Mushroom stems

I would like start making my own mushroom stock at home but it would take me a while to ammass enough mushroom stems to do so. How can I keep them? should I freeze them? Washed or unwashed? Should I dry them? Also, can I freeze the soaking liquid left from dried mushroom?

[Isa]

In The Making Of A cook, the authour suggest buying dried mushroom and reducing them to powder to add to a stock. Maybe this could give you a base for your mushroom stock.

Thank you Sisi, that must be delicious. And a bit expensive. In the meantime, I have some portobello stems sitting on my counter from tonight's omelette. Do you think there's any hope for them? I guess cooking school is getting to me: waste not want not...

[Isa]

What if you dried your mushrooms in the oven? Surely it must be possible. I wish I could give you more advice but I never tried it myself. Don't see why it wouldn't work though.

[cape chef]

Hey folks,

slice a few shallots,peel a couple cloves of garlic, buy some fresh thyme,dice your stems,dice a tomato,saute the shallots ,garlic and stems ,give them some color add the thyme,a couple black peppercorns and a bay leaf, cook for a moment add some kosher salt and the tomato reduce,deglaze with some white vermouth and sherry,reduce by half add some water,simmer again for 20 minutes,check the seasoning adjust,strain,Don't forget to push all the goodness through,and freeze. Bada bing bada bang...mushroom stock
cc

Cape Chef,
I have (gasp..) TWO stems (albeit fat ones) on my counter right now... If I get around to accumulating more you can be sure I will follow your recipe though.. Thanks!

[cape chef]

That's to funny,
Make a stock for that chipmunk who is always looking for some good food
cc

I've dehydrated many items with my dehydrating machine. Fruit, veggies, even beef. Before that, I used dry ice. Interestingly (to me, that is), I must type. If you use the machine, inexpensive and available via delivery online, you can then "hydropack" them or freeze them directly. They'll keep for a year or more. I've used these dehydrated items for daily recipes that include jams/jellies/chutneys, sauces, stuffings, appetizers, pastes... Need I type more?

My darling husband chucked my stems. (Sigh..!) That's what you get for implementing the I-cook-you-clean rule.
Oh well, I'll save this info for the next time. Thanks to all.

By the way: so freezing is out of the question then? (My kitchen is too small for yet another appliance, Angelina)

[mudbug]

Anneke,

I admire your willingness to collect the stems.

Do you have an asian grocery store near you? I just bought a whole package of dried shitake mushrooms for $2.50. More than enough to make stock because their flavor is so much stronger than say button mushrooms. (I usually end up throwing away the insfused water they rehydrate in.) I can't imagine this is more expensive than purchasing so many mushrooms over a long period of time....

How much powder do you need? Are you following a particular recipe?

[shroomgirl]

Anneke~ If I had two portabello stems I'd thinnly slice in circles and saute until crisp in olive oil. Use as croutons in a salad or just to munch.

Dried shrooms make better stock. duxelle does freeze well, mince your stems and saute with shallots and I use a wild shroom for more flavor (morel, black trumpet, porcini etc) cook down with cream and freeze in portion size.

Cchiu: I'm not following a particular recipe, I really just feel guilty about throwing away so much flavour potential with my shitake and portabello stems. But you are right, for a stock, those cheaper dried mushrooms would be a good start. Thanks for the idea.

Shroomgirl, thanks for the tip, I didn't know you could freeze duxelle. I usually avoid freezing products that contain cream. I noticed in you other posts that you mention black trumpets a lot. THey are my favourites. Sadly they are very difficult to find up here. Guess I'll have to rely on a mail order source.

Thanks to all of you: your tips are great!

Note to the moderators: you guys should gather up all the info that is exchanged on this web site and write a book!

I worked with a chef who was always concerned with saving money and not wasting food. He used mushroom stems in a type of stuffing. In a food processor blend mushroom stems, a 1/4 lb. butter, herbs, cracker or bread crumbs, garlic salt. He topped fish, clam or oyster appetizers before broiling them. He also stuffed mushroom caps with the mix, baked them and used them as a garnish.

[chefjohnpaul]

You can blanch and freeze your stems.

I just chuck all the scraps and leftovers into zip-locks in the freezer until I have enough for stock. I don't even bother to blanch anything. Of course I separate the meat scraps into different bags by type. Onions (including peels - nice for color), celery, carrots can go together since I generally use them together. I freeze mushroom stems and even slightly over-the-hill caps separately.
Freezing changes the texture of course but doesn't seem to effect the flavor for stock. After I finish the stock I throw the solids away so the texture doesn't matter.
Sometime my freezer looks like a garbage pile and then it's time to make stock. Thrifty, thrifty. Waste not, want not.