Italian Marinated Mushrooms

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how to preserve porcini
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Funghi sott’olio. So much more than just an Italian version of pickled mushrooms. I’ve eaten these as part of an antipasti plate since I was a kid. Standard pickled mushrooms, let’s face it, can be slippery and even rubbery. Not a great texture. But these are meaty, chewy and just a shade funky — mushroomy in all the best ways.

I never really knew just how the Italians did it until I read Rosetta Costantino’s My Calabria. In it, Costantino reveals her family’s method for preserving mushrooms in oil, and when I read her recipe, I was immediately struck by how similar it is to a Sicilian technique I use every year when I have too much zucchini. Makes sense, as Calabria is only a few miles from Sicily.

mushrooms preserved in oil recipe
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

Basically you need to remove water from the mushrooms, then boil them in vinegar, then dry them out a bit before submerging in oil. It is a method I’ve seen done with a lot of foods, even meat on occasion. What this particular do-si-do of preservation does is first use salt to pull the existing water from the food. Once the food is reasonably dry, acidify it with vinegar — bad bugs find it tough to survive in low Ph environments. Finally, keep air (and molds) off the food by submerging it in olive oil.

You should know there is no official USDA protocol for this method of preservation. Costantino tried to get the government to give its vaguely papal gesture for her recipe, but they declined. Suffice to say it works: The Italians have been doing it for centuries, if not millennia.

I tested this method with four kinds of mushrooms: button mushrooms, hedgehog mushrooms, chanterelles and porcini. You need a meaty mushroom to begin with or this method will not work. Other mushrooms I might try preserving sott’olio would be blewits, pig’s ears (Gomphus clavatus), shiitake, matsutake, king trumpet mushrooms, and maybe chicken of the woods. Bottom line: The ‘shroom’s gotta have heft.

That’s why porcini and their boletus cousins are the ideal. Try this with a leccinum or a birch bolete and you’ll transform a mediocre mushroom into something special.

Fresh porcini mushrooms.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

A few pointers to start:

  • Wash your mushrooms and trim any bad spots. Be sure the shrooms are not wormy.
  • Use high quality ingredients: Good olive oil, sea salt, quality vinegar, good lemons. You can definitely taste the difference.
  • Store your mushrooms in glass containers, in the fridge. It is entirely probable that they are shelf stable, but I am not a fan of botulism, so I keep mine in the refrigerator.

The recipe that follows is approximate. You may need more or less of the ingredients to fit your containers. One tip: Start with more mushrooms than you think you need. They shrink a lot in this process, and are so good you will run out long before you’re tired of eating them.

chanterelles preserved in oil
Photo by Holly A. Heyser

[recipe_name]Italian Marinated Mushrooms[/recipe_name]

[summary]These may just be the best marinated mushrooms you will ever eat. This method of preserving them highlights how meaty certain mushrooms can be, and the marinade is a perfect blend of Southern Italian flavors: lemon, chile, olive oil, oregano. I have found that boletes are the best for this: porcini, birch boletes, leccinum species and the like. But as you can see from the picture above, chanterelles work well, as does any other meaty mushroom. For store-bought shrooms, use crimini, shiitake or king trumpets.

You don’t need any special equipment to make these mushrooms, but you need time. It takes a day to make them — or at least a couple hours if you have a dehydrator. But the time spent is more than worth it. First of all, they will keep in the fridge for 6 months — if you can keep yourself from eating them all. I guarantee that if you set a bowl of these out on an appetizer tray, they will be gone in minutes. [/summary]

[yield]1 pint. [/yield]

Prep Time: [preptime time=24H] 24 hours, most of it passive [/preptime]

Cook Time: [cooktime time=5M] 5 minutes [cooktime]

  • 3 to 4 pounds meaty mushrooms
  • 2 pints white vinegar or cider vinegar
  • Kosher salt or pure sea salt
  • Zest of a lemon, sliced into wide strips
  • 4 dried hot chiles, split lengthwise
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 cup extra virgin olive oil

__________

[instructions]

Cut the mushrooms into reasonable pieces. With small mushrooms, like a button mushroom, you need only cut them in half, and you can leave the smaller ones whole. With large chanterelles and porcini, cut them into 1/2 inch thick slices. They will shrink a lot in this process, and they will be pliable, so they can be a little larger than you’d think they ought to be.

Salting down porcini
Photo by Hank Shaw

Salt them well. Lay down a layer of salt on a sheet tray and place the mushrooms on it. If the mushroom has a flat side, i.e., a button mushroom sliced in half, lay the flat side down against the salt. Sprinkle a heavy layer of salt over the tops of all the mushrooms. Let this stand at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours. You will notice a lot of water coming out of the mushrooms. This is good.

Note that I have left the “sponge” on the porcini in the pictures. I no longer do this because the sponge gets really slimy and icky in this process, and tends to stick to everything. Better to remove the sponge and dry it. It makes great porcini powder.

