The tested, shelf-stable pickled mushroom recipe from the National Center for Home Food Preservation. It also appears in the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning. Small whole mushrooms go into an oil-and-vinegar marinade with oregano, basil, onion, pimento, garlic and peppercorns, and are processed in a boiling-water canner.
It surprises people twice. It contains two cups of oil, and it needs no pressure canner, because the acid does the work: enough vinegar and lemon juice bring the jars below pH 4.6, and the oil is irrelevant to that. Follow it exactly. Do not reduce the vinegar or lemon juice, and do not substitute wild mushrooms.
Untested in my kitchen: this is the NCHFP’s tested process, reproduced faithfully.
Ingredients
- 7 lb small whole mushrooms (caps under 1 1/4 inches)
- 1/2 cup bottled lemon juice
- 2 cups olive or salad oil
- 2 1/2 cups white vinegar (5% acidity)
- 1 tablespoon oregano leaves
- 1 tablespoon dried basil leaves
- 1 tablespoon canning or pickling salt
- 1/2 cup finely chopped onions
- 1/4 cup diced pimento
- 2 cloves garlic, cut in quarters
- 25 black peppercorns
Directions
Key ingredients
- Select and trim. Choose very fresh, unopened mushrooms with caps less than 1 1/4 inches across. Wash them, and trim the stems to leave 1/4 inch attached to the cap.
- Pre-cook. Add the lemon juice and water to cover. Bring to the boil and simmer 5 minutes. Drain.
- The marinade. Heat the oil, vinegar, oregano, basil and salt in a saucepan. Stir in the onion and pimento and bring to the boil.
- Pack. Put 1/4 garlic clove and 2 to 3 peppercorns in each half-pint jar. Fill with mushrooms and the hot, well-mixed oil and vinegar solution, leaving 1/2 inch of headspace. Remove air bubbles, wipe the rims and adjust the lids.
- Process in a boiling-water canner, half-pints:
- 0 to 1,000 ft — 20 minutes
- 1,001 to 3,000 ft — 25 minutes
- 3,001 to 6,000 ft — 30 minutes
- Above 6,000 ft — 35 minutes
Notes
Where this recipe came from The National Center for Home Food Preservation (University of Georgia), “Marinated Whole Mushrooms”, nchfp.uga.edu. Yield: about 9 half-pints. The same recipe appears in the USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning, Guide 6.
Why this is safe and mushrooms under oil often aren’t Italy’s ISS names insufficient acidification, not the oil, as the most frequent error in home preserves under oil, and lists home-preserved mushrooms in oil among the leading causes of botulism in Italy. This recipe carries its acid in tested proportions. See the Mushrooms dive’s preserving page and the Pickled section’s under-oil page.
Plain canned mushrooms The NCHFP has a separate pressure-canning process for plain mushrooms, for cultivated mushrooms only. Its instructions state: “Caution: Do not can wild mushrooms.”
Refrigerator pickles Polish Marinated Mushrooms (Grzyby Marynowane), Tangy Pickled Mushrooms.