Published: Modified: Author: Alan Bergo
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If you've ever wondered if you can eat the stems of honey mushrooms, which can be fibrous, you can and it can literally double the size of your harvest. The secret is peeling them to make them extra tender.
Honey mushrooms season is lightning fast. If you're a few days late; you can miss it altogether. I love these mushrooms, but not nearly as much as the families from Eastern Europe who stalk our Minnesota woods.
They're a great mushroom with a sweet note, and on good years it can seem like every oak tree in the forest is infected with them. If you get them at the right time, you can get pounds of perfect buttons. If you're really lucky, you can find large mushrooms with thick meaty stems too.
Honey mushrooms definitely have a sweet note that builds after you taste them. It is a rich, umami quality, much deeper than any shiitake (they are in the same family) could ever be.
Every person I have ever served them to has loved them. Eastern European mushroom hunters love them. I have a few different Russian and Ukranian cookbooks, they often call for an ingredient known as "Pidpenky": the honey mushroom. One of the traditional ways to cook them is mushrooms with sour cream.
Honey Mushroom Stems
Honey mushrooms can grow to have stems that are ridiculously long, and I've seen some over a foot in length.
Just like the greens of beets and turnips can be cooked alongside their underground counterpart, thelong stem of the honey mushroom is part of the mushroom, and they're good to eat, if they're peeled.
If you find really nice specimens with no bug damage, you can really come away with a good haul of free, delicious food. All it takes is a couple minutes to peel them. They're tender and great to eat, and could be made into any number of things If you don't want to just throw them into the frying pan.
Step-By-Step
First, clean the mushrooms and remove any dirt. You can brush them or swish them briefly in water if needed. Next you'll trim the stems to a reasonable length, about 2-3 inches.
The stems can be peeled with a vegetable peeler, or peeled by hand.
Once the stems are peeled, cut them and the caps into roughly even-sized pieces. Heat the mushrooms in a non-stick pan on medium to medium-high heat. It's important to cook them for at least 15 minutes as undercooked honey mushrooms can make some people sick.
When the mushrooms are golden brown and caramelized, season them with a pinch of salt and pepper to taste. You can also finish them with chopped fresh herbs like thyme, parsley, chives, basil or mint. Adding crushed red pepper is good too.
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4.67 from 12 votes
Sauteed Honey Mushroom Caps and Stems
Simple sauteed honey mushroom caps and stems. For the most tender result, you must peel the stems.
Prep Time15 minutes mins
Cook Time10 minutes mins
Total Time25 minutes mins
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: American
Keyword: Honey Mushrooms
Servings: 2 People
Calories: 204kcal
Author: Alan Bergo
Cost: 2
Ingredients
- 6 oz Long clusters of honey mushrooms and their attached stems
- Kosher salt and pepper
- 1-2 Tablespoons cooking oil or fat for sauteing like grapeseedm avocado, canola, etc.
- 1 clove garlic crushed with the back of a knife (optional)
- 1 small handful fresh thyme sprigs (optional)
Instructions
Clean the mushrooms
Ideally your honey mushrooms are clean. If they look dirty at all, you'll want to rinse or swish them one at a time in some cool water, laying them out on paper towels to dry.
Cooking
Trim the caps from the honey mushrooms and peel the stems. Cut the stems into bite sized pieces of about an inch.
Heat the oil in a non-stick pan such as cast iron on medium-high heat and add the mushrooms. Cook stirring occasionally until the mushrooms are hot and have released their liquid, about 10 minutes.
Turn down the heat to medium, then add the garlic and thyme if using.
Add the remaining tablespoon of oil if needed and cook until the mushrooms are starting to brown.
Add a good pinch of salt, stirring the pan to release any caps or stems that may have stuck.
Continue cooking the mushrooms for another 5 minutes or so until they've started to color and are thoroughly cooked. When the mushrooms are golden and caramelized, taste a small piece, adjust the seasoning for salt, then serve.
Video
Notes
Remember to always cook honeys thoroughly, make darn sure they're done. If they are not cooked through they could give you an upset stomach.
As some people are sensitive to honey mushrooms, you should only serve this to people who know they aren't sensitive to them.
Nutrition
Serving: 3oz | Calories: 204kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 21g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 13g | Trans Fat: 0.1g | Sodium: 6mg | Potassium: 270mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 3mg | Iron: 0.4mg
I cannot take credit for this method. I David Arora's book All The Rain Promises And More, he describes this very use of honey mushroom stems. When I read this for the first time though it was a revelation to me: "So thats how I can process and make use of that huge stem!"
After I tried this with honey mushrooms, I began to experiment with other types of mushrooms in the same family (Armillaria) that the honeys are in. Shiitake mushrooms are a great example. Typically people will just cut off the stem of shiitake and call it a day. If you have large cultivated specimens though, they may come with extra big stems. This method works as well for large stems like agaricus bisporus and its cousins from your grocery store (cremini, white button, portobello).
