Dehydrated Mushrooms

Did you know that dried mushrooms can be used in most recipes that call for fresh mushrooms? Your dehydrated fungi give you the flexibility to have mushrooms on hand at all times. Using mushroom powder is a simple way to give your dish a concentrated burst of flavour. Add your powder to smoothies, shakes, soup, broth, sauces, gravy, breakfast cereal or yogurt— with ease. Dehydrating Mushrooms – The Best Way Of Preserving Mushrooms? Drying & Dehydrating Mushrooms are probably one of the best foods for drying. Mushrooms retain or even boost their flavours after being dehydrated and rehydrate in such a way that you can’t even tell they aren’t fresh mushrooms. Preparing Mushrooms To Dehydrate Mushrooms dry really well. There texture and porousness mean that they dry a lot quicker than other vegetables. To prepare them or dehydrating they need to be cleaned. The best way to clean mushrooms is with a soft brush. Rather than using water that will make drying times longer as the mushrooms suck up moisture using a dry soft brush will remove any debris and growing medium that may left be on the surface of the mushroom. Sort through all the mushrooms you want to dry. Remove any damaged or bad pieces. How Thick To Slice Mushrooms Mushrooms will shrink quite significantly when dried. Depending on the variety and texture of the mushrooms you are drying they can shrink to around half the original size. I tend to slice mushrooms around 5 – 6mm (1/4 Inch) thick. That being said, varieties of mushroom such as button mushrooms are quite small and can be simply cut in half. Larger mushrooms like oyster mushrooms can be sliced to achieve a 1/4 inch thickness. Of course, there is no reason you cannot dry mushroom whole if they are small or medium in size. You need to keep in mind that the thicker the pieces of mushroom the longer they will take to fully dehydrate. Dehydrating Mushrooms In A Dehydrator Using a purpose-built dehydrator to dry mushrooms couldn’t be simpler or easier. Using even a very basic entry-level dehydrator is really efficient and gets great results. Dehydrating mushrooms in a dehydrator is simply a case of taking the slices of mushrooms and arranging them evenly over the racks or trays of the dehydrator. Make sure the slices are spaced slightly apart in one layer to allow airflow and not overlapping. Set the dehydrator to a low or medium setting and allow to run for around 2 to 3 hours before checking progress. 1/4 inch mushroom slices will tend to take between 3 to 6 hours in a dehydrator. Dehydrating Mushrooms In The Oven To dehydrate mushrooms in the oven you will need some kind of screen or racks to lay the mushroom pieces on. A cake cooling rack can make a good stand in if you don’t have anything more suitable. Arrange the mushroom pieces across multiple racks in one even layer with space between the mushrooms to allow plenty of airflow. Set the oven to the lowest temperature and if it has a fan make sure it is running. Drying is about airflow just as much as temperature so if there is no fan in the oven keep the door cracked to allow air to circulate around the oven.