How to Can Mushrooms at Home - Easily! With Step-by-step Directions, Photos, Ingredients, Recipe and Costs

How to Can Mushrooms at Home - Easily! With Step-by-step Directions, Photos, Ingredients, Recipe and Costs

Yield: any quantity

Making and canning your own is easy and safe.  All you need is a pressure canner and canning jars,!

Ingredients

• Mushrooms - An average of 14-1/2 pounds of mushrooms are needed per canner load of 9 pints; an average of 7-1/2 pounds is needed per canner load of 9 half-pints - an average of 2 pounds per pint.
• ascorbic acid powder, or a 500-milligram tablet of vitamin C or Fruit Fresh.
• Table salt

Equipment

• Pressure canner
• Pint of half-pint (8 ounce) canning jars)
• Saucepan or pot

Directions - Step by Step

Canning Mushrooms - Whole or Sliced

Step 1 - Choose and wash the mushrooms.

Select only brightly colored, small to medium-size domestic mushrooms with short stems, tight veils (unopened caps), and no discoloration. Caution: Do not can wild mushrooms. Trim stems and discolored parts. Soak in cold water for 10 minutes to remove dirt. Wash in clean water.

Step 2 - Cut larger mushrooms

Leave small mushrooms whole; cut large ones.

Step 3 - Cook for 5 minutes

Cover with water in a saucepan and boil 5 minutes.

Step 4 - Fill the jars

Fill the jars with hot mushrooms, leaving 1-inch headspace.

Step 5 - Add salt and Vitamin C

Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt per pint to the jar, if desired. For better color, add 1/8 teaspoon of ascorbic acid powder, or a 500-milligram tablet of vitamin C.

Step 6 - Top with hot water to 1 inch of headspace

Add fresh hot water, if needed, being sure to leave 1-inch of headspace.

Step 7 - Seal the jars and process in the pressure canner

Adjust lids and process following the recommendations in Table 1 or Table 2 according to the type of canner and canning method you will use:

Step 8 - Turn off the heat and let it cool down

When the processing time from the chart above is up, turn off the heat, and allow the pressure canner to cool and the pressure to drop to zero before opening the canner.  Let the jars cool without being jostled. After the pressure drops to zero (usually, you can tell but the "click" sound of the safety release vents opening, as well as but the gauge.  Let the pressure in the canner drop to zero by itself. This may take 45 minutes in a 16-quart canner filled with jars and almost an hour in a 22-quart canner. If the vent is opened before the pressure drops to zero OR if the cooling is rushed by running cold water over the canner, liquid will be lost from the jars. Too rapid cooling causes loss of liquid in the jars!

Step 9 - Remove the jars

Lift the jars out of the water and let them cool on a wooden cutting board or a towel,  without touching or bumping them in a draft-free place (usually takes overnight), here they won't be bumped. You can then remove the rings if you like, but if you leave them on, at least loosen them quite a bit, so they don't rust in place due to trapped moisture. Once the jars are cool, you can check that they are sealed verifying that the lid has been sucked down. Just press in the center, gently, with your finger. If it pops up and down (often making a popping sound), it is not sealed. If you put the jar in the refrigerator right away, you can still use it. Some people replace the lid and reprocess the jar, then that's a bit iffy. If you heat the contents back up, re-jar them (with a new lid) and the full time in the canner, it's usually ok. You're done!

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This document was adapted from the "Complete Guide to Home Canning," Agriculture Information Bulletin No. 539, USDA, revised 2006.

Reviewed May 2009.

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