10 minute build · no cook
Pickled Mushrooms on a Charcuterie Board
A premium grazing board, anchored by jars from the Grove.
- Time
- 10 minutes
- Serves
- a board for 6
- The jar
- White Shimeji and Crimini
- Ferment
- 21 days
Ingredients
- 1 jar Pickled White Shimeji
- 1 jar Pickled Crimini
- 150g aged Comté
- 100g prosciutto di Parma
- Toasted sourdough
- Fig jam & honeycomb
Method
- Drain mushrooms 5 minutes before serving and reserve a spoon of brine.
- Anchor your board with cheese, one block per corner, then layer cured meats in soft folds.
- Pile mushrooms into a small bowl or directly onto the board, glossy side up.
- Drizzle reserved brine over the prosciutto for a subtle counterpoint.
- Finish with toasted sourdough, fig jam, and a small spoon for the honeycomb.
Why this jar
Two jars, because a board wants contrast and these two give it without arguing. White shimeji stays in pale clusters and reads as the light thing on a board of heavy ones. Crimini are whole single caps, picked at about the size of an olive, and sit where an olive would.
Both are built on white wine vinegar, the mildest we use, which is the point on a board already carrying aged Comté and prosciutto. A jar fermented with a heavier vinegar — our shiitake, say — would fight the cheese instead of cutting it.
Why they go in a bowl, not straight on the board
Brine travels. A drained mushroom still carries enough to soften a cracker and dull the edge of a hard cheese within twenty minutes. A small bowl keeps it where it belongs — and the spoonful you reserve for the prosciutto is a deliberate exception, not a licence to let the rest run.
Building it ahead
Everything except the mushrooms can be laid out an hour before. Add those last, straight from the fridge, drained five minutes and no longer — they lose their chill fast and a warm pickle on a board is a sad thing. The jar keeps twelve months sealed, so this is a board you can decide on at short notice.
What to do with the rest of the jars
A board for six barely dents two 480g jars. The white shimeji goes on to toast with ricotta or into a rice bowl; the crimini spear neatly for a martini and are good chopped into an egg salad.
Once opened, both live in the fridge and are best inside four weeks. Sealed, they keep twelve months in a cupboard — which is why two jars in the house is not an extravagance for a board you might throw together on a Friday.