Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Freezing Mushrooms

I know mushrooms are a touchy subject; seems like folks either love them or hate them. 

We fall into the love them category (as you’ve likely guessed if you’ve been following Finding Joy in My Kitchen for a little while) with 107 recipes containing mushrooms here on this blog

Therefore, I can’t pass up a good deal on mushrooms.  Two weeks ago, I bought ten (yes, 10), 8-oz packages.  Even though we love our ‘shrooms, we typically don’t eat more than 8 oz. in a given day. 

So, this time, we tried freezing these mushrooms. 

It’s easy, and cuts the prep work down making cooking with mushrooms easy during the week. 

 Freezing Mushrooms

(1) Begin by washing and slicing the mushrooms. 

(2) Prepare three pots: one that you’ll bring to a boil, and two with ice cold water. 

(3) Bring one pot of water to a boil.

(4) When water boils, add in the mushrooms and boil for 3 minutes

(5) Using a slotted spoon, fish out the mushrooms and scoop them right into the first bowl of cold water.

(6) Allow them to sit for 1 minute in the cold water.  Then spoon them into the next bowl of cold water. 

(7) After 1 minute, drain the water off the mushrooms, and arrange them on a cookie sheet. 

(8) Flash freeze these mushrooms for about 30 – 60 minutes; then pack them into freezer-friendly bags or containers. 

It’s as simple as that.  Now, do tell – love them, or hate them?

Linked to: Kitchen Tip Tuesday

15 comments:

  1. I LOVE mushrooms. Thanks for the tip on freezing them!

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  2. LOVE THEM!

    and LOVE this tip! If mushrooms go on sale... I am spending my saturday doing this!

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  3. I actually dont love them or hate them. Good on pizza and in pastas, sometimes good raw, but not usually.

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  4. My family loves mushrooms! Thank you so much for this freezing tip! So many times, I pass up a good sale because I don't want them to go bad before we eat them!

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  5. I love them as well. Unfortunately my husband falls into the "hate 'em" category. He can tolerate a lot of foods he dislikes if I doctor them up or incorporate them into a sauce of some sort, but mushrooms he will not budge on. Sad to say they rarely if ever make an appearance in our meals =0(.

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  6. YAY for blanching mushrooms--I'm glad it worked out for you! Though I do have to admit that when I'm lazy I just put 8 oz into the freezer bag and forget the flash freezing because I'm going to use the entire 8 oz anyways so I don't care if they stick together a little. But either way works. And I often avoid the step of washing them since they are going in boiling water and it cuts down on time ;)

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  7. I adore mushrooms. I never thought about freezing them though. I imagine there are some limits in how you can use them once they're frozen (or not?), but these would be perfect for adding to pasta sauce or soups!

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  8. Perfect timing! When you mentioned this on the previous post I thought "Ugh, I really wish she told me what to do." I need to get mine frozen tonight or tomorrow. haha! I was thinking of roasting them in the oven first, then freezing. I would not have even thought about the flash freezing step. Thanks for the tip!

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  9. LOVE mushrooms! And I love your mushroom recipes!

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  10. My husband loves mushrooms, I hate them. Every recipe that you have with mushrooms, I omit them. But glad that you can eat them.

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  11. I have wondered if this was possible and now I know! This was a very helpful post.

    Becca @ Crumbs and Chaos

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  12. I LOVE mushrooms!!! :)
    Thanks for this tip!
    One question: how is the texture when you thaw & use them?

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  13. We just bought 8lbs of Shrooms so thanks for the instructions on how to freeze them !!!

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  14. My family and I LOVE mushrooms. Unfortunately, they don't go on sale very often (at least where we live), so we don't eat them as much as we would love. Thank you so much for the helpful hint! I'll have to remember that for the future!

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