Pickled mushrooms used to proudly stand in my childhood home’s cellar alongside brined ones. I’ve remembered since childhood that I preferred brined mushrooms to pickled ones. Nevertheless, every year I’ve moderately pickled mushrooms because pickled mushrooms are absolutely indispensable on the Christmas table. While pickling mushrooms may seem like a complex and time-consuming process, it’s not true in reality. Boiling the poisonous or bad tasting mushrooms is the most time-consuming part; everything else proceeds quite swiftly.

The recipe I use is enriched with childhood flavors. Time and time again, my grandmother has been my inspiration and source of advice for canned mushrooms. Actually, there isn’t one specific recipe for pickled mushrooms. There are many different seasonings that can be used in mushroom marination, but vinegar, sugar, and salt should definitely be used. Although mushrooms can be pickled using salt alone, creating the necessary microbial environment by keeping the mushrooms at room temperature for several days, vinegar is essential in this recipe because it preserves the mushrooms in an acidic environment. Sugar, salt, and vinegar together give the marinade a unique sweet and sour taste.

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Which mushrooms to pickle

I like to pickle only milk caps. I prefer to make brined mushrooms out of boletes, brittlegills and chanterelles. Since the taste of the mushrooms changes significantly during pickling but not when salting, I only reserve those mushrooms for marinating that are enjoyable to eat on their own. I must confess that I don’t like to eat pickled boletes on their own, and I prefer to make mushroom puree soup from them; brined mushrooms are perfect for that. Still, you can actually pickle any mushrooms, even softer boletes – it’s all a matter of personal preference.

What to put in the mushroom marinade

As I mentioned at the beginning, a crucial component of the marinade is vinegar. In addition, salt and sugar are very important seasonings. Garlic can also be used for marination, which not only adds flavor but also has antimicrobial properties. As seasonings, you can use various herbs and spices. You can also add onions and carrots, although I admit that I don’t like marinated carrots myself.

Adding vinegar

In principle, you can use any vinegar in the marinade, but it is recommended to use vinegar with an acidity of at least 5%. There are different strengths of vinegar, so I will specify the amount of vinegar. You should have about 2.5% vinegar per 1 liter of water. Therefore, 5% vinegar goes into the marinade in a 1:1 ratio, for example, 500ml of water and 500ml of 5% vinegar. In Estonia, white vinegar is usually sold as a 30% solution. In this case, you should use 83ml of vinegar and 917ml of water. If you round it approximately for convenience, 30% vinegar should be added 8-9 tablespoons per 1 liter of water. This vinegar amount may seem like a lot, but scientifically, this vinegar-water ratio is the only sure way to ensure that the marinade is acidic enough and can be stored for a long time. Honestly, I’ve used three times less vinegar, and the mushrooms haven’t gone bad. However, in my opinion, if you add more vinegar, it doesen’t affect the taste of the mushrooms.

Boiling the poisonous or bad tasting mushrooms

Many wild mushrooms need to be boilee before consumption to get rid of their toxicity or bitterness. You can get a better overview of boiling the mushrooms in this post.

Ingredients

Mushrooms – wild mushrooms are the best, but you can also use store-bought mushrooms.

Water

Vinegar

Salt

Sugar

Bay leaf

Black peppercorns

Allspice

Clove

Garlic

Onion

How to make pickled mushrooms

• Clean the mushrooms you’ve picked from the forest. If you’ve bought mushrooms from the store, wash them before use.

• Depending on the type of mushroom, boil them if necessary before pickling.

• Add all the ingredients needed for marinating to a pot: water, vinegar, salt, sugar, and all the spices, and bring the water to a boil.

• Add the mushrooms to the pot and boil them for 15-20 minutes in the marinating liquid.

• Place the mushrooms in jars and pour the marinade over them.

• If you wish, you can also add garlic, onion, and other preferred seasonings that were in the boiling water to the jars to make them more visually appealing. However, since the marinating liquid has already absorbed all the flavor nuances during boiling, adding seasonings to the jars is not absolutely necessary.

• Seal the jars tightly. To ensure successful preservation of the mushrooms, I recommend reading the post on brined mushrooms, where I pay more attention to preservation.

• Leave the mushrooms to marinate for at least 24 hours; during this time, the mushrooms will absorb the flavor of the marinade. This way, you can store the mushrooms for at least a year.

Ideas and tips

• Before consuming the mushrooms, wash them thoroughly to remove the strong acidic flavor of the marinade water.

• Press down lightly on the mushrooms with a spoon before sealing the jars to eliminate any air bubbles trapped between the mushroom caps. Air bubbles can cause the mushrooms to spoil.

• Don’t be afraid to experiment with new flavors, such as, for example, juniper berries!

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Pickled mushrooms

Yield: 1

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Additional Time: 1 day

Total Time: 1 day 30 minutes

While it may seem that making pickled mushrooms is a complex process, it's actually not true. It takes a bit of time but is incredibly easy!

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Ingredients

• Mushrooms - no matter how many, but they should be covered with water during boiling.
• 1l of water
• 2 tbsp of kosher salt
• 4 tbsp of sugar
• 8 tbsp of 30% vinegar (1:1 ratio with water while using 5% of vinegar)
• 0,5 tsp of black peppercorns
• 0,5 tsp of cloves
• 0,5 tsp of allspice
• 3 bay leaves
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion

Instructions

1. Clean the mushrooms you've picked from the forest. If you've bought mushrooms from the store, wash them before use.
2. Depending on the type of mushroom, boil them if necessary before pickling.
3. Add all the ingredients needed for marinating to a pot: water, vinegar, salt, sugar, and all the spices, and bring the water to a boil.
4. Add the mushrooms to the pot and boil them for 15-20 minutes in the marinating liquid.
5. Place the mushrooms in jars and pour the marinade over them.
6. If you wish, you can also add garlic, onion, and other preferred seasonings that were in the boiling water to the jars to make them more visually appealing. However, since the marinating liquid has already absorbed all the flavor nuances during boiling, adding seasonings to the jars is not absolutely necessary.
7. Seal the jars tightly. To ensure successful preservation of the mushrooms, I recommend reading the post on brined mushrooms, where I pay more attention to preservation.
8. ˇLeave the mushrooms to marinate for at least 24 hours; during this time, the mushrooms will absorb the flavor of the marinade. This way, you can store the mushrooms for at least a year.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 1 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 376Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 2gCholesterol: 0mgSodium: 7668mgCarbohydrates: 89gFiber: 14gSugar: 55gProtein: 5g