How to dry mushrooms at home. Dried mushrooms
Avid mushroom pickers usually know how to dry mushrooms in the oven for the winter - after all, they do this every year. And for those who are going to do this for the first time, we have prepared a number useful tips. Don't ignore them and you'll end up with some great dried mushrooms!
Collecting and bringing mushrooms from the forest is only half the battle; it is important to dispose of them correctly. Some of your forest “trophies” can be marinated and salted for the winter, some can be boiled and put in freezer for storage, but the most beautiful ones should be sent for drying. Why now almost everyone tries to dry mushrooms in a gas or electric oven? Because it is convenient and relatively fast. The process of such drying lasts only 7-8 hours, whereas in the natural way - in the open air - mushrooms dry for a long time, for several days.
Drying mushrooms in the oven: all the details
Remember, collected fresh mushrooms They spoil very quickly, so when you come from the forest, literally immediately start sorting and processing them. Start drying them in the oven the same day.
Usually from forest mushrooms most often boletus mushrooms are dried for the winter, although you can take boletus, boletus, and even chanterelles. And from a whole bucket, as you thought, good mushrooms Only a few pieces can be set aside for drying. Because you need to take whole, strong, not spoiled or wormy specimens. It is unlikely that you will like it when you find a worm in a soup cooked with dried mushrooms. To prevent such incidents from happening, carefully sort the mushrooms you brought.
Once this work is done, the next step is to clear them of forest debris. Since mushrooms cannot be washed before drying in the oven, they must be peeled by hand. If you see that there is a lot of dust and fine sand on them that cannot be shaken off, put on cloth gloves or take a piece of cloth and wipe the mushrooms. Use a knife to trim the long legs. It is better to cut large mushrooms into several small pieces. Leave the medium and small ones as they are.
In theory, it is best to dry these gifts of the forest in an oven or on the street. But, firstly, not even every third house has an oven, and secondly, in the middle zone there are not so many fine autumn days, so a regular oven will come to the rescue.
Before putting the mushrooms in the oven to dry, we string them onto metal or wooden rods, making something like a mushroom kebab. We put them on the wire rack oven. If you don’t have twigs or skewers, you can place the mushrooms on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, or simply on a wire rack with the stem down. But in this case, you need to put something on the bottom of the oven (a metal sheet, a small baking sheet, a bowl), because the mushrooms will release moisture during the drying process, which will contaminate your oven.
At what temperature should you dry mushrooms?
When the mushrooms are all laid out, turn on the oven for low heating at a temperature of 40-45 degrees and let them dry for several hours. There is no need to increase the temperature, otherwise you will simply burn the mushrooms without drying them. You can add it only when they are almost ready - so to speak, to help the mushrooms dry completely. The oven door should always be kept open. This will allow moisture to evaporate better. Drying usually takes 7-9 hours, but the exact time is difficult to say, because mushrooms of different sizes will dry at different speeds. If your mushrooms are light in weight, break well and bend, they are ready. Let them cool completely, pack them in canvas bags, containers or glass jars, close tightly and store in a dry place. Dried mushrooms can be added to soup when cooking, or you can boil them and make a salad from them. Bon appetit and happy “quiet” hunting!
If you want to dry mushrooms as winter preparations, you should collect only tubular mushrooms - porcini mushrooms, champignons, honey mushrooms, boletus, boletus and chanterelles. They need to be dry, so don't pick them right after it rains. Choose strong mushrooms that are not wormy. Remove dry dirt, leaves, sand from the fruit, cut off rotten and damaged areas. Mushrooms intended for drying should not be washed. Then cut the fruit to the cap; you can leave the stem of porcini mushrooms, cutting off only the tip.
Before drying, sort and cut all the mushrooms into small pieces; you don’t have to cut the small ones. They should be approximately the same size, this will ensure uniform drying.
How to dry mushrooms in the oven?
There are several ways to dry mushrooms - outdoors, in the oven, in an electric dryer. To dry mushrooms in the oven, spread them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper in a thin layer so that they hardly touch each other, then heat the oven to 45-50 ° C and let them dry, this will take several hours. After this, increase the temperature to 80 °C and simmer until done. You can string the mushrooms onto wooden skewers and place them on a wire rack. It is better to leave the oven door ajar, so excess moisture will evaporate and the mushrooms will not steam. Watch the temperature; if it rises, the mushrooms will burn. At low temperatures, the drying process will also not occur - moisture will not be released well, and the mushrooms will sour. Mushrooms are dried for about 8-10 hours.
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It is best to dry the mushrooms for several hours in the hot sun, covering them with dust, and then cook them in the oven.
