peterk123
NES Member
I was blessed to find about twenty pounds of these things about a month ago. Some were sliced up, breaded and enjoyed. But with the rest I chopped it up in a food processor, threw it in a skillet and cooked out most of the moisture. Then into ziploc bags and into the freezer it went. My wife has been using it instead of bread crumbs on baked chicken breast. Combined with crumbled french onions from the store and you have an incredible baked on batter.
Well today I took the rest of my vension hamburger, some regular hamburger and made a large batch of meatballs. My meatballs have minced garlic, onions, bell peppers, eggs parmesan cheese, herbs, salt, black pepper and usually, bread crumbs. Today I substituted the bread crumbs with the shrooms. The result was fantastic. I had to triple the amount of eggs so it would be moist and help with the formation of the meatballs, but I was thrilled with the results. The shrooms were a great filler and actually good for you. I probably should have ground them finer and then it would have been just like using bread crumbs but I actually like the bits in the meat. Will grind it fine next time and see which version I like better. The entire batch of meatballs were than pressure canned in beef broth. I used to do it in sauce but doing it in broth is way more versatile. Want spaghetti and meatballs? Dump the broth and throw the balls into tomato sauce. Actually, do not dump the broth. Save it for beef stock.
My fall mushroom hunting was not a huge success, limited to Hens and Chickens, but I managed to fill the freezer door entirely and then some in the stand up freezer. Probably 30 pounds in total. I dehydrated some hens as well. I have used the dehydrated ones in soups with very good success. But the chickens are the perfect filler for meat. Next they will be incorporated into some meatloaf.
Well today I took the rest of my vension hamburger, some regular hamburger and made a large batch of meatballs. My meatballs have minced garlic, onions, bell peppers, eggs parmesan cheese, herbs, salt, black pepper and usually, bread crumbs. Today I substituted the bread crumbs with the shrooms. The result was fantastic. I had to triple the amount of eggs so it would be moist and help with the formation of the meatballs, but I was thrilled with the results. The shrooms were a great filler and actually good for you. I probably should have ground them finer and then it would have been just like using bread crumbs but I actually like the bits in the meat. Will grind it fine next time and see which version I like better. The entire batch of meatballs were than pressure canned in beef broth. I used to do it in sauce but doing it in broth is way more versatile. Want spaghetti and meatballs? Dump the broth and throw the balls into tomato sauce. Actually, do not dump the broth. Save it for beef stock.
My fall mushroom hunting was not a huge success, limited to Hens and Chickens, but I managed to fill the freezer door entirely and then some in the stand up freezer. Probably 30 pounds in total. I dehydrated some hens as well. I have used the dehydrated ones in soups with very good success. But the chickens are the perfect filler for meat. Next they will be incorporated into some meatloaf.

