Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 264 kcal | 75 kcal |
| Protein | 37.2 g | 10.5 g |
| Fat | 3.6 g | 1 g |
| saturated | 0.6 g | 0.2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 27.6 g | 7.8 g |
| sugars | 24 g | 6.8 g |
| Fibre | 12 g | 3.4 g |
| Sodium | 60 mg | 17 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 1.8 kg mushrooms (about 89 medium)
Instructions
- Do not wash mushrooms. They behave like sponges, and a rinse adds water you then spend hours removing — brush the grit off the caps with a dry pastry brush, or wipe them with a barely damp cloth.
- Pull the stems out of anything with a woody one and keep them aside for stock powder. Stems dry much harder than caps and are rarely worth chewing.
- Slice the caps at 6 mm down through the stem end so each piece keeps its gill pattern. The gills hold most of the flavour, and slices cut that way also lie flat on a tray.
- Get the slices onto the trays within a few minutes of cutting. Cut mushroom browns quickly, and while the colour harms nothing, it goes on deepening inside the machine.
- Lay them out without overlap and dry at 54 °C for 11 hours. They shrink to a fraction of their size and go from pale to tan, both of which are expected.
- A finished slice snaps with a dry click and feels weightless. Bend a thick one from the centre of the tray — any flex means moisture in the core, and a slice that feels cool against your lip is still wet.
- Cool them on the tray until they are stone cold, then pack them straight away. Mushrooms pull humidity back out of the air faster than almost anything else here, so the jar should be shut the moment they are cold rather than left open on the bench.
- Sealed in a dark cupboard they keep for a year, and a silica sachet in the jar is worth the trouble. Soak them in warm water for twenty minutes to use them, and strain that soaking liquid into whatever you are cooking — it is the best part of the exercise.
