Drying mushrooms

No, not the little magic variety (which used to be straightforward enough…) but some meaty ceps. Never dried them before and would like to get it right first time. Options at the moment are:

Sliced and laid out on wire tray in fan oven at defrost setting
Sliced and laid out on a wire tray in the airing cupboard

But does anyone have a tried and trusted method?

why do you want to dry them ?
slice and dry them in the airing cupboard..gud idea.. until someone dumps aload of fresh clean towels on them

Get some Epsom salts and microwave them hard.

Use that as a desicant in a box to dry your mushrooms off.

Or if you can't be arsed to do that, use cat litter instead.

What quirrel says any desicant will do the job well

Just make sure you wash off the cat litter afterwards. Although I guess then they'll get wet again.
hmmm….

Dessicant – good idea, I hadn't thought of that. In the spirit of scientific enquiry I have two batches: one in a low fan oven and the other in the airing cupboard. Looks like it may take a day or two.

No need to roll them in it.

Setup so that they are above the the dessicant, if you have an old steam cooker around that will work (don't turn it on though)

Also using a fan can improve drying times a lot.

Yes, I've used fan heater in the past very successfully (and expensively I guess). The ceps spent a night on a rack on the aga and have dried very nicely. Will need a few more to fill a Kilner jar.

I found one at the back of the fridge a few days ago, that was about a centimetre long. Christ only knows how long it's been there, but it's rock hard and my eleven year old complained somethong rotten when I threw it at his head.

i usually dry ceps in a fan oven with the door ajar on the lowest heat as they are very prone to fly strike and this drys them QUICK
however for best results you want to dry mushrooms slowly and for this a fridge is best – just keep wiping the inside out with kitchen roll.
i have need to dry lots of mushrooms as i pick LOTS every year and have been wanting to make a drying box from a de-humidifier and a cardboard box
HAPPY PICKING

You can buy dehydraters fairly cheaply as well.

I usually use the airing cupboard, but i shall try the other methods here for todays batch, ive had a day out picking with the dog, 35 bay boletes, 3 boletus pinosomatorother, 10 brown birch boletes, what are peoples thoughts on removing the spongy underside? sorry for hijack.

i only remove the spongy 'gills' if they are really damaged.
i was in sainsburys today and the dried ceps were 9 quid for 100g. . wish i could sell mine for that – ive got 1.7 kg dried already this year !

Thanks, thats generally what i do with bays, penny buns nearly always look good underneath,thanks for the info, i had 2 penny buns which weighed 370 gms, a friend picked 40 last wkend and 10 in the week, tis a bolete year this 1.