Mushrooms

Pantry mushrooms are dried mushrooms, such as porcini, morels, chanterelles and black trumpets, dried until they snap so they keep for months. A soak in warm water brings them back, and the soaking water carries their flavor.

How to choose Mushrooms

  • Snap test. Mushrooms dried properly, at a barely warm 135 to 150°F, are cracker hard and break instead of bending. Any that feel soft have picked up moisture and should be used right away.
  • Porcini. The name covers several Boletus species. Italy's protected Fungo di Borgotaro allows four, sold fresh or dried.
  • Jar or bag. Clear glass shows condensation at a glance, and a sealed bag works if it stays dry and dark. Quality lasts from 4 months to a year, longer when kept cool.

About Mushrooms

Mushrooms are the fruiting bodies of fungi, and the wild ones sold dried come from short seasons in particular woods. The porcini of Borgotaro, in the hills of Parma, grow in chestnut, oak, beech and silver fir forest from late spring until the first snow, depending on the species.

Drying keeps them for months. At home, slices go into a dehydrator or a barely warm oven until they are hard enough to snap. Not every mushroom takes to it. Chanterelles can turn rubbery, so they are often ground into a seasoning powder, and hen of the woods and chicken of the woods are better sautéed and frozen.

At a glance

Main types
Porcini, morels, chanterelles, black trumpets
Label terms
Boletus edulis, Fungo di Borgotaro
Unopened
4 months to a year, cool and dark
Serve with
Soups, sauces and other cooked dishes

Mushrooms questions

How do you rehydrate dried mushrooms?

Cover them with warm water and let them soak for 30 to 60 minutes, until soft. Lift them out, then pour off the soaking liquid slowly and keep it for a soup, sauce or other dish, since it carries much of the mushroom flavor. Small pieces can also go straight into a long-simmered soup or sauce and soften there.

When is morel season?

Morels come up for only a few weeks in spring. Missouri hunters watch for soil that holds near 53°F, or for several nights in a row above 50°F. They search a few days after a soaking rain, because moisture matters more than anything else.

Is it safe to eat wild mushrooms you find yourself?

Only when you are certain of the identification. No simple test separates edible mushrooms from poisonous ones, and folk tricks such as a silver spoon or a bruising color do not work. Some poisonous species smell and taste good, and the green-spored lepiota, a common cause of poisoning, looks much like a young grocery-store button mushroom.

Sources: Missouri Department of Conservation; National Center for Home Food Preservation; Fungo di Borgotaro PGI specification.

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