How to marinate and pickle mushrooms

Here is a small how to for all of us who cant resist grabbing that teeny jar of pickled mushrooms, despite the ridiculous price tag. Next time you are at the grocery store resist the urge and pick up these instead;many of the ingredients you most likely already have at home- Mushrooms – Garlic bulb – Vinegar – Whole black pepper – Vegetable oil – Salt – Clean glass jar.

You can use these ingredients to create your own marinade, play around with it you can always add a thing or two or skip on something. However, if this is not your thing you can always pick up Italian dressing or many other oil based dressings and seasonings at the grocery store and just soak your mushrooms in that. This takes, depending on your taste and how strong you want the aroma to be, anywhere from couple of hours to a few days.

This option comes in very handy for last minute dishes when entertaining or such, you can prep it in the morning and by dinner when guests arrive your mushrooms are ready to wow them.

For those of you that want to try creating your own marinade read on:

-Wash and clean your mushrooms thoroughly.

-Put the mushrooms in a pot of lightly salted water, big enough to hold all of them and have them be completely covered (or swim in, as some like to do that) with water.

-Bring the water to a boil and drain your mushrooms.

-Combine all your ingredients, adding the right amounts by your taste standards until you are happy with the taste and the aroma. + The amount of marinade you will need is enough to cover all of your mushrooms once they are in the jar.

-Pour half an inch or so of marinade into a warm glass jar, now put in all of your mushrooms and then finish it off by pouring in the rest of the marinade in so it covers the mushrooms completely but you leave some room at the top of the jar.

-Close the jar tightly and let the mushrooms sit for about half an hour or so at room temperature, you don’t want to put them into the fridge while warm!

-After the mushrooms have cooled of you can put them into the fridge.

Tips:
-Clean glass jar does wonders. + You can either buy one or use an old pickle or jam jar. Make sure the jar is thoroughly washed, otherwise the smells and the flavors might mix and it wont be pretty.
-Add some extra vegetables. + Vegetables such as carrots, peppers or onions can pickle just as nicely as mushrooms and they look lovely and colorful when presented.
-Mushrooms usually come in a little box, they are either sliced or whole, a boxful will do just fine for your first time pickled mushrooms. + It doesn’t matter whether you pick sliced or whole mushrooms, however the whole ones look more presentable somehow.