Growing amanita muscaria mushrooms at home can be a fun and rewarding experience, but it can present some challenges, especially when it comes to drying and preserving. You want to ensure your mushrooms are one hundred percent dry so you can use them safely.
If you’re looking for information on drying your mushrooms properly, keep reading! This article will give you a solid overview of your options for achieving thoroughly dried amanita muscaria quickly and conveniently.
Drying Amanita Muscaria: What Are My Options?
Food Dehydrator
A food dehydrator is arguably the best and fastest method of drying your mushrooms. Food dehydrators are temperature-controlled and get made for the specific purpose of safely drying edible products.
Begin by cutting your mushrooms into medium-sized slices. It’s okay to have some variance between the sizes of your mushroom slices, but you don’t want to mix small pieces with much larger ones. If you do, you may end up with some overdried pieces mixed in with some that aren’t fully dry. That is true regardless of what drying method you’re using.
Once your mushrooms get cut, lay them in one layer in your food dehydrator, and you’re ready to go!
Temperature: 125F (52C)
Duration: Between 3 and 8 hours, depending on the number of mushrooms and the quality of your dehydrator.
Oven Drying
Not the first choice for drying amanita muscaria – or any psychoactive mushroom – but if it’s all you have access to, you can make it work if you’re careful.
Simply lay the mushrooms in a single layer on a baking sheet, and let the oven do its magic.
Not all ovens have a low setting, so using them for drying mushrooms is risky. If the temperature is too high, you may cook your mushrooms instead of just drying them. That can discolor them and destroy their potency.
Temperature: 150F
Duration : 3 to 8 hours, depending on the number of mushrooms.
Air Drying
This method takes the longest, but it’s safe for your mushrooms because you don’t have to worry about them overheating.
The best way to air dry mushrooms is to use a window screen. A screen is big enough to accommodate even a large number of mushrooms, allowing air to reach the fungus from all sides, improving drying time.
The process is simple. Lay your window screen down with the ends supported, whether on two small tables, chairs, or whatever you can on hand, preferably in a sunny spot. Place the mushrooms in a single layer on the screen, then turn on a fan and possibly a dehumidifier.
Keep an eye on the mushrooms regularly to check progress. As long as the mushrooms are dry, you’re fine. Some people prefer to follow up the air drying with an extra drying session by a fireplace or woodstove.
Temperature: room temperature
Duration: 3 to 5 days
Additional Tips
- Mushrooms that have some dampness left in them can attract unhealthy bacteria and fungi. To be preserved safely, mushrooms need to be completely dry. An excellent way to judge dryness is if the pieces of mushroom crack when broken in half. This state gets often referred to as “cracker-dry.”
- Some people find that desiccant packets (silica powder) can help the air-drying process. To speed things up, you can place the packets on a paper towel and put the paper on top of the mushrooms toward the end of the drying time.
- Some evidence shows that heat-drying helps reduce mushroom compounds that can cause nausea. If you plan to ingest your dried mushrooms, you can use heat drying or finish with a quick heat drying after your air-dry.
Conclusion
Whichever mushroom drying method you choose, remember to keep an eye on your’ shrooms as they dry so that you can track their progress. Once they’re drying and reaching room temperature, you can place them in sealed glass jars. Refrigerate your jars for the best results.
You may also be interested in finding out how to get rid of a mushroom from a potted plant.