Polish Mushrooms, $89.00 per pound

So I was in Andy's Deli on Division this morning like so many other mornings. While it was hard not to stare at the too-perfectly-beautiful-to-actually-be-attractive clerk working the register today, my gaze was caught by the plastic jar of rather crimini-looking dried mushrooms on a high shelf behind her. Next to the jar was a large handwritten sign proclaiming in Polish that the mushrooms can be had for $89 per pound.

I was struck by the fact that these particular mushrooms could be so dear at a place where one can absolutely gorge for like five bucks. Very important and popular for Xmas, I am informed, and used in any number of dishes including Pierogi.

They must be damn fine mushrooms, really. They must be because the thrifty and demanding regulars at Andy's buy them.

(A quart container holds about .3 ## of the fungi, to give you an idea of the volume to weight to cost ratio.)

The dried Polish mushrooms traditionally used in Xmas (and many other dishes) are generally porcini.

Can you post a picture? Maybe get one of the food too.

$89/lb? That sounds outrageous.
But if someone said $5.56/oz for dried mushrooms, I'd probably just say, "Those must be the good ones."

A quick look at http://ethnicgrocer.com showed dried mushrooms in a range of about $0.30 to $7.32 per ounce -- both for shiitake!

At Mitsuwa, I've seen fresh matsutake mushrooms for $59.99/lb.

JoelF wrote:$89/lb? That sounds outrageous.
But if someone said $5.56/oz for dried mushrooms, I'd probably just say, "Those must be the good ones."

I had a hard time wrapping my head around this at first too. I did a little digging and found places that regularly sell dried porcinis at about 8.95 for 1.5 oz. That works out to about $95/lb.

Here's one:
http://www.chefsresource.com/porcini.html

That site mentions an 8-to-1 ratio of weight of fresh to dried mushrooms.

I've purchased small jars like this before at around 8 bucks, but I usually only stock dried shiitakes in the house, which are much, much cheaper.

Best,
Michael

Yes, but these mushrooms must still have some water or something else that makes them heavy enough that a standard Chinese soup quart container of them, with plenty of air in between, weighs 1/3 of a pound and costs 20-something dollars. I don't know. I thought it seemed expensive. Maybe not. For what it's worth, the negoziante said the mushrooms are picked in the woods of Poland. By Polish people, like her. I enjoyed the image.