Thanks again.

    Reply
  3. Adriana

    July 8, 2017 at 8:11 am

    Has anybody used this method with chanterelles?

    Reply
    • Adriana

      July 8, 2017 at 8:17 am

      And…how much oil do you recommend? You do not specify a quantity above.

      Reply
      • Alan Bergo

        November 27, 2017 at 9:12 am

        Doesn’t need to be a lot. a couple tablespoons if you’re doing it in a bag or sous vide (which I don’t like to use). When I do this in restaurant settings I use lots of oil, as in a gallon or so for 5-10 lbs.

        Reply
    • Alan Bergo

      November 27, 2017 at 9:36 am

      Chants would work fine here.

      Reply
  4. Don Majors

    May 28, 2021 at 9:08 pm

    From NW Illinois. I have been using Dryad Saddle mushrooms for many years now. I just pinch the edge of it before I cut it off. If the edge is tender there will at least be an inch or so around the edge that is edible. I haven’t found the need to scrape off the pores. If I am lucky enough to find really young ones, I will use most all of it, sometimes even the stem. It is easy to tell while cutting them if the are tender or not. If there is resistance to the knife, you can’t cook them tender lol. Sometimes I just cut the edge off and leave the rest on the tree to spread spores, and not fill my bag so quick.

    My usual cooking method is to slice them about 1`/4 inch thick. Then fry them in a little olive oil and salt on medium heat. The juice will pour out of them in the skillet. I cook it down until it is like a little thin gravy. If I am not going to use them right away, I put them in quart zip lock bags and squeeze all the air out and seal and work the bags flat before freezing. They thaw out just like they were before freezing. Real nice to have to add to different dishes all year. I always say they are not hard to find, but it is hard to find good ones.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Forager|Chef – The Cucumber Mushroom: Dryad’s Saddle/Pheasant Back says:
    May 29, 2013 at 10:43 am

    […] week or two, as long as they are kept air tight coated with oil, I have outlined the method for you HERE. Wild Mushroom Varieties Tweet (function() { var s = […]

    Reply
  2. Hedgehog mushroom duxelles recipe says:
    February 24, 2014 at 2:36 pm

    […] 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 for preservation. Most mushrooms react negatively to freezing, and they tend to get stringy and chewy. When made into duxelles, cooked down with fat and seasonings though, they preserve way better. The higher quality of preservation is due to the fact that 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 are cooked with butter means that they get protected by an insulating layer of fat, which wards off freezer burn as I touched on in my brief post on “confiting” whole mushrooms. […]

    Reply

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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
Great, long day of filming in near the south shore Great, long day of filming in near the south shore of Lake Superior yesterday. 

Blueberries were sparse, and some kind of blight seems to be affecting the serviceberries. Chanterelles weren’t as good as 2020, but they were there. 

Quick dip in the Lake Superior after we broke set was a bonus. 

W/ @barebonesliving  @misterberndt @jesseroesler

#barebonesliving #foraging #lakesuperiorrocks #serviceberries #chanterelles #bts
Green ramp seed make a great lactoferment. Just pu Green ramp seed make a great lactoferment. Just put the green seeds in brine in a jar, leave for 2 weeks. 

After they’re sour they can be water bath processed, although I’ve stored them at room temp without an issue too. 

Finished product is great minced or puréed into places where you’d like garlic, capers, or both. 

Makes a great tzatziki with a little crumbled, dried bee balm. 

#tzatziki #ramps #rampseeds #foraging #fermentation
If you move quick you might still be able to get s If you move quick you might still be able to get some unripe, green ramp seeds. I saw a bunch yesterday near Lake Superior. 

At the right stage, they’re tender and the seed hasn’t started to form. 

They have the same potent garlicky flavor as the leaves and bulbs of the plant. 

I only harvest seeds from places where I haven’t harvest harvested bulbs and leaves the same year. 

#ramps #foraging #alliumtricoccum #seedhead
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