How to Dry Wild Mushrooms

Sometimes, you find yourself in the midst of a good problem. Of course, I speak of the bountiful forage hike where you come home with more mushrooms than you can feasibly eat before they all go bad. Well, fear not! You can always dry them and use them throughout the year! The general method is pretty much the same regardless of the mushrooms you’re drying (as evidenced by the fact that we dried Chicken of the Woods, Hen of the Woods, and Turkey Tail all at the same time…I guess we actually have a poultry mushroom theme).

Time: 2-3 Hours

What You Will Need:

  • Wild Mushrooms
  • An oven or dehydrator (we used dehydrator)
  • A clean scrubby
  • Lots of running water
  • Paper Towels
  • Baking Sheet(s) or dehydrator racks
  • Zip Top Bags

How to do it (see captions below pictures):

Lay your mushrooms out on your cutting board, and cut any woody parts where the mushroom attached to the ground/stump off. Then, cut your mushrooms into the size pieces you want.
Wash (lightly scrub as necessary) your mushrooms, and place them on a paper towel to pat dry on the surface.
Arrange your mushrooms on your drying racks or baking sheets.
Stash in your dehydrator at 135 degrees F (or your oven at the lowest setting…usually 200 degrees F) until the mushrooms are fully dried out (1-3 hours).
When your mushrooms are dry, remove, and place in containers or zip top bags to be used another day! When you’re ready to rehydrate, place in warm water, and let sit for 2-24 hours (depending on mushroom type and size), and get cooking!

6 comments

  1. Oh wow you have a dehydrator? My husband is longing to have one to make dried fruits. I gotta show him your post👍

    Also we love to go hike, but you’re lucky to see edible mushroom in your trail. We don’t know which one is safe to eat, so all we could do is taking some pics and taking a bet if they are poisonous or not😂

    Looking forward to seeing them in your cooking🍄💕✨

    1. We should use it more than we do! We’ve done Jerky and dried apples…but it has so much more potential!

      As for the mushrooms, we are very cautious and don’t go for any that have dangerous lookalikes!

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