ISO help/advice dehydrating mushrooms

[raidencmc]

I made a recipe before where I dehydrated mushrooms in the oven to use as bacon. They worked well as bacon bits. I now have a dehydrator and would like to try it that way. The recipe had them tossed in oil and seasoned. I'm pretty sure I can't use the oil in the dehydrator. So how would I make the seasoning stick to the mushrooms? Just water ? And do I need to blanch them?

 

[JustJoel]

Your question intrigued me, even though I haven’t dehydrated anything in years (some things tend to dehydrate naturally here in the desert. People included, lol). So I did a little research. Most recipes I found didn’t specifically ban oil, but none of them included it. But it appears you can use oil when you dehydrate mushrooms, although it greatly shortens their shelf life. You can extend their shelf life by vacuum packing them.

If you want to season the mushrooms, one site suggests adding your spices to water, lemon juice, or vinegar, then brushing the mushrooms with it. The lemon juice or the vinegar would be better than water, I imagine, because they would add some flavor and tang, but I don’t know if that is desirable in mushroom bacon.

I’d never heard of mushroom bacon until I read your post. I’m no vegan, but I never really liked American bacon. Mushroom bacon sounds like a tasty and versatile replacement (not to mention much healthier). It sounds delicious! I’ll have to either find my old, noisy dehydrator or run up my electric bill by keeping the oven on for twelve hours or so, but I want to try it! Thanks for the inspiration.

 

[raidencmc]

http://brokeassgourmet.com/articles/mushroom-bacon
This is not the recipe I tried but close. I could not find the one I used. I also used portabella cause they are my favorite. I live in mushroom country and can get them whenever I want.

 

[raidencmc]

I know it has been a while but ended up using A-1 Steak sauce. And I used toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much. I made them in December and then put them in the fridge ( but I don't think I really needed too). They were so tough I thought I was going to break a tooth. I tried to eat them and enjoy them but I couldn't. I have decided to try and bake them in the oven as bacon to crumble over a salad or toss on a burger but have not gotten to it yet. When I do it again I will change the recipe and dehydrate longer. But not sure how long.

Your question intrigued me, even though I haven’t dehydrated anything in years (some things tend to dehydrate naturally here in the desert. People included, lol). So I did a little research. Most recipes I found didn’t specifically ban oil, but none of them included it. But it appears you can use oil when you dehydrate mushrooms, although it greatly shortens their shelf life. You can extend their shelf life by vacuum packing them.

If you want to season the mushrooms, one site suggests adding your spices to water, lemon juice, or vinegar, then brushing the mushrooms with it. The lemon juice or the vinegar would be better than water, I imagine, because they would add some flavor and tang, but I don’t know if that is desirable in mushroom bacon.

I’d never heard of mushroom bacon until I read your post. I’m no vegan, but I never really liked American bacon. Mushroom bacon sounds like a tasty and versatile replacement (not to mention much healthier). It sounds delicious! I’ll have to either find my old, noisy dehydrator or run up my electric bill by keeping the oven on for twelve hours or so, but I want to try it! Thanks for the inspiration.