Drying: cooking mushrooms at home

The easiest and most affordable way to process mushrooms is drying. At home, implementing it is not at all difficult, you just need to remember a few simple rules. Dried mushrooms for cooking tasty tasty dishes from them are stored for a rather long time, while their taste and nutritional qualities are practically not lost.

It is not recommended to dry mushrooms at home, which have a bitter taste: mushrooms, valui, lactarios, trevushki. Only strong, fresh and non-wormy forest gifts are suitable for processing.

On this page you will learn about preparing mushrooms for drying, what to do with dried mushrooms and how much they can be stored. You will also receive recommendations on how to properly dry mushrooms at home.

Preparing mushrooms for home drying

Before drying the mushrooms, washing them is not recommended. First, the mushrooms must be cleaned of debris and wiped with a damp cloth. Large should be cut into several parts, cut off the leg from the cap. Small ones are usually dried whole. To avoid contamination, it is better to dry the mushrooms on a special appliance: a net, wire rack, string on knitting needles or thread. Nowadays, electric dryers, which are very convenient for harvesting products, are becoming more common.

How to dry mushrooms at home

Mushrooms are best dried in the sun. When they are completely dry and ventilated, they should be placed in a cloth bag or special dishes. It is not recommended to dry the mushrooms in the kitchen, as they can be spoiled by foreign, sometimes very strong odors.

You need to dry the mushrooms in the sun in sunny, dry weather, and only then put them on a baking sheet through a fine sieve, dry the remaining large particles in it and grind again, because its digestibility directly depends on the size of the powder particles.

What to cook from dried mushrooms: mushroom powder

Dried mushrooms are often used to make mushroom powder. It is made from those fruits that, in dry form, have a strong aroma and pleasant taste. Most often these are porcini mushrooms. You can take several types at once. They are ground in a pepper mill or coffee grinder or simply ground in a metal or porcelain mortar. After this, the mushroom powder must be sieved.

In cooking, such a powder is suitable for preparing light mushroom puree, as a seasoning for borscht, soups, sauces, fish, meat and vegetable dishes. Before using mushroom powder, it is diluted with a small amount of warm water and left to swell for 30 minutes, then the resulting mass is added to the dish and boiled for about 15 minutes.

What to do with dried mushrooms: preparation of the extract

If you do not know what else can be prepared from dried mushrooms, it is recommended to make a mushroom extract. It has a pleasant mushroom taste and aroma; it is used as a flavoring additive for fish and meat dishes, soups, gravy and sauces. Mushrooms that do not have a bitter taste, but with a strong aroma: mushrooms, mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms, boletus mushrooms, are suitable for its preparation. Mushrooms must be thoroughly washed and peeled, then cut and pass through a meat grinder.This mass is boiled in its own juice for about 30 minutes over low heat, the mushroom juice is filtered through sterilized gauze. Then the mushroom mass is again placed in the pan, combined with a small amount of water and once again digested to finally leave all the juice, which again needs to be drained.

The mushroom juice collected in this way is salted and boiled over low heat in a large saucepan without a lid until a part of the water disappears and the broth thickens like a syrup. While the extract is hot, it is poured into small sterilized jars, tightly closed and quickly cooled. In this condition, it can be stored for about 2-3 years. Before use, the extract must be diluted with water.