Put the mushrooms between paper towels and gently squeeze them a bit to remove a little more water.

Boiling porcini in vinegar.
Photo by Hank Shaw

Boil them in the vinegar for five minutes. The mushrooms will want to float. Use tongs or something to submerge them as much as you can. Fish out the mushrooms and put them between paper towels again and gently squeeze them to remove some of the vinegar.

Lay the mushrooms on a clean cloth to dry. Let them air dry until they are no longer damp, but still pliable. Don’t let them dry out into leather. Turn the mushrooms once or twice during this time. This will take between 12 to 24 hours, depending on how dry it is in your house and how much air circulation you have going. You can also use a dehydrator to speed up the process, but keep an eye on it: Mushrooms can go from perfect to leather in a hurry if you’re not careful!

Put the oil, lemon zest, oregano and chile in a bowl and toss the mushrooms in them. Pack this into glass jars. Use a chopstick or some other kind of clean stick to poke around the jar — you want to find and remove as many air bubbles as possible. Make sure the mushrooms are submerged in the oil.

porcini preserved in oil
Photo by Hank Shaw

Refrigerate and wait at least a week before eating. These mushrooms will keep in the fridge for 6 months.

[/instructions]

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About Hank Shaw

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

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45 Comments

  1. Ed: Rinse briefly in cold water, then pat dry immediately. That should take care of any extra saltiness.

    Andrew: Yep. That’s normal. Think of it as nature’s way to tell you these mushrooms should be eaten at room temperature. I take them out an hour before serving.

  2. Do you have a problem with your olive oil solidifying in the fridge? Makes it hard to take the mushrooms out sometimes.

  3. Hank,
    I made this with a mixture of crimini and shiitake. Everyone who has tried them loves them. To me they are a bit salty. I tried to shake much of it off prior to putting them in the vinegar, but it clung on fiercely. Do you have any tricks to remove some of the excess salt?

  4. These look fantastic! Hopefully boletes will be abundant this year. Also, I think I’ll give it a try with Lobster mushrooms this fall. Thanks for the post.

  5. John: Yes, I think they will work with oysters, but I’ve not yet done it. Let me know how it turns out, OK?

  6. Will wild oyster mushrooms work well in this recipe? They’re about the only thing here in North Carolina besides morels that I regularly find in large enough numbers to have any leftover to preserve. So far I’ve just been sauteing and freezing them, which is fine for stews, but I’d like to try something new.

  7. Hank,

    I think I know the answer to this already, but, I’ll go ahead and ask anyway..what about morels in this recipe?

  8. I always wondered about those pickled mushrooms! And now all I need is a beautiful flush of boletes …

  9. Hank, Are you being a little too careful in putting your preserved mushrooms in the fridge? If the Sicilians and Calabrians have been using this method for hundreds of years without refrigerators is submersion in oil not sufficient to prevent botulism? My motivation for asking is that I have used a very similar method for keeping oven-dried tomatos in my larder and now I am wondering if they are safe to eat!

  10. Sara: I eat lots of boletes whole like this, but if the spongy part is a little old, or getting discolored, I pull it off, dry it and powder it. If the spongy bottom is white or tight and fresh, I leave it on.

  11. Hank, thank you for your clear and complete description of an excellent preserving method that the USDA really ought to study.

  12. We collect boletes and always remove the spongy part before cooking them. Your pictures show the spongy part still attached and I was wondering if you eat all boletes whole like that or is it just some that you keep that part on?

  13. This looks like a great way to preserve shrooms. I can’t wait to try it. Course I can’t wait for spring shrooms either!

    On another topic….A few days back you wrote about using fresh tumeric to make a curry. I hav never used (or seen) fresh tumeric. But I just found some at a local natural foods store. But I can’t find much information on how to use it (other than cleaning stains). So…..How did you use it and what was your experience. Inquiring minds want to know.

    Thx

  14. Hank, these sounds fantastic. I am crazy about mushrooms but have never tried preserving them. Got to try this technique. I’ll bet they would be wonderful tossed with fresh whole wheat pasta, lemon, herbs and oil, and maybe some breadcrumbs. Just need to figure out what kind of mushrooms, hit the farmers market for availability. Or buy chanterelles (my favorite, but expensive) at a store like Whole Foods. Thank you!

  15. I sure wish we could get good porcini here in Virginia. I have only ever seen them at Whole Foods, at a ridiculous price. I need to take a class in mushroom hunting.
    I use this same method for melanzane sott’olio (eggplant in oil). I also store them in the fridge, as it also helps preserve the freshness of the oil. Delicious in antipasti, pasta, on pizza etc. Thanks for yet another informative post.

  16. Christine: I’d use king oyster mushrooms or shiitakes if I had to buy mushrooms for this. And yes, you just let the salt come off into the vinegar.

  17. This looks delicious! It makes me wish I had more access to some of the wild mushrooms you use, but I should be able to find reasonable equivalents around here. one quick question- do you remove the salt after extracting the water or just let it come off into the vinegar?