San Antonio 1-Pound Premium Dried Porcini Mushrooms (16-Ounce Bulk Size)

These are a great value, but they tend to be pretty gritty. This can be overcome, but it is a lot of work.1. Soak in cold water. Some say to use hot, but cold works just as well and preserves more flavor.2. Stir them around to rinse grip off then allow grit to settle3. Carefully remove them while trying to not get any grit from the bottom4. Strain the soak water through a coffee filter5. Return the mushrooms to the soak water and return to step 2. I've removed all grit after 3 rinses.I've also had success just rinsing under gold water after they've soaked, but it washes away most of the flavor ahd defeats the purpose of porcini. There is always a bit of grit in porcini, but these seem to have more than most.

These dried mushrooms had good flavor. The piece size was modest but few tiny broken piece which is sometimes the case. Overall, a 4-star rating is accurate.

Unlike the domestic varieties from Oregon, these Chinese porcini mushrooms were quite tasty. Realize that dried porcini mushrooms are harvested from the forest floor, so insects are to be expected. Also, a pound of dried mushrooms goes a long way. Unless you use them frequently, you give any insects that came along for the ride the opportunity to multiply and thrive in the bag. I had a half pound left after 18 months, and by then was an interesting biological setting, but ultimately it was no longer suitable for consumption. So, my recommendation is to buy smaller size packages and consume quickly. You'll likely be likely to be eating a few insects, but you won't know it. Ignorance is bliss.

These are great and the quality is perfect. I use them to make Bolognese by simmering in red wine for twenty minutes, then through the blender. Use both wine and minced mushrooms and add the what you normally put in. It adds to the flavor without overpowering it.

I've been using dried porcini's for 25 to 30 years. I probably go through 5 pounds a year. Usually purchase them in Europe and ship them back but purchase in the USA as well. These are by far and away the grittiest dried porcini's I've ever used. My fine mesh strainer was black. After the strainer I repeatedly squeezed the juice out of the rehydrated mushrooms. To no avail. Still some grit.Taste is good. Better than average.Not worth the trouble. This is what happens when the porcini's are not from Italy. They may have been packaged in Italy but they have all the signs of coming from Eastern Europe or China. If you're making a time consuming meal (a risotto), do you really want to chance grit ruining all that work?

Great quality dried Porcini mushrooms. So far these have all been good sized slices of mushrooms and stems. All dried wild mushrooms will have grit and need to be rinsed after soaking, as is always stated in the directions on the package!

"Premium" is a misnomer. These are very poor quality porcini mushrooms, and non-returnable to boot. Instead of looking like mushrooms, this mix looks like woody sticks and pebbles, with some worm-eaten bits . Good quality porcini should look like sliced mushrooms, clearly recognizable as a mushroom, and should feel bouncy (kind of like thin foam) and yet tender to the touch. These feel like tree bark and are very stringy and unrecognizable. They are clearly not recognizable as porcini mushrooms. Definitely they are one of the lowest grades possible. I am just hoping that they actually are porcini and not something else. They mostly smell like porcini.Also, they are "Packed in Italy" but no country of origin, so they could be from anywhere. And now I'm stuck with them. I really was misled by the nice slices in the picture above, so including what my bag actually looked like.On the bright side, I haven't found any live worms in them yet.

Delicious, but absolutely full of worms. Who knew? I do now! Kind of grosses me out. I hear that is "normal". Those whacky Italians!