Important: Safety Warning
This page offers rules for telling edible mushrooms from poisonous ones. No such rules are reliable, and these identifications predate modern mycology. Deadly species closely resemble edible ones, and mistakes are regularly fatal. Never eat a wild mushroom on the strength of this text.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
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Dried Mushrooms
Wild mushrooms should be dried as soon as gathered; cultivated mushrooms will stand delay much better. Remove the stems and peel the caps; break the stems apart lengthwise, if thick. Set on agate or earthen plates over the range or in the sun. Cover, meanwhile, with coarse cheesecloth raised above the mushrooms.
Stir frequently. The mushrooms will be thoroughly dried in twenty-four hours.
Scald in a moderately cool oven before storing, also heat very hot at the start if the weather be hot and damp. The oven should not be hot enough to discolor the vegetables in the least, either at start or finish. Heating at first is to obviate all liability of souring. Heating the vegetables when dry is to sterilize and remove danger from germs that may have settled on the articles during drying.