chicken of the woods.

[fish]

i thaught you guys might like to see a mamoth C.O.W i found this autumn,it made a good few meals for us ,i dried some and i havent tried it yet,anyone else preserved it in any way?

http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/fishfish_01/Bushcraft/DSC00196.jpg
http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m92/fishfish_01/Bushcraft/DSC00195.jpg

thanks for looking.

[Shewie]

Can't say I've ever dried any out Justin, but then again I've never found it in such large quantities as you did. I've just chopped it up and chucked it in the pot normally, I should think dried would rehydrate if you put them in a stew or similar.

[Bush_Men]

That's some big source of chicken of the woods. The only few times I think I saw chicken of the woods was in a much smaller quantities...

[fish]

tep ime a jammy bugger finding this one! am i right in assuming that it will grow each year?

[Ashley Cawley]

That's a corker fish, nice find. :wink:


tep ime a jammy bugger finding this one! am i right in assuming that it will grow each year?
Apparently they can come back year after year if the weather suits their preferred spore'ing conditions, having said that I don't know what they prefer! You'll have to update us and let us know if it comes back.

Remember to leave some of the fruiting-body if you can (so it can spore and complete it's life-cycle). I remember one time we were out camping and found a big 'hen of the woods' like this:

http://www.english-country-garden.com/a/i/fungus/hen-of-the-woods-1.jpg

We had a large group with us and cooked it up in a giant omelette, felt guilty a couple of weeks later when someone told me their spore cycle was supposedly every 7-8 years! :rolleye:

[fish]

thats a fine looking funghi,iis it stiff or similar to the COTW?

[greebwee]

I've done them dried after finding a largish batch. They definately change in flavour when dried.. and i suppose it's up to the taster to decide. I find most mushrooms "mature" when dried in some ways, and lose some of the fresh soil like flavours. Chickens definately work more sponge like than many other choice edibles, and will rehydrate back up a LOT of liquid. Even slightly dry chickens can gobble up huge amounts of broth and/or butter... or sauce.

[Ashley Cawley]

thats a fine looking funghi,iis it stiff or similar to the COTW?
Yeah the one in the picture I posted is 'hen of the woods' here's the omelete we put it into:

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_dzoenG8Svds/SuXPWgdKIpI/AAAAAAAAh-c/znVN7YilcB4/s640/IMG_6045.JPG

Not cooked yet but...

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_dzoenG8Svds/SuXPeu27BhI/AAAAAAAAh-s/MGXy98MvvLY/s640/IMG_6047.JPG

Like my big Ali pan? :D
http://picasaweb.google.com/ashleycawley/NaturalBushcraftBushmeetAutumn2009#539694771404971 2786

[fish]

looks yummy!

[beechnut mick]

makes a great alternative to meat in a curry,although i fried it for too long and it turned abit tuff still went down a treat.