Everything about drying mushrooms, what types are used, how the raw materials are prepared, the existing drying methods, how to preserve the product and make a powder with seasonings from it. Drying mushrooms is one of the ways to prepare them for future use. But unlike salting or pickling, it retains all the useful properties of the product, its deep aroma in dishes and promotes better absorption by the body. However, not all varieties are suitable for drying, some of them contain bitterness and therefore are prepared fresh or salted. Appropriate processing removes the unpleasant aftertaste from them. Those mushrooms that can be dried will be discussed today.
What mushrooms to take for drying
Mushrooms are lamellar, marsupial and tubular. In addition to them, there are two more species - tinder fungus and chanterelles. At home, you can dry:
- Tubular mushrooms … Boletus, goat, boletus of all kinds, boletus, oak, Polish mushroom, moss and porcini mushrooms. All of them have a spongy layer under the caps, consisting of the smallest tubes.
- Lamellar … Champignons, variegated umbrella mushroom, autumn, winter and summer honey agarics, deer mushrooms, fleecy scales and hangings. Thin plates are densely arranged in the radial direction under the cap of these mushrooms. It is not recommended to dry volushki, milk mushrooms and russula, their milky juice contains a lot of bitterness.
- Marsupials … These are morels and white truffles. They have a shapeless, wrinkled body and spores located in special bags. White truffle is an expensive delicacy and quite a rarity, so its preparation by an ordinary summer resident is hardly possible. Morels are conditionally edible mushrooms and must be dried in the open air for at least two months. During this time, the toxins from the product disappear, and it becomes safe for consumption.
- Polypores … These are branched and variegated tinder fungi, as well as sheep mushrooms.
- Chanterelles … This mushroom belongs to a separate family. At first glance, chanterelles look like lamellar mushrooms, but instead of lamellas, they have folds of pulp. The dried product has a slight bitterness.
How to prepare mushrooms for drying
There are different opinions on whether to wash them before drying. But mushroom pickers with solid experience wash only those mushrooms that are used for cooking, pickling or pickling. It is enough to clean them of sand, earth, moss, leaves, needles and wipe them with a slightly damp nylon cloth.
For drying, you need to select resilient, healthy and strong mushrooms that are not damaged. In boletus, chanterelles and honey agarics, the legs are usually cut off.
Mushrooms can be dried whole and sliced. In the first case, they should be sorted by size, then they will dry evenly. In the second, the mushrooms are cut into thick slices or quarters as desired. Legs of boletus, boletus and porcini mushrooms can be cut into 3-4 cm long columns or 2 cm thick cylinders.
For chanterelles, boletus, honey agarics and mushrooms, only caps are usually used for drying. Morels are dried whole.
Advice! Drying the sliced mushrooms should be started immediately, in this case the product will retain its quality and color.
How to dry mushrooms at home
Mushrooms can be considered dry if they appear light in weight, bend slightly, and break with little effort. Dry mushrooms should resemble fresh ones in taste and aroma. 10 kg of fresh mushrooms usually yield 1-1.5 kg of dried product. You can dry mushrooms in different ways, the main ones are described below.
How to properly dry mushrooms in the sun
Such drying is possible on sunny, clear days in an open, wind-blown place, protected from dust and rain. In the air, mushrooms can be completely dried or just dried, then brought to a dry state in the oven or stove. If the weather deteriorates and becomes cloudy, the process should be temporarily suspended, as the product can pick up moisture, which it does not need. To dry in the sun, the mushrooms need to be strung on a fishing line, twine or a strong strong thread so that they do not touch each other, and then hang them, covering them with gauze from flies and dust. For such "beads" you can make special comfortable stands from wooden blocks or boards.
Natural drying in sunny weather lasts 5-7 days. Mushrooms cut into slices should be dried for no more than two days. In this case, their natural color will be preserved.
How to dry mushrooms in the oven
For this purpose, instead of a baking sheet, a "standard" or specially made grid is used, which is installed in its place. Place the mushrooms on it in a thin layer and start drying them at an oven temperature of 45 ° C. In this case, they will not darken.
When the mushrooms have dried up a little, the temperature can be raised to 60–70 ° C; the oven door should be kept slightly ajar to ensure air exchange. If there are several grates, they must be periodically replaced in order to evenly dry the product.
If there are no grates, and you are also reluctant to make them, the drying procedure can be performed on a baking sheet, having previously covered it with baking paper. The mushrooms should be sized and arranged so that they do not touch. The rest of the drying process is similar to the above method.
If the plates and caps of the mushrooms are the same size, they dry the same time. Ready dried mushrooms should be removed from the oven, and the rest should be brought to the desired state, turning them over from time to time.
How to dry mushrooms in a dryer
You can make your own mushroom dryer using homemade crates, draft, or forced airflow.
The boxes are made of plywood and planks 50 mm wide. They use a mesh with a cell of no more than 15 mm as a bottom. The lower drawer is made a little larger than the others, since guides are attached to it, along which the upper drawers slide. Their number usually does not exceed 10 pieces, and the entire structure is located at the level of 30-40 cm. Its upper part is equipped with a plywood roof providing shade. The gap between the roof and the top drawer is 10 cm.
