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How Do You Eat Yarsagumba?

How Do You Eat Yarsagumba?

When taking Yarsagumba as a supplement or medicine, use 1 to 2 pieces per dose, or 0.3 to 0.7 grams. You may brew it just like a herbal tea, add the powder form to milk or a smoothie, or even eat just like any other mushroom.

There is no need to take the Yarsagumba every day. One dose twice a week is more than enough. Try to keep at least 3 days between each dose.

Fresh vs dry

If you’re buying Yarsagumba whole, you are far more likely to get your hands on the dry stuff. That’s okay because this makes it easier to both sell and distribute and to keep in your pantry once you buy it.

The dry stuff is also a bit more versatile – you can use it to brew tea, make veggie dashi stock, crush into powder and mix with salt for seasoning, or blend into smoothies. However, depending on the drying method, there is a chance that some of the nutrition has disappeared. It should not be a large amount, but it’s still something to keep in mind.

On the other hand, fresh Yarsagumba has 100% of all of its nutrients, though it’s a bit more difficult to transport and store. It’s also more suitable for making tonics and lotions, though you could sneak some into your food as well.

Dehydrating Yarsagumba at home

Ideally, if you’re looking to preserve all of the nutrition, you may want to freeze-dry it. Freeze-drying does what it says on the tin – flash freezes then dehydrates the food. This method preserves 100% of the nutrients and moves the expiration date for years and not mere months.

However, not everyone has a couple of thousands of dollars to drop on one of these machines, so you may need to stick to classic dehydrations methods and equipment.

It’s better to avoid most dehydrator models that are marketed for home use. If you can dish out money for something better, make sure that it’s a model that has an option to turn off the heat completely.

If not, you can always pick up sun-drying nets and shelves, and chuck a large fan underneath to promote air circulation. Obviously, a lot of air is good, but even a small amount of heat may kill some of the nutrients in the Yarsagumba.

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Is Yarsagumba only taken orally?

Yes. For now, we can only confirm that it’s safe when taken orally, with topical and other applications still being under a huge question mark.

Are all parts of Yarsagumba used for medicine?

Though some cheaper products may also include the “stalk”, the “body” is where the magic is.

Yarsagumba resembles a chili pepper a bit, and that woody looking part is what we’re calling the stalk here. Technically, there are some beneficial compounds in it as well, but nothing that our bodies can extract on their own.

How do the Chinese consume Yarsagumba?

China makes a wast Yarsagumba market, and even so much that they have developed their own ways of cultivating it. They allow the spores to infect ghost moths and then let the fungus grow in a controlled environment.

This “farming” method is very efficient, but it’s still not ready for production on a larger scale. So, even though it’s not as expensive as the stiff that’s found in the wild, it’s still a premium product.

Probably the two oldest and most common ways a regular person would consume this fungus in China is either as tea or in a “restorative” soup. In the latter case, they would just add however much they can afford into a pot.

But in the case of tea, several preparation methods are recommended. Dry Yarsagumba can be used in the same way and ratio as dry tea leaves. To get the most nutrition, a cold brew may be the best idea – use the same ratio but with cold water, and leave it to infuse in the fridge for at least 12 hours.

Fresh fungi are not suitable for classic tea brewing methods and may work better with the cold brew technique.

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Jelly snacks

If you’ve ever landed your eyes on an Asian TV show, you might have seen the characters ooh and aah when they receive these nutritional jellies. Even without actors being paid handsomely to fawn over them, they are still pretty popular in the region and considered an appropriate (and in some cases a mandatory) gift when meeting or visiting people. Though it is a bit awkward for a young person to give this out to another youngster, there is no age limit on the suitable recipient.

In almost all on-screen cases it’s always ginseng, some companies also make Yarsagumba jellies. Or Yarsagumba could be chucked into the mix with ginseng or other medicinal plants.

They come in small sachets (on average, the size of 2 to 3 sachets of ketchup from a fast food restaurant), and may or may not have added flavor. Though, considering that in that part of the world it’s considered good when medicine tastes bad, a lot of companies broadcast how healthy their preparation is by not making it more palatable.

These products came into being with the mass-commercialization of traditional medicine. They were made for busy business people who can’t tote around cumbersome glass extract bottles, or have time to brew teas. They are available as casual, more affordable options in convenience stores, or as premium, beautifully packaged sets.

