# Mushroom saving **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [April 15, 2025, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058 "2025-04-15T02:07:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/1 "2025-04-15T02:07:16Z")
Can you cook and freeze mushrooms? ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/2 "2025-04-15T02:13:24Z")
Yes. I used to do this with chanterelle mushrooms all the time. Cook them in butter, then freeze with as much air taken out of the package as possible. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/3 "2025-04-15T02:16:45Z")
I have done it with ordinary button mushrooms from the supermarket. For complicated reasons, i wanted to have about 1/3 of a standard box of mushrooms handy to use in a recipe. So i, too, cooked them in a little butter and froze them. Worked fine. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/4 "2025-04-15T02:22:26Z")
I think it would work with most types of mushrooms. Chanterelle season is glorious and short, so we would gather our fill and then preserve them to use all year. For boletes, just clean well and dehydrate them. Whatever you do, don’t immerse them in water! The first time I foraged for boletes, I made this mistake. No one told me they turn into snot if you submerge them. I tried to salvage them by turning the sauteed mushrooms into soup. Everyone ended up with a bowl of snot. My guests – dog love 'em, they tried! – gamely slurped it up for awhile. I just couldn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/5 "2025-04-15T02:28:01Z")
I use dehydrated mushrooms. They are stored in the freezer in a tight container. But, from raw and fully cooked seemed odd to me. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/6 "2025-04-15T02:35:44Z")
After they’re dehydrated, I just throw them in a sealed container and store them in the pantry. They keep forever. The freezer seems superfluous. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/7 "2025-04-15T03:17:42Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > For boletes, just clean well and dehydrate them. Whatever you do, don’t immerse them in water! I seem to recall some sage on a TV cooking show proclaiming “never give your mushrooms a bath!” However, it does depend on the type of mushroom. The ones I use most frequently are creminis, which is just your basic brown mushroom. When they’re fresh they’re nice and firm and usually solid all around, and quite impervious to water, so I clean them by rinsing in cold water and wiping down with a paper towel. It’s only when they age that they open up a leafy understructure. Mushrooms with large caps, like portobellos, always have that structure and you have to be more careful with them. I’ve never used boletes, but I believe they have a porous and naturally absorbent underside. > [@Aspenglow](#): > > After they’re dehydrated, I just throw them in a sealed container and store them in the pantry. They keep forever. Yeah, I think some of the dehydrated mushrooms I have carry an expiry date but I consider it just for show and just ignore it. They’ll keep forever as long as they’re kept away from moisture. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/8 "2025-04-15T03:27:09Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > I’ve never used boletes, but I believe they have a porous and naturally absorbent underside. This, exactly. Ordinarily I don’t wash mushrooms, just brush off the obvious dirt and/or forest litter. But boletes seem to collect more stuff from the forest floor than other mushrooms, so I thought I’d take the water shortcut. A mistake I made only once and will never make again – okra’s got nothing on boletes when it comes to slime! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/9 "2025-04-15T12:03:19Z")
Dehydrating mushrooms - even ordinary white mushrooms from the supermarket - intensifies their flavour very significantly. Drying mushrooms is, imo, the best way to preserve them, but second best is to start frying them in a little fat, then add some water to the pan and simmer them, reducing it back to frying before serving - if you interrupt this method midway and cool and freeze the mushrooms with some of their liquid, they freeze almost perfectly. ---
**Author:** ![3AxisCtrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/3/ecd19e/32.png) [@3AxisCtrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/3AxisCtrl)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/10 "2025-04-15T12:23:35Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Dehydrating mushrooms - even ordinary white mushrooms from the supermarket - intensifies their flavour very significantly. Yes. Dried mushrooms are in many ways superior to fresh. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@salinqmind1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind1)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2025, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mushroom-saving/1017058/11 "2025-04-15T13:59:03Z")
I sauteed a pound of sliced white button mushrooms in a little butter this winter to make soup and froze them when I didn’t have time. Very handy to take out a few for pizza toppings, omelettes, and stir fries, they taste fine. I will cook some more when these are gone. (I don’t think you can freeze raw mushrooms, though. You CAN but they turn mushy and unpleasant when thawed, so…don’t do that.)