Auricularia auricula-judae - Recipe Ideas!

[Mikey P]

Also known - somewhat impolitely, in my opinion - as "Jew's Ear".

Managed to find a shed-load of these on some elders by the Forth & Clyde Canal, up round Bishopbriggs.

I have dried them in the dehydrator and they have shrunk significantly, making them a lot easier to store - they rehydrate easily without losing their shape.

I'm pretty sure I have eaten them before in Thai cooking and they can be crumbled and used to bulk out soups but I am looking for your suggestions of what to do with them. They are, apparently, fairly tasteless by themselves.

 

[Adze]

I can't speak from personal experience of them but Peter Jordan, the author of 'Mushroom pickers foolproof field guide' recommends the following:

Make a sauce with onions, garlic, basil and finely sliced Jew's Ears, thickening it with a little cream, and using it to fill vol-au-vent cases or to spread on croutons.

However, vol-au-vents will hardly fill you up and they're a RPITA to muck about filling - perhaps a Jew's Ear terrine/paté might be a more realistic bet?

 

[Toddy]

I just slice jelly ears (see the link at the end) into fine strips and dry them. If you try cooking them from fresh they spatter hot fat all over the place.
Dried ones I soak in hot water and I add them to stir fries. They have a really good texture that I like, but then, I'm quite happy with a meal that's only veggies
They don't have much taste, but they do add a kind of thickening to a stew, and as I said, I like the texture. They're also incredibly common around the Clyde Valley

cheers,
Toddy


http://www.britmycolsoc.org.uk/files/ENGLISH_NAMES.pdf

 

[EdS]

or Judas Ear - where the whole Jew bit comes from. As according to the legends Judas hanged himself from an Elder tree.

 

[Toddy]

Sorry, I won't promote or encourage Medieval religious bigotry, especially when it was really an attempt to remove the indigenous respect for the crone in the tree too.
Basically Christian propaganda removed the incredibly useful Elder tree from common usage because of it's orginal Pagan and later (spurious, it doesn't grow in the Holy Land I'm assured) Jewish associations.

The British Mycological Society guidelines are simple, widely acceptable names.

End of rant. Off to read something else.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[chickenofthewoods]

We always called them dead men's ears when we were kids because of the colour and the cold, jelly like but slightly downy texture.

I'd go with Toddy's suggestion. I do them the same way, shredded into stir fries and noodle dishes. Quick, easy and ideal as backpacking food, the eating texture is oddly un-jelly like with a pleasing and very slight crunch. I usually carry a couple of packs of Blue Dragon stir fry sauce and some noodles & just chuck in whatever else is to hand.

 

[jdlenton]

I believe the name that is now recommend is Jelly Ear, a very secular choice IMO

 

[Mikey P]

Hear hear! Or is that 'Here Here!' .... ?

Yep, Elder has striking number of uses and, whilst I'm not quite as militant as Toddy D) over the hijacking of the tree for various nefarious purposes, I agree that it has had an undeservedly bad press in the past.