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Each experienced mushroom picker has his own secrets of harvesting mushrooms. It’s not enough just to pick mushrooms, you need to know which ones are worth drying, and which ones are suitable only for salting or are cooked fresh. There are general rules for drying mushrooms, and they will be discussed. I hope that the newly-made mushroom picker will be able to learn a lot of new things, and the experienced one, perhaps, will also learn something interesting for himself.
To begin with, we will decide whether it is necessary to wash the mushrooms before drying. There are different opinions on this matter, but I will say that my grandmother (mushroom picker with more than 20 years of experience) never washed mushrooms for drying, unlike those that were intended for pickling, salting and cooking. She cleaned them of dirt with a soft, slightly damp cloth. Although some recommend not to moisten the mushrooms at all.
Next, you need to select only strong, elastic mushrooms without massive damage, overripe, soft and wormy are not suitable for drying. In honey agaric, chanterelles, oil usually cut off the legs.
2. In the oven
Spread the mushrooms in a thin layer on the grill. I have it often, so I don’t have to come up with devices so that the mushrooms do not fall out of the grate. Drying on a baking sheet is dangerous because the mushrooms can burn or burn badly, but if there are no grids, then put baking paper on the baking sheet and arrange the mushrooms so that they do not touch each other.
Drying should begin at a temperature of 45 ° C, in order to avoid darkening, when the mushrooms wither, raise to 60-70 ° C. The door should be slightly opened to the width of the palm for the best air circulation. During the drying process, the grates are interchanged in order to evenly dry the raw materials.
3. In the microwave
We clean the mushrooms, cut them into thin slices about 5 mm thick, lay them out on a plate or grill and set the power to 100 W, start for 20 minutes, then open the door and ventilate for about 7 minutes, then repeat the operation 4-5 times. It is quite possible to get a ready-made raw material or a semi-finished product for further processing right away, but it is quite troublesome and long.
4. In a Russian oven
Many people wonder what is the fundamental difference between an oven and an oven. Those who have both will understand me immediately. The oven is like a separate "state". Everything seems to be the same, but the air supply technology and the quality of drying, in my opinion, are somewhat higher than other methods.
My grandmother always dried mushrooms in the oven. She put bricks under the bars. This was necessary so that the mushrooms were at some distance from the red-hot hearth of the furnace.
Prepared mushrooms can be strung on knitting needles (or thin skewers) or placed head down on a wire rack. You can put them on straw, the old fashioned way. Raw materials are laid out when the temperature in the oven drops to 60 ° C. Drying at a higher temperature threatens to damage the mushrooms (they can burn, blacken, steam). But even at temperatures below 50 ° C, they begin to turn sour, which also leads to their deterioration.
In order for moisture to be well removed, the damper is slightly opened to allow air to circulate. Another feature is the opening of the chimney: at the very beginning of drying, the pipe is opened a little more than 0.75 valves, during the drying process the pipe is gradually covered, and by the end of drying it is closed.
Due to the different size of the cap, the mushrooms dry unevenly, so it is necessary to remove ready-made, dried mushrooms and dry the remaining ones. Over-dried raw materials are poorly processed, under-dried quickly deteriorate.
When are dried mushrooms ready?
Dried mushrooms should bend, but not break, be elastic, dense, but not wet. Well-dried mushrooms are monophonic, light, without burnt and overheated pieces.
How to store dried mushrooms?
Drying mushrooms is half the battle, the main thing is to save your efforts for a long time. To do this, stock up on well-twisted banks and containers. Mushrooms easily absorb odors and moisture, very quickly become moldy. Many housewives immediately place well-dried mushrooms in a sterilized glass container and tightly close or twist. If you treat the edges of the jar with alcohol, set it on fire and immediately close the lid, a slight vacuum is formed in the jar, which helps to preserve dry mushrooms.
So we figured out how to dry your mushroom crop. Choose the right mushrooms and the right way. I hope your mushroom stocks will delight you all year with their unique smell.
Drying mushrooms in the oven is the best way to preserve harvested mushrooms! The preparation allows you to cook soup and roast at any time of the year, regardless of the season. And what a stunning aroma of dried forest mushrooms! White and boletus will go into action, but boletus, chanterelles, honey mushrooms are also suitable for drying. Shall we prepare? I'll tell you how to dry mushrooms at home in a gas and electric oven.
Ingredients
800 grams
Cooking
To begin with, clean the mushrooms from litter and leaves. However, washing them is not recommended. So, use a knife and a soft cloth. Scrape and wipe. I use microfiber, very comfortable.
Now cut the caps into slices. Not too thin, but not thick either.
