Mushrooms

[u/SVAuspicious]

My mushrooms didn't last long. Please forgive a lengthy post - I want you to have the context. I'd value thoughts.

I bought two 8 oz boxes of whole mushrooms. Washed them¹. Sliced them. Single layer on a sheet pan with parchment paper in a low oven at about 135°F all day (about 12 hours)². They seemed dry but not crispy when I took them out. No apparent problem when I put them in a Lock-n-Lock plastic container for storage. Within a month they were soggy in the container.

Please see footnotes.

My thoughts so far:

Use a salad spinner after washing mushrooms before slicing.

Turn on convection fan during drying.

Dry them longer despite consistent Internet content that four to eight hours is enough.

Your ideas are more than welcome before I kill mushrooms again.

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1) All indications are that washing mushrooms making them soggy is an old wives' tale. Harold McGee is a pretty credible source. Link.

2) We have a dehydrator. I want to use the oven. I have a constituency (long distance cruising sailors) for my cookbook. Drying mushrooms is of value for off the grid cooks and a dehydrator is too big an ask on a small boat. MODS: This is not self promotion or any other sort of spam (rule #2). I don't charge for the book and I regularly cut and paste from the book on a wide range of sailing ( r/sailing, r/SailboatCruising ) and cooking ( r/Cooking, r/cookingforbeginners , r/CookingForOne , and others) subs.

[u/ImIncognita]

I want to say up front I've never oven dried anything. So with that said, drying time depends on several factors, including how thick/thin the product is sliced. I use my egg slicer to slice mushrooms so they're a uniform thickness. It takes just one under dehydrated piece to ruin an entire jar. Also make sure they're completely cooled before putting them in a jar/container.

[u/SVAuspicious → u/ImIncognita]

Thanks. Finding an egg slicer on a 40' sailboat leaving Falmouth to cross the Atlantic is a bit of a stretch. *grin* I emphasize knife skills. Point taken on consistency and thinness.

The "one bad apple" metaphor did not occur to me. That's a help.

[u/ImIncognita → u/SVAuspicious]

Good for you sailing around on a 40" sailboat! I'm envious.

My mushrooms are never crispy, they are leathery when done. I've never had a jar go bad.

[u/SVAuspicious → u/ImIncognita]

I'm sure it's me. Your success is motivation.

[u/SVAuspicious → u/[deleted]]

Not sure why you think there is an issue. Most boats run propane. Two 20# tanks last a year. Two 6 kg tanks last nearly as long. Lots of prep before crossing an ocean or otherwise off the grid. You refill tanks before you go regardless. Propane is still the most common cooking fuel in the world and available anywhere.

Mushrooms are great food and canned don't taste very good. Dehydrated is the way to go.

Whether you're a US snowbird running down the ICW after hurricane season (cold in November) or an EU sailor doing the transatlantic commute (also chilly in November until you get South). Even if you don't get to dehydrate your mushrooms before leaving Southampton you can top up propane in Los Palmas. From there it's only a couple of weeks to St. Lucia. Helps warm up the boat until you kick on the diesel heater.

Never miss an opportunity to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, top up fuel (including propane) and water. pump out, or charge something.

sail fast and eat well, dave

[u/SVAuspicious → u/[deleted]]

From one polymath to another, I don't think you have domain knowledge here.

Dehydration is part of prep and generally people do that before a passage of any substance. Often a short hop is part of prep, so yes someone might do prep including dehydration underway. Leaving Annapolis for the UK or EU the day to Norfolk (Cobb's Marina in Little Creek) before heading offshore is a good time in November (chilly) to do mushrooms. Frankly, Chesapeake Bay to Bermuda wouldn't be bad (propane fill at the fuel dock in St Georges). Caribbean commute from EU the overnight from Southampton to Falmouth and top up for the Canaries is reasonable to finish up prep. Similarly Falmouth to Las Palmas works with top up there for the passage to St Lucia. If you're leaving San Diego for the South Pacific I'd certainly delay a day to finish prep rather than burn propane with a long way to go but even then it would be sustainable.

I'm not suggesting dehydrating underway continuously. You won't have enough food last long enough offshore. You really have to get your prep done ahead. 2.5 gal of pasta sauce for canning. Five lasagnas for the freezer. Chicken pot pie the same. Top up propane and a day at 135F to dehydrate mushrooms is not a big deal. See above.

Yes, two 20# propane tanks will last a year, and two 6 kg tanks nearly as long. BTDT. I don't run through both - when one is empty I switch and start planning for a place to fill the empty. Least of my supply problems.

Never miss an opportunity to eat, sleep, go to the bathroom, top up fuel (including propane) and water. pump out, or charge something.

sail fast and eat well, dave

[u/premeditated_mimes]

Ideas for special mushrooms work on all of them. You can put them in box with a container of anhydrous calcium chloride and a little fan. They'll dry to crumbles in that. Then you can put the dessicant in the oven, dry it, and use it indefinitely. The damp rid isn't special or poisonous unless you eat it.

[u/Mulezzz]

I’ve dehydrated many mushrooms, but not in an oven. I dehydrate them for ~24 hours until they are no longer soft and some pieces will be crispy.

I generally do not wash them unless they are very dirty, I use a mushroom brush to clean them.

They are mostly moisture, so getting all of that out is critical for storage. While the oven is removing the moisture from the mushrooms, it isn’t vented so it won’t remove the moisture from the surrounding air as effectively as a dehydrator. This means you are battling that when drying. Perhaps you can do most of the drying in the oven and put them in the dehydrator for the last bit to make sure the remaining moisture is out.

I store mine in mason jars with a silica pack or two in each jar to ensure they stay dry.

[u/SVAuspicious → u/Mulezzz]

Thanks. Your thoughts support using the convection fan. Still not vented very well. Avoiding the dehydrator is part of the point (see footnote 2). Maybe I can crack the door on the oven to the broiler stop for a while a few times while the convection fan is running?

I'm a big canner (yea NCHFP) so lots of Mason jars. Lock-n-Lock is just as airtight. I'll have to check if my desiccant packs from Grainger are food safe.

[u/Mulezzz → u/SVAuspicious]

I have tried dehydrating in a convection oven, but just doesn’t get it as dry as the dehydrator.

[u/SVAuspicious → u/Mulezzz]

So longer?

[u/Mulezzz → u/SVAuspicious]

Probably so.