How to Rehydrate Dried Mushrooms

By The Smallhold Team

blue oyster dried mushrooms

While you can get all sorts of fancy with your rehydration, there are two main schools of thought on it – cold and hot. Either works. One just takes longer. 

Before you soak: If you’re not using dried Smallhold mushrooms, check to make sure there’s no dirt on them. If there is, just give them a quick rinse.

The Methods:

1) Cold: This is our preferred method. Put your dried mushrooms in a container, then fill it with water until they’re mostly submerged, and stick it covered in the fridge for up to 24 hours. 5 hours minimum. This will maximize the umami mushroom flavor. 


2) Room temp: We honestly do this all the time, mostly because a lot of us are very busy. Room temp water still keeps a lot of the flavor and takes about 30-60 min to get your mushrooms soft. Remove the stems for faster rehydration. 


3) Hot: Just kidding, this is actually broth. If you want to make mushroom broth simmer your mushrooms for about 15 minutes. We recommend adding other veg like carrots and onions, as well as some salt. You can also use a pressure cooker, like an Instapot: add a few cups of water and a few handfuls of mushrooms and set your timer to 10 minutes. Instant broth!

Check out our recipes page for more tasty ideas using our dried mushrooms!