There are a lot of people who pass on pheasant backs, which is a shame because they’re easy to identify, plentiful, and delicious. A lot of people say they’re too tough to be bothered with, which is really such a bummer, because with just a little bit of thought and effort, these beauties can be transformed into all kinds of delicious dishes. I’ve written in a previous post about how we sort our pheasant backs by “grade”- even large mushrooms are often tender around the edges, and so we will slice off the soft outer edge first, and use that for any recipe that would normally call for mushrooms. The middle of the mushroom is often questionable- it’s soft enough for the knife to pass through with just a little bit of effort, but is often too chewy to be enjoyable on its own. This is where we’ve been doing a lot of experimentation- you can always dehydrate it and use it as a powder or as a base for stocks, but with how plentiful these mushrooms are, you wind up with a lot of stock base. 

We had an abundance of dried pheasant backs, so we decided to experiment with a pickle recipe. We’ve done this before with dried shiitakes, which also have a little more toothsomeness, and so we thought this would work out nicely. Left in the pickling brine for a few days, the mushrooms rehydrated and even seemed to break down and soften a little. They’re tart and salty and sweet all at once- a nice little snack or garnish for a sandwich or pate. You’ll want to make sure that the dried pheasant backs you’re using are not from the woody stem section of the mushroom, but rather from the middle, so they are not too tough. We separate our mushrooms out as we are cutting them into three piles- choice, middle, and stem. We loaded up the dehydrator with some of the middle and all of the stem pieces, but kept them on separate racks so we knew what was what. 

Pickled Pheasant Back Mushrooms

The tougher your pheasant back mushrooms, the smaller you’ll want to cut them before you dehydrate them.

Ingredients:

1 cup dehydrated pheasant back mushrooms (choice or middle sections)

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup sherry vinegar

⅓ cup sugar

2-3” ginger, peeled, cut lengthwise

2 cups water

Method:

Bring the two cups of water to a boil, then cut the heat. Add in mushrooms, cover, and allow to rehydrate for 20-30 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients to the mushrooms & water, and stir to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a low simmer for 30 minutes. Allow to cool. 

They’re ready to eat immediately, but they get better in the fridge as they age. We start eating ours after about a week.