Soaking dried mushrooms

[afn33282]

Hey eGullet,

I think I posted on this earlier, but I couldn't find it. When soaking dried mushrooms, one is advised to change the water several times. Why? And would it ever be appropriate to use the soaking water in the resulting sauce/finished dish? Why or why not? Also, when would this apply to other ingredients you might soak to reconstitute? Thanks a lot.

[chow guy]

I always soak dried mushrooms and fungus etc. once in hot water, then carefully pour off the flavorful soaking liquid (making sure to leave sand etc. behind). Then I strain it again through a fine seive and use it in cooking.

[PCL]

Now, depending on mushroom types, soaking time may vary. You don't want to cook the little critters.

Having said that, can anyone provide a rough guide to shroom types?? and soaking times??...

I've found that for dried Shitake, a hot blanch, followed by a cold soak for 2-3 hours is good. Water from the hot blanch is discarded (cooled and fed to plants) and the cold soak water can be used as a broth/sauce base or flavouring agent.

[godito]

I wish I had a guide to soaking times... I can only help you with shiitakes, even though you have those covered. However we used to soak them in cold water overnight. The "shroom-water" was potent and tasty. We used it as stock.

As for almost every other mushroom I've run across, I soak them in lukewarm water for 1-3 hours and always keep the water (even though I sometimes don't use it)

[SuzySushi]

Dried mushrooms, I mostly use shiitake. Sometimes I give them a quick rinse to discard surface grit, but I don't change the soaking water. I usually save the soaking water to use in the recipe, and strain it through a paper coffee filter -- which takes only a few seconds -- to get out any sand.

[Kevin72]

Dried porcini, which I use most, take about 40 minutes, tops. Anything more than that and they're too soft, nearly falling apart, and flavorless.

[origamicrane]

for large (2in) dried whole shiitake (not the sliced up type)

soak in cold water for 4-6 hours.

When the stem can be cut off easily rather then sawed off they are done.

definitely keep the liquid!

use it for stock or use it to cook your rice.

Either filter the liquid to get rid of the grit or just don't use the last bit.

[BarbaraY]

The last shitake that I got take about 1/2 an hour to soften. Porcini took about 1 hour.

I made Hot and Sour soup a couple of days ago and used the soaking water as part of the broth.

I save the porcini water to use in the sauce.

[jsolomon]

When I soak mushrooms, I usually do it in wine, so that stuff definitely gets saved.

Somewhere between 15 and 90 minutes is what I've found to be sufficient. Sometimes they get sped along slightly with a low burner.