The title pretty much says it all. I have white regular ol’ mushrooms from the grocery store. I won’t be able to use all of them tonight, and I probably won’t have a use for the remaining ones in the next couple days. They always start looking funky after that and I end up tossing them out.
Can I just stick them in the freezer? Can I do some simple preparation and THEN freeze 'em?
why, are you afraid they’ll get moldy or fungussy? 
can fungus actually spoil?
sorry, couldn’t resist
(sorta’ like one of Gallagher’s questions… “when yogurt goes bad, how can you tell…” )
Mushrooms definitely go bad. They get slimey and nasty. I always hesitate to buy mushrooms because I can’t use them all in one go.
Hey…don’t laugh! I’ve thought he same thing!
I don’t know if the funkification is dangerous or just unappetizing. But I’d like to freeze the little suckers if I thought they’d come out perky and tender like fresh. And I don’t want to have to cook them first.
Try it. They might get “cooked” textured, so you can only use them cooked thereafter. Or they might get mushy. In which case throw them away.
Alternative: I buy tons of different Asian mushrooms dried. Why don’t you put them in a slightly warm oven for a few hours, see if they dry? Here’s the first Google hit I get, seems relatively informative.
I’ve seen button mushrooms dried, but I’ve never bought them. I buy them fresh, like you, and try to use them up quickly. They’re more expensive fresh than dried, so if you do dry them and you like the way they turn out, you should find an asian grocery that sells them dried. Problem solved!
Good luck.
I have for some time been wondering about, and contemplating asking, a related question:
Why can’t you buy bags of frozen mushrooms (the way you can buy bags of frozen broccoli or corn or potatoes or whatever)?
Thanks, Lissener. I may give the drying process a go. Maybe tomorrow. Too lazy tonight.
Thudlow, I think it’s the funkification factor. I’m thinking they just don’t hold up well to freezing. Hoping someone will tell me otherwise.
If you’re going to dry them, I’d suggest slicing them fairly thinly and spread them out on a wire rack. force drying them in an oven may be tricky to do without charring them.
if you want to freeze them, you’ll need to cook or at least blanch them first, or they’ll come out like cardboard. Either blanch them by briefly immersing them in boiling water (for a couple of minutes tops), then plunge them into cold water, drain, pack in a plastic bag, suck the air out and freeze.
You might feel that this will destry their culinary worth (and I’d be inclined to agree), so how about slicing them, sauteeing gently in butter and garlic, then allowing them to cool and freezing them as ready-cooked garlic mushrooms.
The organic veg delivery company I use gives me mushrooms every other week or so; they’re delivered in a recycled carboard punnet (same sort of material as a cardboard eggbox); I keep this in my unheated garage or in the fridge and the mushrooms just don’t ever go off in these containers; they will stay firm for more than a week, after which time they just start to dessicate and if I leave them a fortnight, I just have dried mushrooms in the box; I think it’s that the carboard container wicks away any moisture that in a plastic container would promote decay.
From http://www.mushroominfo.com/care/care.html
Freezing Mushrooms: Fresh mushrooms don’t freeze well. But if it’s really necessary to freeze them, first saute in butter or oil or in a non-stick skillet without fat; cool slightly, then freeze in an air tight container up to one month.
No new advice here: do not freeze fresh mushrooms, cook them or dry them, better to dry them, then keep them in the freezer. Drying them in a oven doesn’t really work either, as they just contain too much water, and end up steaming in their own juices. Food dehydrators work, and so does hanging them in a mesh bag* in a cool breezy dry place.
You didn’t ask this, but I offer my opinion as worth what it cost you: plain white button mushrooms have barely flavor enough to make them worth using at all, and not nearly enough to justify the time, effort and expense of trying to preserve them. Other varieties contain less moisture, are more fibrous (firmer texture longer), have a pleasant flavor, and last longer without heroic measures designed to sustain them.
That said, here’s a trick from the Grandmother of Soup: a bucket or large coffee can full of coarse salt will dry-preserve nearly anything (I wouldn’t and you shouldn’t try it with meat, but she did and lived to be very old) about as long as you want it to. Half a dozen mushrooms for a couple of weeks would be a piece of cake. She changed the salt seasonally, of course.
*Bag should be hanging at a high elevation in Arizona.
The link I supplied above offers a practical method that does not have this result.
I’ve bought bags of frozen mushrooms at Trader Joe’s, but they are very tough and chewy when cooked. Fresh mushrooms keep quite a while in the fridge…I’ve kept some over a week with no problems. They have a lot of water in them, so freezing will make them mushy.
Of course I’ll take your word for it, but the link … ?
Oy. Sorry, forgot to take my “don’t be a retard” pill.