Dried Morel Mushrooms

Submitted by Krsi Sue

"These elusive tasty mushrooms are only available for hunting for a short time in the spring. When hunting - -please use a net bag such as the bag that covers your onions. The reason for this: While they are in your bag & you are moving around, the spores can shake free and fall to the ground to produce more mushrooms. Morels take 5 years to produce a nice crop in the wild."

 

• Ready In: 4hrs 20mins
• Ingredients: 3
• Serves: 1-100

ingredients

• morel, freshly picked
• 1 gallon water, cold
• 1 cup salt

directions

1. Soak morels for up to 4 hours in salt water. The mushrooms are hollow, and the salt water will kill any little bugs that might be living in them.
2. Drain and rinse with fresh water.
3. Slice at least one side of the mushrooms.
4. Lie mushrooms on a towel.
5. Direct the air flow of a small fan onto the mushrooms and let dry up to 24 hours.
6. The mushrooms will reduce in size drastically. When they are dry, bag them in a ziplock bag and throw them in the freezer to use later.
7. Reconstituting Mushrooms:.
8. Soak mushrooms in broth, wine, or water for up to 5 minutes. They will spring back to the size they were when they were picked.

Reviews

[Bonnie G #2]

We had a great crop of morels in our own yard this year; though not as good as the one your photo shows! Loved your tip on collecting, never thought of that but will sure use it from now on. I wanted to try out this method on a few as we can never eat all the ones we have before they spoil. This worked great for the drying - still need to reconstitue and see how they come out, thanks for the lesson.

 

[don_rhonda]

We also hunt morels and dry them. We do this similar thing, but previously had difficulty with drying the mushrooms after rinsing. We cut the morels in half, string them on thread into a necklace and hang them off nails from our outside patio roof to dry for about 1-2 days. We then take them off the thread and put them in freezer zip-locs and store in freezer. Sometimes the mushrooms do not dry quick enough, depending on the weather, so we bring them inside and place on the dehydrater for a little bit then freeze them. We rehydrate the mushrooms in warm water for a few minutes, squezzing lightly and prepare as usual. Great idea of using an onion bag during the hunt. We sometimes crumble old ones around when found, never thought of leaving a trail of crumbs though! We always hate all the bugs we bring home, this would solve that problem greatly.