Some Thoughts on Drying Mushrooms
At this time of the year dried mushrooms are starting to be the main source of mushrooms for my kitchen. In my opinion drying is by far the best way of preservation of the wild mushrooms. I use Excalibur 9-Tray Food Dehydrator, but I am sure that any dehydrator should work. Even oven can sometimes be utilized if no other appliance is available. The air drying is certainly another option. The main thing for mushroom drying is to keep heat at minimum, while air flow is maintained. Any higher heat settings will easily damage and burn mushrooms. That is providing that your dehydrator does have some temperature control. This technique certainly requires longer time, but it is worth it. When preparing mushrooms for drying, make sure that pieces are roughly same size. At least stick to that rule for individual trays in dehydrator, so that everything on one tray is ready at the same time. I do prefer some of the species dried whole (e.g. Lactarius, Suillus and Blewits), regardless of the l