Sometimes I go mushroom foraging and pick more mushrooms than I can eat, or I find a greenmarket that is having a sale on mushrooms and I buy a lot. I cook as many fresh ones as I can, and the rest, I dry so I can use them later in soups, risottos, and many other dishes. Drying mushrooms is as easy as 1-2-3 with your oven.
What You Need
Ingredients
Mushrooms of your choice, sliced thin
Tools
Baking sheets
Sharp knife
Oven set at 150 degrees Fahrenheit
Mandoline (optional)
Food processor with slicing blade (optional)
Instructions
1. Clean the mushrooms with a brush. Try to avoid getting them wet, but if you have some stubborn dirt and must use a damp paper towel, use it sparingly. Slice them thin, about 1/8 of an inch thick. The thicker the slices, the longer they take to dry out.
2. Arrange the sliced mushrooms on baking sheets in a single layer.
3. Cook at 150 degrees for a hour.
4. Remove mushrooms from oven and turn over. Using paper towels, blot up any water that has sweated out of the mushrooms. If possible, gently press on the mushroom slices with paper towels to remove any excess water.
5. Cook for another hour.
6. At this point the mushrooms should be completely dried. If not, repeat Steps 4 and 5 until they are dry. There should be no moisture left in them.
7. Allow them to cool, and then store them in an air-tight container in a cool, dark place.
Additional Information:
• Stored properly, dried mushrooms will keep for years.
• Remember, dried mushrooms have a more concentrated flavor than fresh ones, so use sparingly.
• They can be reconstituted by adding some boiling water or stock.
Related:
Mushroom Leek Risotto
Quick Pasta with Dried Morels and Fresh Ramps
Rich No-Cream Wild Mushroom Pasta Sauce
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(Images: Kathryn Hill)
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I've accidentally dried mushrooms before when they were stored in a paper bag in the fridge.
Too bad the lowest setting on my oven is 170 degrees....
My oven doesn't go that low either. When we first started foraging my husband rigged up a dehydrator a la Alton Brown, i.e. some rigid air filters, a box fan, and a bungee cord.
We quickly got serious about mushrooms and upgraded to a real dehydrator but if you just need to do some occasional drying, AB's method worked great for us.
I know with dried shiitake, the general advice is to reconstitute them in cool water-- it takes longer, but the quality is better, they say. Does that hold for all mushrooms, too?
(By "they" I mean Japanese cooking sites-- come to think of it I should check English-languages ones as well!)
Ok, I can see that this can go down as a hack, sorta. Cool idea. I have a friend who has a dehydrator, and she uses it to make yogurt too (I just use a box and a heating pad). The oven seems like a good starting point for someone not willing to take up kitchen real estate for one-use machines that may well not get used a lot. Thanks for the idea!
I would love to do this with leftover mushrooms. Like others have mentioned, my oven only goes down to 170. Could I still use this method, or does the extra 20 degrees really make a difference?
Yes, you can do it at 170, just check on them every 45 mins.
So awesome! Can't wait to try it... Thanks!!
@Slow Lorus- we have a dehydrator but have considered trying AB's method because it doesn't use heat to dehydrate. Which do you think is better?
Hello,
I commented earlier this morning re: how to dry mushrooms in oven.....my oven goes no lower than 200 degrees., Please let me know what I can do. I have several mushrooms I DON'T WANT TO WASTE. Thank You
Too late for CDUN's mushrooms, but if I have leftover mushrooms I want to save, I fry them well and then freeze them.
I am trying dried mushrooms for the first time - when you say they should have no moisture left, does that mean they should be crispy? Some of them are still spongy.
If you're oven doesn't go below 170F you can always open the door a crack to bring the temperature down. This is what I do when I want to hold meat at 140F