Hen of the Woods

Had a little time today so I went on a little foray into the mushroom woods. I didn’t think I’d have much luck, but I wanted to check out a new location. Much to my surprise, my 30 minute trip yielded one mushroom. That mushroom filled a six gallon pail!!! There were two other ones on the same stump but the bugs had already gotten to them. I’m looking for information on canning wild mushroom, but everything on the net says “DO NOT CAN WILD MUSHROOMS!!!” Has anyone out there had any experience with canning them? I’m guessing that if I got this one this early, there will be more at this spot.

Ive hunted fall mushrooms over the years and never heard of this type down here in iowa. What does it look like, can you describe them. We have a mushroom here that we call chicken mushrooms. They grow in a cluster on trees with many in that cluster. They are anywhere from orange brown tops with yellow stalks to deeper brown but still with a little orange, could we be talking about the same kind? Down here we freeze them. We wash them then put them in a pastic bad with enough water to cover the whole mushroom to keep them from drying out so i know most mushrooms down here can and are being froze. We take them out right befor our meal, thaw under warm water from the sink then we fry them as soon as possible or some of them will wilt, especially puff balls, large and small ones. If those hens of the woods are the same as our chicken mushrooms they will be ok after freezing but fry them right away or in gravys, good eating!

I wonder if what your describing is our goats beard mushroom that get as big as a no. 5 washtub. What does it look like

I believe the mushroom he is talking about is more commonly known as a “Chicken of the woods” mushroom. They grow on the sides of a tree, and get very large, and as much as 6 inches thick!! I’ve eaten them cooked by a french chef years ago. He sliced them into strips and sauteed them in butter, salt and pepper. I know it sounds funny when I say this, but they did taste alot like chicken!

RKD-Jim, My wife and I have been canning Morrells for 3 years now and they keep very well, nothing better than a mess of Crappies, and Bluegills thru the ice in Jan. and a pan of fried Morrells,I don’t know if it will work for Hen of the Woods, but it might be worth a try.

A “Canning” recipe
I found a canning recipe and I think I might like this better than freezing or drying.
Sterilize wide mouth pint canning jars and add 1 teaspoon canning salt.
Fill jars with Morels……They sure look pretty when I set the morels in the jar stem down around the outside and stacked full and tight in the center.
Add room temperature distilled water or reverse osmosis (r/o) water straight from the tap
Pressure cook for 30 mimutes at 10 lbs pressure.
BOY do these look beautiful…….when the mushrooms come out of the pressure canner there look like the jar has alot of water on the bottom….when cooled the morels seem to sick toward the bottom …..They look and taste GREAT. This recipe was given to me by a migrant morel hunter and he claims to have gotten the recipe from an old Amish cookbook.
NOTE: DON’T throw the the water you drain off the mushrooms away …add it to your gravy ……..ITS the BEST.
<H2)follow up note: Make sure you note that mushrooms of any type should never be canned in quarts…..pints or half pints/jelly jars.

There are two different types of the mushroom that I’m talking about. Chicken of the woods and Hen of the Woods. I’m trying to put a web site up in this post so you can see what they look like. The “Hen” is similar to the “Chicken”, just a little different color and more layers. Now I’ll try the web site. Thanks for the recipe, I’ll give it a try. After trying to put up the site twice, I’ll just give you the URL, you put it in. http://www.missourilife.com/feat001.shtml