Dehydrating Mushrooms
It’s all about step-by-step instructions for dehydrating mushrooms today. Watch for the mushrooms in your town to go on sale and stock up. Then dehydrate them. You will never run out of mushrooms ever again.
I bought these at Costco today so I could show you how easy it is to dehydrate them. Have you heard of mushroom powder?
Yep, I will be showing you how to make that too! Stay tuned, it’s coming up soon. Fresh mushrooms are tasty, but so are dried mushrooms.
Did you miss my post on freezing mushrooms? You have options for preserving mushrooms.
Step By Step Dehydrating Mushrooms
Nutrition of the Mushroom
The poor mushroom is often overlooked as food that many people don’t enjoy. That is not true in this household. Mark and I both love mushrooms, so much that I’ve learned how to dehydrate them and even turn them into a powder.
The nutrition of the mushroom is actually quite amazing. Because there are so many types of mushrooms out there, I’m talking about the nutrition of the shitake mushroom today.
- Mushrooms provide B vitamins, riboflavin, and niacin.
- Mushrooms are also a wonderful source of selenium and potassium.
- Mushrooms also provide a tiny amount of vitamin D.
- Mushrooms are also low in calories and fat.
Can You Eat Dehydrated Mushrooms?
When it comes to eating dehydrated mushrooms, you may be wondering if you can eat them. Yes, you can! You can totally eat dehydrated mushrooms in any way.
- Eat them as a snack
- Eat them in a salad
- Eat them as trail mix
- Eat them on the go
- Eat them in an emergency
You can eat dehydrated mushrooms, just like you would a regular mushroom. Except you can pull the dehydrated mushrooms right out of the jar and eat them! They are actually very delicious and full of flavor.
Step by Step Process of Dehydrating Mushrooms
Step One
I washed all the mushrooms in water. You can use a brush, but it takes too long for me. I cut the stems off and started slicing them 1/4-inch thick with a knife. Then I spread them out on my Excalibur Dehydrator trays.
My dehydrator has a timer, so I set the temperature at 125 degrees per the instructions from my book. They took about 5 hours to become leathery but not brittle.
The time will vary depending on the humidity in the room where you choose to dry them.
Step Two
Here is the finished product after dehydrating mushrooms in my kitchen. Make sure you try and put the mushrooms in a single layer.
How To Condition Your Fruit or Vegetables
If you live where it is HUMID: “To condition the fruit, take the dried fruit that has cooled and pack it loosely in plastic or glass jars. Seal the containers and let them stand for 7 to 10 days. The excess moisture in some pieces will be absorbed by the drier pieces. Shake the jars daily to separate the pieces and check the moisture condensation.” https://nchfp.uga.edu/how/dry/pack_store.html
I live in the DRY DESERT: I set my fruit and vegetables on my countertop for 5-7 days. Ten days is even better to make sure everything is dry before using your FoodSaver unit.
Now you can use a FoodSaver to remove the air from the mason jars. These mushrooms will last for one year without any oxygen absorbers.
I used my Magic Bullet to make some mushroom powder. White Foodsaver Set for Wide And Regular Lids
How To Use Dehydrated Mushrooms
- Pizza
- Spaghetti Sauce
- Soups
- Stews
- Omelets
- Soup stocks and sauces
What Is The Shelf-life Of Dehydrated Mushrooms?
FoodSaver Equipment
In order to use a FoodSaver to seal these jars, you need an accessory hose with the wide mouth and regular mouth size white lids.
As a Master Canner/Preserver, I can safely say they will keep for one year. No, I do not use oxygen absorbers. I only dehydrate what I can use in one year.
It’s nice to know you can start preserving your own food for short term storage. Don’t worry, this all gets easier over time.
Do Mushrooms Lose Potency When Dried?
You may be wondering about the strength/taste/potency of the mushroom after it is dried out. In order to keep their potency, it’s important that mushrooms are dried out at a low temperature. As long as you follow my steps, you’ll be good!
How to Rehydrate Dehydrated Mushrooms
Have you ever wanted to rehydrate those dehydrated mushrooms? You totally can by following these steps.