The truth is, you can make your own by turning a tea, extract, or tincture into a fluid gel. You can learn more about those from modernist cuisine chefs. The most fool-proof method is with glucomannan as a gelling agent – it doesn’t set on its own so you don’t have to worry about getting the dose exactly right. Also, it has a higher tolerance for acid in comparison to agar and gelatin if you’re planning to make the jelly with fruit juice.

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Tinctures

Tinctures are concentrated extracts made with alcohol or vinegar instead of water. Dosages are usually measured in drops and are either added to tea and other beverages, or sugar cubes for those who can’t stand bitterness at all.

This is usually the form you will find Yarsagumba if you visit a herbalist or a traditional Chinese medicine doctor, not only in China but in other countries in the region as well. They are rarely mass-produced and can be quite pricey. The price goes higher the more Yarsagumba there is in the product, so you’re far more likely to find it mixed with other ingredients.

Pretty much any method or recipe will work with this fungus as well if you are in the mood to make some at home. Just remember to apply the dry herb ratio to dry Yarsagumba and fresh herb ratio to fresh fungi.

OCOO and other double boilers

East Asia overall has a huge market for health and wellness products, including items related to traditional medicine. It’s not a strange thing to walk into a Chinese home appliance store and find “double boilers”, glorified electric kettles that are designed to cook herbs and other plants without destroying the more delicate compounds. These guys are so mainstream that even large companies like Xiaomi, Joyoung, Midea, and others have at least one model in their line-up.

And then, there’s OCOO.

OCOO is South Korean, but it’s considered to be Bugatti of “health-makers”. It combines the classic principle behind the classic double boiler with pressure cooking technology. It promises to preserve more nutrients than the competitions, and even to make yogurt in a single hour, or black garlic in a single day.

Obviously, it works wonders when making Yarsagumba tinctures. In (company’s) studies, each extraction has at least 60% more nutrients than the ones made with other methods and devices.

Though, all that comes at a cost. This device is already quite pricey in countries with official distributors. If you want to order one online, get ready for additional shipping cost, and import tax as well.

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Can you eat Yarsagumba as regular food?

Yes, but that can become an expensive habit pretty soon. But, if you want to add more nutrition to the cream of mushroom soup, or a duxelles paste, or any other mushroom sauce, you can add it to the recipe. Just check if your dining companions can safely consume it as well.

Can you overcook Yarsagumba?

If your goal is to consume it for its health benefits, yes.

Though every chef will tell you that you can’t overcook mushrooms, that’s only when we’re talking about maintaining their texture and flavor. Yet, there are a lot of delicate compounds that will get lost when exposed to heat (or exposed to it for too long). And the truth is you are eating Yargasumba for those compounds in the first place.

If you’re adding it to your dish, do so at the final stages of cooking to stay on the safe side. For example, if you’re making a mushroom soup, add the Yarsagumba only a second before you turn on your blender.

Can you microwave Yarsagumba?

Yes, as long as you’re working with the fresh stuff. Anything high in water content can be cooked in the microwave with, honestly, better results than most other cooking methods.

And you don’t need any special equipment – just a bowl and some plastic wrap or a silicone lid will do. Make sure that the wrap or the lid is secured properly and microwave on high for a minute or two.

Unfortunately, you will have to experiment and figure out on your own how long you should microwave Yarsagumba. The exact time will depend on the amount, size, and your microwave. But to set you on the right path. a single stalk cut into 1-inch pieces should take 1 minute at 1000W.

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Can You Dry Chicken of the Woods Mushroom?

Can You Dry Chicken of the Woods Mushroom?

Chicken of the Woods is a remarkable mushroom that grows on trees in a shelf-like arrangement, presenting bright yellows and oranges in its color. It is one of the most vibrant and easy to identify of the edible mushrooms out there, and it has other interesting properties that we will get into shortly, but the question that brought you here is, can you dry this fungus out to allow for more extended storage, or are you doomed to forever foraging for fresh batches whenever your stash runs out?

You certainly can dry out Chick of the Woods mushroom, and in doing so, you will be able to keep your batch for as much as twelve months if stored right. It is worth noting, however, that some of the mushroom’s succulence and texture is unavoidably lost in the process of drying, so eating fresh is always preferable.