The assembled structure must be placed in a draft. To speed up the drying of mushrooms, it can be equipped with an air collector. It is made from two sheets of plywood attached to the structure at different angles. The dryer can then be installed facing the wind.
Mushrooms placed in a thin layer on the nets of all boxes must be sorted by size. Due to the air circulation through the structure, they are dried.
How to dry mushrooms in an electric dryer
The well-thought-out design of this apparatus saves a lot of time when drying mushrooms and does not require constant monitoring and presence. The electric dryer has several tiers in the form of pallets, each of which is filled with chopped gifts of nature.
Pieces of mushrooms should be stacked in one even layer on each tier of the dryer. After setting the temperature to 55 ° C and the time from two to six hours, you can do another thing while the device is working.
The duration of drying mushrooms in this way depends on the thickness of their slicing. Thin plates dry faster, and a small number do too. Therefore, when installing not five or six pallets into an electric dryer, but two or three, the readiness of the product should be checked after a couple of hours, otherwise it can be overdried. If the mushroom plates are slightly springy when bent and look dry, the device can be turned off.
How to dry mushrooms in the microwave
To dry mushrooms in this way, they need to be peeled and cut into plates 5 mm thick, then laid out on a wire rack or plate and set the microwave regulator with the product at a power of 100-180 W for 20 minutes. When the time is up, the door of the stove should be opened for 5-10 minutes to ventilate. During this time, there will be an intensive evaporation of excess moisture released by the mushrooms. This procedure must be repeated 3-4 more times. The result of the work can be dry mushrooms or their semi-finished product, subject to further shrinkage. It depends on the type of mushroom. The drying process is quite long and tedious, especially if the oven has a small volume.
How to dry mushrooms in a Russian oven
Before drying the mushrooms, sweep under the oven to remove ash and remove any container with water or food, if any, from the fireplace. During drying, the mushrooms should not come into contact with the hearth of the oven. Therefore, if the braids or gratings have no legs, then bricks must be placed under them in the "on the edge" position.
Mushrooms prepared for drying should be placed on the grates with their caps down or strung on knitting needles. When after the furnace the temperature in the furnace drops to 70 ° C, the stacked or strung product can be loaded into it. A higher temperature in the oven is not recommended - mushrooms can burn, and at temperatures below 50 ° C they dry out slowly, they can sour and deteriorate.
An important factor in the drying process of mushrooms in the oven is the removal of moisture, which is evaporated from the raw materials. In order to ensure this process, the oven damper must be placed on two bricks, between which there must be a gap for air flow.
At the beginning of the drying process, open the chimney to? gate valves. In the process of drying out the mushrooms, it should be gradually closed.
Drying of the product is uneven. Large mushroom caps dry more slowly, small ones faster. Therefore, dried mushrooms must be removed on time, otherwise they may lose their aroma and taste, and under-dried mushrooms begin to grow moldy from the slightest dampness.
How to make mushroom powder
Overdried mushrooms can be used to prepare this product. Break them into pieces and grind them in a coffee grinder. In the process of crushing, the films of mushroom fibers are destroyed, and the product acquires new properties: it is more easily absorbed in the body and has a better aroma and taste. Porcini mushrooms are especially good when crushed.
For safety when grinding, fine salt is added to the mushroom powder in an amount of 5-10% of its total weight. To emphasize and improve the taste of the product, you can add various ground spices to it: cumin, allspice, dried parsley, celery leaves, etc.
Mushroom powder is added to hot food at the end of cooking no more than one minute before the stove is turned off. In addition, it is used as a common seasoning for salads, main courses and soups. For the preparation of fragrant omelets, mushroom powder is added while beating eggs. Store the product in a tightly sealed glass container, placed in a dark place. Without reducing its quality, mushroom powder can be stored in such conditions for up to 1 year.
Dried mushroom storage rules
Dried mushrooms, especially in powder form, are highly hygroscopic. They easily pick up moisture from the air and various foreign odors. Therefore, store such a product in a well-ventilated area. As a container, you can use moisture-proof bags and metal or glass jars with lids. Linen and gauze bags are also suitable for this purpose, but in this case, the mushrooms must be separated from products that have strong odors. If, for any reason, the mushrooms have absorbed moisture, they should be quickly sorted out and dried again.
For long-term storage of the product, while the mushrooms retain their warmth and fragility after drying, they can be immediately placed in sterile and sealed glass jars. Containers are sterilized at T = 90 ° C: liter cans - within 50 minutes, half-liter - 40 minutes.
You can remove air from the jar in this way: pour a little alcohol into its lid, set it on fire, and close the jar immediately. In this case, all the oxygen in the container is consumed for fuel combustion, so an airless space is formed in the container. Thanks to him, the mushrooms will not be covered with mold, even if they have some residual moisture.
How to dry mushrooms - watch the video:
Before cooking, dry mushrooms should be washed and then left in water for several hours to swell. The product is boiled in the resulting infusion. Bon appetit, everyone!