- Take the mushrooms that are dehydrated and cover them with a generous amount of water.
- Make sure the mushrooms are generously covered with water.
- Soak the mushrooms for 20-30 minutes.
- Keep in mind that the rehydration time depends on how big and thick the mushrooms are!
It’s nice to know that you can rehydrate mushrooms in such a little amount of time. Sometimes you change your mind and want hydrated mushrooms and this trick will work wonderfully.
Why Use Dehydrated Mushrooms Instead of Fresh?
You may be wondering why anyone would want to use dehydrated mushrooms instead of eating them fresh? I firsthand have witnessed how good dehydrated mushrooms taste.
When you dehydrate mushrooms, the flavor actually gets more intense and even better! Give it a try and see how you enjoy rehydrated dehydrated muscles.
Can You Buy Dehydrated Mushrooms?
Of course, you can buy dehydrated mushrooms, however, they are much cheaper to make them yourself! Following my steps, you’ll be making your very own dehydrated mushrooms and you can enjoy them anytime you want.
Here are the other Dehydrating Posts I have done:
- Dehydrating Apples
- Dehydrating Bananas
- Dehydrating Blackberries and Powder
- Dehydrating Blueberries and Powder
- Dehydrating Cilantro
- Dehydrating Cucumbers and Powder
- Dehydrating Ginger and Powder
- Dehydrating Green Onions and Powder
- Dehydrating Kale and Kale Powder
- Dehydrating Kiwi
- Dehydrating Lemons and Powder
- Dehydrating Marshmallows
- Dehydrating Peppermint Marshmallows and Powder
- Dehydrating Mushrooms and Mushroom Powder
- Dehydrating Onions and Powder
- Dehydrating Pears
- Dehydrating Pineapple
- Dehydrating Raspberries and Powder
- Dehydrating Spinach and Powder
- Dehydrating Strawberries
- Dehydrating Tomatoes and Powder
- Dehydrating Watermelon
Final Word
I hope you try dehydrating mushrooms if you haven’t already. You will never run out of mushrooms again. Just add them to homemade pizza, soups, stews, or spaghetti sauce.
Life is good if our pantry is full. Thanks for being prepared for the unexpected. May God bless this world, Linda
What an awesome idea! When I buy mushrooms, the recipe usually doesn’t call for the whole box and often I don’t use them up in time and they end up getting tossed. I will slice and dehydrate my excess and use the half pint jars to keep them. I never even thought of dehydrating the mushrooms we didn’t use for a recipe. Very helpful! Thanks!
Hi Debbie, it’s so fun to have those little jars in the pantry, right? We can do this! I love the half-pint idea!! Linda
This is very good advice! I have been dehydrating for at least 30 years. There is usually a section of the produce where they put the produce that is marked down and I buy the mushrooms, squash, okra, etc and dehydrate it. I dehydrate the onions, persimmons, and almost any fruits I can get as well. When I make soup I throw in a handful of dehydrated mushrooms, okra, onions and squash and the soup is set! I just have to add whatever fresh ingredients I want. I also can so a jar of tomatoes adds more flavor as well. This time of year pork will come down in price so I can bacon for emergency use as well. I have a small dehydrator for the small jobs and a big one for those trays of never ending zucchini and making jerkey. Great post!
Hi Stephanie, thanks for the tip on markdowns on produce!! I love this! I buy my meat that way, love this! You can save so much money by picking up discounted food and dehydrating it! I love your comment! Linda
Ok, so maybe I’m missing something here, but on the large and small food saver things, how do they work? Do you have to have the other unit or do they work by themselves? Also, I do not have, nor can I afford a dehydrator, so how can you dehydrate without one? Also, the only oven I have is a toaster oven because the oven on my stove doesn’t work and is so old they don’t make parts anymore.
Hi Pam, thanks for bringing that to my attention. I just added my FoodSaver with the accessory hose and the white lids needed. You can dehydrate in your toaster oven by setting the oven on it’s lowest setting and keep the door ajar to avoid condensation. You need to keep an eye on it because it will dry the food fairly quickly. People actually dry food outside in the summertime on trays outside with netting over it. I hope this helps, Linda
Thanks for the info.