As the temperatures get colder, mushrooming season is coming to a close. Making fermented mushrooms is a perfect way to extend the life of your fresh mushrooms, whether foraged or store-bought.
Today I am sharing a recipe from Oh Lardy’s Guide to Fermenting Fruits & Vegetables. I think you’ll love it.
Making Fermented Mushrooms
- 1 or 2 8oz packages of mushrooms (I used about 1 and a half packages of sliced mushrooms)
- Fresh thyme (a couple sprigs, depending on your taste)
- Fresh marjoram (a couple sprigs, depending on your taste)
- Smashed garlic (2 or 3 heads, depending on your tastes)
- 1 tablespoon sea salt
- 1/4 teaspoon whey, sauerkraut juice, or culture starter
- Filtered water
- Place all of the ingredients into a quart sized mason jar.Smash the mushrooms and other goodies down into the jar to get as many in there as you can.
- Add filtered water to cover, leaving an inch of head space at the top.
- Weigh down your mushrooms because they like to float!
- Set on your counter for 3 to 5 days.
- Move to your refrigerator.
Tamara and Kelly recommend adding them to morning eggs and to salads. I think they would be great on an antipasti platter, or taken along on a picnic!
If you would like to learn more about fermenting, then I can highly recommend their new ebook, Oh Lardy’s Guide to Fermenting Fruits & Vegetables. They have so many great tips for getting started, and will make you feel at ease as you start your kitchen science lab. I love all of their ideas for using ferments, like making salad dressings and all kinds of things I hadn’t thought of before.
For you seasoned home fermenters, what was the first thing that you tried fermenting? And for those of you who haven’t started yet, is there something in particular that feels daunting about home fermentation?
The firs thing I fermented was gingered carrots.
Do the mushrooms get soft and squooshy?
Dawn, I think they will over time– but not for the first few days.
1st thing I lacto-fermented was cukes from mom’s garden… first thing I ever fermented from a package of starter was wine 🙂
Ooh, how did your wine turn out, Robyn?
First Thing I fermented was garden zucchini. They were so good. Just like a cuke pickle but a little more crisp. Don’t let ’em set too long though! My current projects include fermented persimmon soda and Catnip Soda.
I didn’t realize it was a ferment/culture back when I did it but in about 1986, I started making Lebanese yoghurt. We’re not really yoghurt eaters so I only made it to go with Kibeh, a Lebanese sort of meatloaf.
Fast-forward to 2005. A pal gave me a kombucha scoby and I enjoyed that for many years. I got out of the habit of keeping up with it when I had to start working full time. I was the only one drinking it so it didn’t seem worth the effort. When I tried to restart, I just couldn’t get a batch to not get moldy. I am sure that has something to do with how damp and moldy this state (Oregon) is and that my house is probably spore-ific.
My next try was lacto fermented carrots – gag! The were soft, slimy and smelled funny. Then lacto fermented kim chi – again, gag for the same reasons.
Finally, because I wanted to save money ($4.99 for less than 10 oz.! at the market and I’m sure it was “dead”), I did some internet searching. I found several recipes that suggested using fish sauce for added flavor AS WELL AS an inoculant/ferment starter. YIPPY!!! That was what I was looking for: veggies flexible yet crisp, wonderful flavor, enticingly spicy aroma. In short, YUM!
I have been making about 3 quarts to a gallon every 3 months for the last 4 or 5 years. I play “Kim Chi Fairy” after each new batch and drop small, personal sized jars off with friends who, like me, are the only ones to eat it in their household. One of those friends is Korean and swears mine is as good as her moms.
And now, my next project will be these mushrooms. I can’t wait for shopping day!
Sauerkraut was mine and my husband’s first ferment. Now we continually ferment radishes, beets, carrot and jalapeños and I’m getting into kombucha. I’ve always wanted to ferment mushrooms and I’m doing okra today for the first time!
I would like to try fermenting other veg, but am having tough time finding whey. Lots of whey powders, can that be used if reconstituted?
You don’t need whey. It’s just a powerful starter, but can result in mushy product. Salt brine is enough, useful bacteries come from air.
I love your blog Ariana! I know I sound like a broken record but I’m so glad to have discovered it. I am just now getting into the realm of fermented foods so having a resource where I can take tips and recipes from is great. I have yet to see mushrooms fermented before, so this looks super interesting! I love them usually, but I can’t imagine the flavor they must end up with at the end of the fermentation in my head right now. Thank you for sharing another great recipe!
would putting a grape leaf in the jar help keep them crisp like it does in dill pickles? I recently opened a jar of whole dill pickles that were made in 2007 & they were still crisp as the ones canned recently.
I tried a mix of vegetables as my first ferment. It didn’t go so well. Since then I have fermented almost everything! I love mushrooms but have yet to try them. I am totally going to try this.
how can you process these to keep them for wintertime use ? it says to move them to the fridge but I don,t have room for them in my fridge. it seems like most recipes say to put in fridge.
If you don’t have fresh thyme, etc. can you use store bought dried?
Hi Sue!
I’m sure dried would work just fine!
Hi Ariana, this is my first time fermenting and went for the mushrooms as per your recipe here but I added a red cabbage leaf to the top to help keep them submerged (still open air) and the next day would poke at the leaf to try and keep it submerged too (no noticeable mold). The second night I placed a drinking glass into the top of the 1qt mason jar to keep everything submerged. Three days now on the counter and they look good (although the brine is all sorts of pick colors thanks to the cabbage leaf) but the smell is unlike any other fermented product I’ve smelled. I usually eat anything fermented but I’m afraid to try this. Would you describe fermented mushrooms as having a unique fermented odor? It’s almost like a sweet and sour odor.
Hi Shawn,
I usually feel confident eating any fermented food that doesn’t have gross green, gray, or black mold on it, and that doesn’t smell awful. Sweet and sour would probably be fine for me personally! But don’t eat anything that you have a negative reaction to when you smell it.