Place the pieces tightly, in the process of drying they will decrease in size quite significantly.
Porcini mushrooms can also be dried with legs, I think they are very good. And they look great, they do not darken, unlike boletus.
At what temperature to dry mushrooms:
Preheat the oven in advance, and then set the temperature to 60-70 ° C. The door should be opened. So excess moisture will evaporate, and air will circulate freely. If you have an electric oven with convection (fan), then by all means turn on this mode. The convection mode intensively blows out the moisture formed from the mushrooms from the ajar oven and the drying process will go faster.
How to store dried mushrooms:
These ready-made gifts of nature should be stored in gauze or canvas bags, hanging them in a cool, not damp room, without being next to products that have strong odors. These blanks will delight you in the winter season, and even in the summer, before the start of the harvest season, sometimes you want mushroom soup.
Drying mushrooms is one of the best harvesting methods. It increases their shelf life and endows them with special properties that are revealed when cooking. Soups, salads and main dishes are more aromatic and tastier from dried mushrooms.
This method of harvesting allows you to save all the valuable and nutrients and it is preferable in terms of health. The dried product is easier for the stomach to digest and does not cause botulism. And no less important - dry mushrooms take up little space.
General rules for drying mushrooms
Drying mushrooms at home begins with the analysis of prey brought from a quiet hunt. Not all types can be dried. Tubular and marsupial representatives - boletus, boletus, boletus, boletus, mushrooms, morels and can be dried. But the lamellar ones - milk mushrooms, waves and greenfinches, are usually soaked before cooking, which means they cannot be dried.
Some edible mushrooms without processing can cause severe poisoning, such as milk mushrooms. Soaking them removes bitterness, which is dangerous to health.
Drying of mushrooms is carried out immediately after harvest. They are not washed - remember this. But dirt, debris, sand are swept away with a clean cloth. Wiping the leg and cap of the mushroom, it can be slightly wetted with water. Cut large specimens into several pieces, and dry small and medium ones whole.
How to dry porcini mushrooms at home
Mushrooms at home can be laid out on a tray, a piece of cloth or a dry board. The only condition is that they need to be stirred. In 3-4 days, a maximum of a week, they will be ready.
The process will take at least 2 days, during which they must be removed from the cabinet for mixing, airing and cooling. So you keep the beautiful color of the white mushroom pulp without overdrying the product and preventing possible burning.
How to dry mushrooms in an electric dryer
The previous method is not without drawbacks. In the warm season, heating an apartment with an ajar oven for two days is not entirely comfortable for its residents. And not everyone has ovens that can maintain a low temperature.
On sale you can find devices that can make life easier for avid mushroom pickers. They do not heat the air, consume a minimum of electricity and allow you to dry the ingredients without human intervention.
All you have to do is lay out thinly sliced chanterelles, boletus or mushrooms on trays, close the lid and set the desired time or program. After 6-8 hours the product will be ready.
How to dry mushrooms in the microwave
If you do not have an electric dryer, a microwave will help out, since this device is in every home today. After spreading the mushrooms cut into plates on a glass tray, close the door and turn the toggle switch for 20 minutes, setting the power to 100-180 watts. Drain the released liquid, cool the mushrooms, leaving the appliance door open. Drying mushrooms in the microwave requires repeating the cycle several times. The number of repetitions will depend on the variety of mushrooms, the size and thickness of the pieces.
People started drying mushrooms a long time ago. Drying is one of the best ways to harvest them. Because after simple manipulations, they can not only be stored longer than fresh ones, but also acquire a very pleasant and interesting taste and aroma that will add zest to the dish. In addition, dried mushrooms are much more nutritious than salted or pickled ones. And due to the fact that they dry out, lose weight and decrease in size, they are much more convenient and easier to store.
In order for the blanks to please you and your loved ones more than once with their excellent taste in various dishes and to be stored for a long time, it is very important to know how to properly dry mushrooms.
Why do we need dried mushrooms and where to use them?
It would seem, why might you need dried mushrooms that have a completely unappetizing look? Well, they may not look very beautiful, but when cooked they are able to turn the most ordinary dish into a real culinary masterpiece.
Dried blanks can be used for stews or casseroles. They are also ideal for making soups. In addition, dried mushrooms can be ground in a blender to produce a powder that can be used to make delicious sauces and gravies.
If you want to cook a light and hearty soup, then there is nothing better than this kind of seasoning, which will give your dish a delicate aroma and rich taste. And besides, the dried product is not as heavy as fresh mushrooms.
It is good to use the powder for the preparation of those dishes in which mushrooms are usually not put, but in which a slight specific aftertaste would be very useful. For example, borscht and mashed soups.