If you are harvesting your own mushrooms and you can feasibly stick to only harvesting when you need more, you should always strive to do that. Not only will fresh mushrooms be a more enjoyable experience for you, but it will also mean there is more mushroom to go around. If you go out into the woods and grab all the mushroom, that means anyone else heading out for that reason after you will miss out because you have already snapped it all up. This is a particularly egregious act of greed if you then don’t even use all of that mushroom.

It also helps to be mindful of how you harvest your mushrooms. With Chicken of the Woods, simply ripping them off the tree will prevent more from growing back in that spot. If you carefully cut them away just above the base, they will likely grow back during the next season.

This type of mushroom is in season for roughly half the year, which gives you six months where you can get fresh batches. Using some of the methods we are going to look into below, you can keep your Chicken of the Woods stored away for as much as twelve months, so between that six-month harvesting window and the twelve months potential storage time; you should be able to enjoy this mushroom all year round.

What is the Best Way to Dry Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms?

One of the more popular ways of preserving mushrooms is to dry them out. This can be useful if you are going to create a powder for use in something like a tea or soup, but it can also be handy for reconstituting at a later date. Dehydrating food is a long-practiced way of keeping it viable for long periods, with little more than adding water being required to bring your food back to life—figuratively speaking—and ready for consumption.

If it’s good enough for astronauts, it should be good enough for us and our mushrooms, right?

In truth, there is a bit of a trade-off to contend with. You can undoubtedly make your Chicken of the Woods mushroom viable for longer by drying it, but it will never be as succulent and tasty as it was when it was fresh. Perhaps science will one day figure this one out, but it’s not there yet.

If you still want to dry out your Chicken of the Woods, the best method for achieving that is through the use of a dehydrator. You could also dehydrate your mushrooms with an oven, leaving it on the lowest heat with the door slightly ajar for around twenty-four hours, although this is an incredibly inefficient way of dehydrating mushrooms and might not sit well with you when the utility bills for that month arrive.

If you are going to be doing this on a regular basis, food dehydrators can be had for as little as forty dollars and are well worth the investment.

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Can You Refrigerate Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms Before Drying?

Chicken of the Woods mushroom can indeed be refrigerated, though there are reasons you may want to avoid this particular way of preserving your mushrooms. They can also be frozen if you are looking to store them for longer.

As a general rule, you should only be looking to harvest as much Chicken in the Woods as you are likely to consume within seven days, and if you are sticking to that guideline, you can usually make do by simply popping your mushroom into a paper bag—the paper part is important—and dropping it into the bottom drawer of your fridge, where it should be slightly warmer due to heat rising. If you are looking to keep your Chicken of the Woods mushroom on ice for a little longer than the recommended few days to a week, you will need to get a little more involved.

The act of freezing Chicken of the Woods mushroom tends to have a noticeable effect on the texture. It may be worth trying straightforward freezing of the mushroom to see if this change in texture is something that will bother you. If it is, there are steps you can take to mitigate the effects of freezing.

Firstly, saute the mushroom in butter, adding in a little herb of preference and a sprinkling of salt. Drop them into a plastic bag or container along with a generous helping of butter or fat. Seal up the bag or lid, pop it into your freezer, and you should be good to go.

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How Long Can You Keep Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms When Dry?

Again, we’d like to stress that the best approach—wherever possible—is only to harvest or purchase mushrooms that you are likely to consume within the following seven days. This does not just guarantee you the best possible flavor and texture from your mushrooms, but it also ensures a more sustainable foraging session. If you got out and harvest two hundred pounds-worth of mushrooms and most of it ends up not getting used, that wasted mushroom cannot then be foraged by anyone else who might have been looking for a batch.

That being said, we understand that you can’t always plan your consumption to perfection, and we are not all in a position to go out and harvest mushrooms whenever we need a fresh batch. If you need to dry out your Chicken of the Woods mushrooms, you can expect to be able to keep them for as much as twelve months. You will need to store your dried mushrooms in a cool, dry place, however. Allowing them to rehydrate at all through the act of leaving them somewhere that is humid or damp will only cause them to degrade faster, giving you considerably less storage time.

