Pickled wood ear mushroom relish and how to use it. From foraged wild mushrooms.

My pickled wood ear mushroom relish on grilled Polish sausage with 2 kinds of mustard, grilled peppers and caramelized onions. It tastes as good as it looks!

Wood ear mushrooms are generally regulated exclusively to Asian cuisine, where they are revered as both food and medicine. A Google search will reveal recipes for hot and sour soup, spicy Sichuan salad and the occasional stir-fry.

All great recipes (I've shared my version of hot and sour and Sichuan salad before), but I had to wonder: is there a way for this easy-to-identify wild mushroom to enter main-stream American cuisine?

Wood ear mushroom (also known as tree ear, jelly ear and Latin name: Auricularia auricula), faces a couple of huge challenges.

First, it looks like this:

Despite their unappetizing appearance, wood ear mushrooms have
no flavor, and absorb the taste of whatever you cook them with. 

And second, it has a weird, gelatinous, crunchy texture.

But taste? It doesn't taste bad, in fact, it doesn't really taste like anything. Which is what gave me the idea to pickle it and create a relish.

After all, a good relish is crunchy (wood ear: check) and absorbs the flavors of the vinegar and spices (wood ear: check). Why a relish over a traditional snack pickle? I'm not sure, except I was bored with just pickling things, and I also felt the thin flesh of the wood ear wouldn't hold up as well as a snack food.

The important thing is that they came out great!


I've done a pretty basic dill pickle here, garlic, black pepper, dill, coriander, salt, vinegar, sugar. I wanted to make sure it worked with the basic recipe before I went nuts trying spicy or overly sweet concoctions.

I've made some edits to the process from what I did.  I've added a small bag to keep the hard spice seeds from getting mixed up into your relish.

Since it holds up so well, you could probably use any pickling recipe you like, but this was mine:

Dill and garlic pickled wood ear mushrooms

Fills a 1 quart mason jar, feel free to halve or quarter the recipe.
Note, you will need a small natural (un-dyed/unpainted) cotton, cheesecloth or canvas bag for this recipe. 

2 cups fresh or rehydrated wood ear mushrooms
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
Water
10 cloves of garlic, sliced
4 tsp sea or kosher salt
4 tsp sugar
3 tsp dried dill
2 bay leaves
2 tsp dried coriander seeds
1 tsp black pepper seeds

1. Boil 6 cups of water in a medium saucepan. Add your wood ears and boil for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, drain (reserving 1 cup of the liquid) and rinse with cold water. Set aside.
2. Finely mince your wood ears and place them in a large glass or ceramic jar. Do not use plastic or metal when pickling.
3. Place your coriander, black pepper and bay leaves inside a small, un-dyed canvas, cotton or cheesecloth bag. *
4. Add your spice bag, vinegar, salt, sugar, garlic, and reserved mushroom liquid to the sauce pan and bring to a boil. Boil for about 4 minutes, stirring until the salt and sugar is completely mixed in, then pour into the jar with the mushrooms. Push everything down to release air bubbles and keep filling until covered.
5. Seal the jar and set in the fridge for at least 48 hours before you try them. They will keep for 2 weeks or so in the fridge.

* Note: I didn't use a small bag for the spices, and my pepper seeds and coriander got all mixed into my mushroom relish. This kind of made it an eating hazard, so I would recommend a spice bag.

So what have I been doing with a QUART of relish?  See below: 

Using them as a condiment for sandwiches and on meat

Relish tastes surprisingly good on eggs.

Why yes, I am eating potato salad with pickled mushrooms for breakfast.
Don't judge till you try it!

Potato salad with pickled wood ear mushrooms

Serves 5-10 as a side dish

2 lbs red potatoes, sliced
1 small red or white onion, diced
1/2 cup pickled wood ear mushroom relish
2 tbs. pickling juice from the wood ear mushroom relish
3 tbs. mayonnaise (or to taste)
1 tbs. dijon mustard
1 tbs. spicy brown mustard
freshly ground black pepper
celery salt
paprika to serve (optional)

1. Boil the potato slices in lightly salted water until cooked through
2. Mix potatoes, onion, relish, pickling juice, mayo, and mustards in a large bowl. Add more mayo, if desired. Taste for flavor.
3. Season with black pepper and celery salt, if needed. Allow to cool, and serve with a sprinkle of paprika. 

Curious about how to identify this wild edible mushroom for yourself? 

 Check out my post here!