It is very easy to use such a blank. Simply pour the dry powder into warm water and let it sit for about thirty minutes. After that, it can be added to dishes during cooking.
What to dry?
Have you decided to dry mushrooms and don't know where to start? Of course, with sorting everything that you have collected. Knowing which species are suitable for harvesting is no less important than knowing how to dry mushrooms. Yes, not all of them are suitable for drying, because they contain bitterness that does not disappear, and then the dishes acquire an unpleasant aftertaste. If you want your preparation to be not only fragrant, but also tasty, you need to figure out which mushrooms are dried.
For this, tubular and marsupial mushrooms are ideal. These include white, boletus, boletus, mossiness mushrooms. You can also dry boletus, morels, truffles, chanterelles, mushrooms and many others. There is no difference between how to dry chanterelle or white mushrooms. You can choose whichever method suits you best.
Pay due attention to product sorting. Mushrooms should be fresh enough, not old, strong and healthy.
How to dry mushrooms correctly
The most important thing is to properly prepare the product. This is the key to success. Let's look at the basic rules.
- The first thing to do is, of course, to clean the selected mushrooms from various dirt: earth, leaves and grass.
- Next, you will need a dry cloth or napkin. It is necessary to wipe them very carefully and carefully so that they become dry. They do not need to be washed before drying.
- All prepared mushrooms should be cut into small thin slices half a centimeter thick.
- These slices should be put on a fishing line or any strong thread and hung in those places where there is the most sun. Mushrooms dry for at least a week.
Remember that such a procedure on the street can only be carried out on hot, clear and sunny days, otherwise the product will not dry to the desired state.
Other options
In addition to the above, the easiest way, there are other options for how to dry mushrooms. For example, this can be done in an oven, a conventional oven that is in every home. Or you can purchase a special electric dryer.
But the best way is when the fungi are first slightly dried in the sun, on the street, and then dried in the oven. So they turn out tastier, and it takes much less time to harvest. However, this method cannot be called economical. Why? Let's consider.
Using an oven to dry mushrooms
The oven is a versatile device. You can not only fry chicken and bake cakes in it - it is also great for drying this or that product. Let's figure out how to dry mushrooms in the oven.
We perform all the actions that are described above, cut the mushrooms into plates, but do not string them on a thread. We will need a baking sheet covered with parchment, on which we need to carefully lay out the sliced \u200b\u200bslices so that they do not touch.
Now it remains to put the container in the oven, heated to 45 degrees, and wait until the mushrooms begin to stick to the paper a little. After that, the temperature must be increased to 70 degrees. The most important thing is not to close the door all the way so that the air can circulate.
Drying in the oven lasts two days, with breaks for cooling. As you can see, this is not a very convenient way. Firstly, the stove will have to work for a long time, gas or electricity is consumed, whichever it is. And secondly, when the house is hot, a preheated oven heats the air even more, because the stove door cannot be closed all the way.
Dry mushrooms in an electric dryer
If cooking the workpiece in the oven and on the street is not the way you need, then let's look at how to dry mushrooms in an electric dryer. First of all, let's look at what kind of device it is. An electric dryer is a special household appliance designed for drying fruits and vegetables. It's also great for mushrooms. This is the most convenient and economical way.
The dryer is very easy to use. Prepare the mushrooms: clean them of dirt and cut into thin slices. Lay out evenly at a small distance from each other on special trays. Close the device, set the required time - and that's it, you just have to wait. After about six to eight hours, your mushrooms will be dry.
Readiness to check is very easy: take one slice and bend it. If it bends, but does not crumble, has elasticity, then the product is ready, i.e. dried. Just check readiness carefully. If you do not dry the mushrooms well, they will not be stored for a long time, they will become moldy and quickly deteriorate.
Rules for storing blanks
How to dry mushrooms, we have already figured out. It turned out that it is quite simple, and then how many delicious dishes you can cook!
But it’s not enough just to dry the product, you also need to know how to store it properly. After all, most likely you will not use up everything that you have prepared at once. Improper storage can cause mushrooms to become soggy and moldy.
In addition, you need to remember that they absorb odors very quickly, so you can only keep them in rooms with fresh, not stale air, and away from products that smell strongly. The room should be well ventilated and dry.
White mushrooms and morels are best packed in crates or boxes. Other types can be put in bags or bags.
Also, if there is not much dry product, you can store it in clean, tightly closed jars. If everything is done correctly, all storage conditions are observed, then they can lie like this for several years.
The best temperature for storing dry mushrooms is no more than seven degrees above zero. And the humidity of the air should not exceed seventy-five percent.