Will I Lose Nutrients by Drying Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms?

Drying out mushrooms of any kind does not typically cause a significant loss of nutrients, though it should be noted that some nutritional value will be lost over time regardless of what method of preservation you might choose. This is an unavoidable reality of living things—in this case, the mushrooms—ceasing to be living things.

From a relative perspective, however, the mushrooms may seem to gain nutritional value, but this is merely a trick of perception. Mushrooms have a very high water content, so removing that water content causes the nutrients inside to become highly concentrated. It is not that there are suddenly more nutrients; it is just that those nutrients have been packed into a much smaller space due to the absence of water.

The main thing you have to worry about from drying out your mushrooms is losing the texture of the fungi. Mushrooms—Chicken of the Woods in particular—are often desirable for their succulent, meaty texture. While you can get some of that texture back by rehydrating your mushrooms, you will never really be able to get it back to how it was before you dried it out. Of course, that doesn’t mean drying is a bad option, but it is certainly better to eat fresh wherever possible.

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Will the Medicinal Quality of Chicken of the Woods Mushroom Diminish Over Time?

Like many mushrooms, Chicken of the Woods is considered a medicinal mushroom for a range of reasons, mostly centered around some of the more beneficial ingredients that you will find inside this remarkable fungi. The medicinal properties of these mushrooms include the following.

Anti-Inflammatory

Studies have shown that the Acetyl Eburicoic Acid in the mushroom can suppress inflammatory diseases, which can, in turn, help manage the pain caused by those inflammations.

High in Antioxidants

Antioxidants are known to help your body fight off free radicals, which are responsible for a lot of cellular damage in your body. There are also some who believe that it can help with combating cancerous cells and preventing neurological diseases. The antioxidants found in these mushrooms include;

  • Kaempferol
  • Chlorogenic Acid
  • Quercetin
  • Caffeic Acid
  • Lanostanoids

Antibacterial Properties

Chicken of the Woods is a mushroom with a strong antibacterial component and, somewhat surprisingly, a strong anti-fungal one, too. These properties can help you fight infections of a variety of flavors, as well as giving your immune system a little boost.

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What is the Best Way to Rehydrate Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms?

As we mentioned above, rehydrated Chicken of the Woods will never be quite as good as the real deal, so it is better to reserve this method for situations that suit it. For example, drying out the mushroom and then grinding it into a powder to use in soup or a stew is an excellent use of dried Chicken of the Woods. You could also drop the dried chunks of mushroom directly into a stew, allowing them to reconstitute in the stew itself. The fact that they may have lost some of their succulence should be less of a problem when it is part of an ensemble cast, as it would be in a good stew.

If you have your heart set on rehydrating your mushrooms to use as big, juicy mushroom chunks, you can reconstitute them by simply soaking them in water for between fifteen and sixty minutes. Once your mushrooms are nice and plump, you can strain the water out, and you are good to go.

It is important to note that the way in which you store your dried mushrooms will have a significant effect on your success at rehydrating them. Your best bet would be to store them in a sealed mason jar or a zip lock bag. Be sure to keep them in a cool, dry place.

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How Can I Soften Chicken of the Woods Mushrooms When Cooking?

Chicken of the Woods is not the softest mushroom in the fungi kingdom, and, depending on what recipe you are dropping them into, you may find yourself needing a somewhat more tender morsel than your fresh supply grants you.

One of the easiest ways to soften up your Chicken of the Woods is a nice slow boil. You can continually add more water if the first boil does not produce the kind of tenderness you are looking for, and repeat the process until you are happy. This does not need to be a separate process, of course. If you are cooking something in a pan or skillet, you can work this tenderizing process into the recipe.

Another method that can soften up your mushrooms is sauteing them with a little oil, though this doesn’t seem to be as effective as the boiling method.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to Chicken of the Woods mushroom, the question is not so much can you dry it, but should you. It is certainly possible to dry the fungi, and it is a very effective way of preserving your mushroom haul until you are ready to make a tasty meal out of it. That being said, it could easily be argued that freezing is a better option than drying. And, if long-term storage is not critical, refrigerating for a shorter time is even better.

Of course, the best possible option is eating your mushrooms fresh because they will never be as juicy and succulent as they are the same day you harvest them.

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