Score!. Love mushrooms. I've been making a mushroom ragu that freezes so well. Double batch of risotto, then arancini next day, that also freezes.

The NYTimes has been posting in the food section all the vendors hurting by the restaurants closing. This helps everyone. Buying locally. Wholesale restrictions have been lifted. Safe curbside practices, etc.

I had to order from a fancy food wholesaler because we can't get any normal delivery times...had to by a case of portobellos. (6 packages of two) but the prices are so good, no problem. And still fresh so I'll make a batch tomorrow.

Beautiful!!! What a bargain, you lucky person!

So frustrated - made a big batch of cream of mushroom soup. I normally use my immersion blender but wasn't happy with the texture that I got. Decided to use the blender on liquefy. Bad idea - it is like cream of mushroom mousse, Maybe a bit of an exaggeration, but so aerated. What can I do?

Yum! I love mushrooms!

They look great. Love a mushroom and red wine ragout with polenta.

https://www.pinterest.fr/pin/514606694904248903/

Lucky you.......but I never wash mushrooms......they soak up water like crazy....just brush with a mushroom brush.

I watched either Alton Brown or Kenji Lopez-Alt do an experiment about washing mushrooms. Basically, they weighed the mushrooms, gave them a quick swish in a sinkful of water and dumped them on a towel and gave them a rub to dry. Weighed them again and there was no significant water weight gain, so that's how I did it. Coming straight from the farm, these had a little more residual growing medium on them than the ones typically seen at grocery stores. Soup and stuffed mushrooms were great last night. 6 bags of sauteed in the freezer, now just perusing recipes/ideas for marinated or pickled.

Had a thought in the middle of the night though... Annie, was it you who lost one or more relatives because of pickled or marinated mushrooms? Although I have seen recipes where pickled mushrooms are canned, I am leaning more toward marinated mushrooms that you keep in the fridge for a week or so. Don't want to have my family survive COVID-19, only to meet their fate by pickled mushrooms!

I do pickled mushrooms, both canned and fridge style. Been doing it for years, and no one sick yet. I do simmer my mushrooms in the brine for a good 20-25 min or so to break them down before putting into their jars.

Brine ratio for the fridge version is 1c vinegar, 1/12 c water, 1 T canning salt. I like to add bay leaves, peppercorns, allspice, thyme sprigs, a sliced up onion, and a few cloves of garlic too.

When I can get my hands on a lot of mushrooms, another fave is dehydrating them. Rehydrates well for going into cooked dishes, and grind into a powder for umami hits to anything.

Thank you - always nice to have a tried and true. Do you simmer the mushrooms for 20-25 minutes for the fridge version as well?

When I opened this thread I was hoping to see pictures of a mother lode find of Morel mushrooms. 'Tis the season...here anyway.

Yes, simmer for the fridge version as well. Mushrooms are dense, and need the cooking time. You can also pack the jars well, and not waste space due to shrinkage.

Also, I usually use cider vinegar, but sometimes have used white distilled+red wine vinegar. I generally like the cider vinegar better for this. I've done it a couple times with rice wine vinegar, adding in a good tablespoon or two of soy, keep the onions, garlic, and peppercorns, and skip the allspice, bay leaf, and thyme- add some ginger if you like. If you like it a bit spicy, you can add a bit of red pepper flake to your mushrooms too, regardless of brine flavor mix.

Necotish, I would expect the aerated soup to settle,especially if you stir it gently every so often to help the air out.

Thanks Colleen - it did eventually get back to normal, but it was the strangest texture from the blender! I would have been choked to waste all those mushrooms, not to mention, the butter and cream and sherry!

DH intensely dislikes mushrooms. I usually keep a bag of frozen sliced mushrooms and throw a few into my portion of whatever I’m making. However, they are not available. So I bought a pound of fresh mushrooms. My intention is to slice, sauté, and then freeze. I am planning to freeze them on a cookie sheet before bagging so that I can take out enough for me each time. Is there anything I should know about freezing sautéed mushrooms? Should I sauté then freeze or freeze the raw mushrooms?

P.S. I’ve seen Sara Moulton also wash mushrooms quickly.

Cook first, then freeze. I freeze the ragu I posted above.

I always wash mine quickly just before cooking. Years ago someone posted that they worked on a mushroom farm in high school. Rats and barn cats everywhere. Not all mushrooms are grown in barns and warehouses. But many of the button cheaper ones are.

Fancy expensive mushroom need very specific environments and cleaner than most homes.