After arriving from the Carpathians this year, I still go and look for grandmothers ... mushrooms. How many delicious dishes with them. Yesterday I was directly absorbed by the mushroom topic. It rained heavily and forest specimens appeared. By coincidence, today I had to read a lot of information, learn a lot and make the first experience in harvesting mushrooms for the winter. Tried to understand how to dry mushrooms in the oven . Because I read that you can not keep them for a long time. It is worth eating or harvesting on the day of collection, maximum mushrooms can stand for a day at a cool temperature, in a dry room.
When buying or picking mushrooms, be sure that you are well versed in them. This is the first rule. It is good to learn from experienced people who will tell and show everything. You can also learn from books. I look at the pictures, read the description and match the available mushroom with the one being described. They handed me a basket of Polish mushrooms and a few porcini mushrooms. polish mushroom - from the kind of flywheels, somewhere they equated it with white. The color of his hat is brown-brown, velvety.
Spores from light white to yellowish, sometimes even olive, the stem is yellow-brown. It is considered noble and suitable for drying and pickling. When you cut the hat in half, the white color abruptly changes to blue. When I sorted through the basket of mushrooms and got rid of plant debris, I checked this fact and confirmed for myself the authenticity of this mushroom.
We can derive the second rule. Bought or picked mushrooms - check each of them. Sort, remove rotten ones. If, God forbid, you see a poisonous mushroom in the basket, the entire basket will have to be thrown away! This is very important, because mushrooms are very unpredictable guys.
When starting drying, it is advisable to choose mushrooms of the same size. I personally did not select the first batch. I just took the top ones from the basket and laid them out on a baking sheet. At the same time, the oven has already turned on to warm up to 50 degrees. Fortunately, my mushrooms were dry, this has a very good effect on the quality and drying time. As far as I understand, if the mushrooms are wet, it is very difficult to get rid of this moisture later. So rule three: mushrooms are not washed before drying. They are simply cleaned and sent to dry. Spread on a baking sheet so that the mushrooms do not touch each other. Why is that? I judge by observations. When some mushrooms lay close to me, air did not circulate at the points of contact and, separating them later, it took additional time to dry those wet places. So, it is better to do everything right at once.
We send it to the oven. The first 2 hours the mushrooms are dried at a temperature of 50 degrees. Rule #4: Leave the oven door open. To do this, roll the potholder into a tube or fold newspapers and insert from the edge of the oven. Why the open door? Mushrooms during drying lose their moisture, which initially in the fungus is about 80-90%. If the door is closed, there will be a steam room in the oven, droplets may appear on the mushrooms, which means that you made some kind of mistake. You can periodically look into the oven and separate from the grate. Now we look. If the mushroom is not sticky, touching another does not stick, proceed to the next stage. Raise the temperature to 70 degrees.
After two hours of drying at 70 degrees, in some places they write to reduce the temperature again to 50 degrees and continue to dry for another two hours. I had a case at night, I reduced it, as I read and went to bed. At 50 degrees, they dried for me with the door open for another 4 hours. In the morning, waking up, I looked and the mushrooms, well, just a little more dried up, but it was still far from the final. I again increased the temperature to 70. You know, in general, you can play with the temperature not by time, but by the appearance of the mushrooms. If they look dry, you can raise the temperature, if droplets appear, reduce and wait until they dry. In the morning, I decided to take the mushrooms out of the oven and cut into small plates, separate the legs from the caps. For some reason, I immediately threw them on the grate and the baking sheet whole, but I was convinced later that such large mushrooms would dry for three days. Even small ones are best divided into two parts, so the process will go faster.
Then I sped up the process even more. I tried to turn on the ventilation mode in the oven, but at the same time I still kept the door ajar. After a couple of hours in this mode, some mushrooms have already reached readiness. How to determine it, the readiness of dried mushrooms? They should not crumble into pieces, they should retain at least a drop of elasticity and resilience. Check each piece of dried mushroom and put those that have already dried into an airtight jar.
And why didn't I turn it on right away? Things went like clockwork, a batch of mushrooms on the grill began to dry out in 30 minutes! She did so. I put it on a wire rack, dried it for 30 minutes at a temperature of 60 degrees (by the way, I set this temperature and didn’t change it again in the ventilation mode), I transfer it to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. The grate was freed - again fresh mushrooms on it, etc.
In total, I stocked up for the winter a couple of jars of dried Polish mushrooms and cooked delicious ones with them. A very good experience, now I know by what principle my oven dries, I can prepare not only mushrooms, but also dried fruits for compotes for a child.
