Last Friday I got into a big mess of morels and gave them a quick rinse with the faucet sprayer just enough to knock off the bugs and dirt. Placed them in the fridge in a pan big enough to hold them all and placed a damp almost dry towel over the top of them. I rotated the damp towel with a new one every day to every other day to keep them from drying out to much. Question I have is I planned on dehydrating them out to preserve them what I have read online is only keep them for a few days not a week but they still look pretty good. No mold no funny smell they just don't look as fresh as day one, should i take them out of the fridge and put them on a screen and start drying them out now until I can get a dehydrator so they don't go bad? Witch will be by this weekend.
You don't need a dehydrator to dry morels. Just put em on a screen and don't let the cat play with em.
I've kept them in fruit n veggie drawer for 2 weeks and they still fry up just fine. Drying them might be better but flash freeze will help them last 3 months. Cut lengthwise in half, clean thoroughly (!) that means at least 3 rinses in very cold water, place on cookie sheet and lay flat in the freezer for 3 hours. Take them out and bag them with as little air in the bag as you can get by without breaking them .
Thanks shroom dog and peace guy I was getting nervous about them going bad on me as I found them deep in that thick if you know what I mean. I didn't cut them in half but the first 3 I found early in the season I rinsed really good and through them right in a bag and in the freezer until I found more to have a decent snack/meal instead of a teas. When I removed them and put them in a bowl of water with the the ones I found later to fry up the ones that came from the freezer we're unpleasantly soggy like they wanted to melt through the spaces between my fingers. Would the cookie sheet method and cutting them in half help prevent that as much or is that what they will come out regaudrless? As to the screen vs dehydrator method I read that the screen method won't get enough of the moisture out to keep them long term and could mold or mildew. Also same thread i was reading i read dehydrating helps preserve the flavor more then screen drying. Dehydrating them would be the method to store the longest correct? Shroom dog I read your post about last Sunday running into those shroomers with the hound dog and couldn't stop laughing for a hour lol.... good stuff...