If you have an electric oven
An electric oven has two baking trays - upper and lower. In such an oven, place the mushrooms on special racks and replace the baking sheets. Preheat the oven to 70°C and leave the door ajar. As the mushrooms dry, change the racks. Mushrooms may dry unevenly, so you need to periodically sort them so that the remaining ones dry evenly.
How can you tell if mushrooms are dry?
Properly dried mushrooms are flexible and springy; they never break or crumble. In mass they are significantly reduced, all the moisture has evaporated, only useful material. Overdried mushrooms break easily, make a powder out of them, it will add a mushroom aroma to dishes. On the contrary, under-dried ones are too flexible, they quickly become moldy and therefore are poorly stored.
How to store dried mushrooms?
Store dried mushrooms in a dry, tightly closed container - in glass jars, wooden boxes. Paper bags and fabric bags will also work.
The main condition for storing dried mushrooms is the absence of moisture; choose a well-ventilated room with a temperature of 5-10 ° C and an air humidity of 70%.
Dried mushrooms have a wonderful aroma, so you should also not store mushrooms with strong-smelling products, otherwise the mushrooms will absorb foreign odors.
Check and sort the mushrooms from time to time; under improper conditions, they can become moldy and spoil. Just before cooking, rinse the mushrooms with warm water.
Drying mushrooms compares favorably with other types of harvesting due to its simplicity, accessibility and ease of storage of the final product: 10 kg fresh mushrooms turn into one, thanks to which they take up little space on the shelves in urban kitchen cabinets. According to their own nutritional properties dried mushrooms are superior to salted and pickled ones. Drying only enhances their aroma, which is why soups and main courses dried mushrooms They turn out tastier and richer than fresh ones. In addition, they are easier to digest and digest without causing heaviness in the stomach, as happens from fried and canned mushrooms; They can be safely eaten without the risk of contracting botulism.
Being a perishable product, fresh mushrooms require immediate processing. If the so-called quiet hunt was successful and a lot of mushrooms were collected, drying in this case will greatly help the housewife. When the weather is hot, sunny, dry and living conditions allow, it is convenient to dry mushrooms outside, strung on threads. In case of bad weather or lack of space, one of the most reliable ways is to dry mushrooms in ovens of gas and electric stoves. Those equipped with thermostats, convection mode, and built-in fans will greatly simplify the process and speed up the time, ensuring high quality drying.
What mushrooms can be dried in the oven?
All tubular mushrooms are suitable for drying, but the best of them are porcini mushrooms. Boletus, boletus, boletus and other tubular mushrooms (whose caps look like a sponge on the bottom) darken when dried, which is why they are less suitable for preparing broths, but can be used for other dishes. Lamellar mushrooms (with the exception of honey mushrooms) cannot be dried at all. Marsupial mushrooms (morels, strings and truffles) can be dried.
Each type of mushroom should be dried separately from the others.
Processing mushrooms before drying
Only young, fresh, strong specimens without damage or wormholes are selected for drying.
Mushrooms intended for drying should not be washed! Excess moisture complicates the process itself and contributes to rapid spoilage of mushrooms during storage. Dirt, pine needles and leaves stuck to the mushrooms are removed only mechanically, wiping the mushrooms with a soft cloth or scraping off the debris with a knife. Wherein:
- the roots of porcini mushrooms are completely or partially cut off, leaving no more than half of the stem; cut parts are dried separately;
- from boletus and boletus mushrooms, nothing is cut off, but the entire mushroom is cut vertically in half or into four parts;
- For morels and strings, only the lower part of the stem is cut off;
- truffles are cut into slices;
- small mushrooms are dried whole;
- large legs and caps are cut into several parts: slices of 3–4 cm or plates of 4 to 5 mm thick.
How to place mushrooms in the oven for drying?
There are several different ways their optimal placement. Mushrooms can be:
- place in rows at some distance from each other, caps down, on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper or foil;
- place on a wire rack or grid with large mesh so that you can use them instead of baking sheets; there can be several grids and grids at once;
- string them on long wooden knitting needles or on short splinters and place them, as on skewers, across the oven on the ribs of its side walls or place them by sticking the splinters into a container with sand;
- string on a strong thread stretched in several rows onto a frame with nails (along the perimeter of the oven);
- place on metal pins or wooden knitting needles, driven in a checkerboard pattern at a distance of 6–10 cm from each other into metal shields or wooden boards.
The first stage of drying mushrooms is drying
Mushrooms arranged using one of the above methods are placed in an oven preheated to 40–50 °C for drying. At higher temperatures, droplets of released protein form on them. This will make drying difficult and degrade the quality of the final product; such mushrooms darken, lose their aroma and taste and may become completely unsuitable for food.
The convection mode, if available, should be turned on immediately. It will ensure a 100% successful result by blowing the moisture evaporating from the mushrooms out. But in any case, with or without a fan, the oven door must be constantly open throughout the drying process to ensure continuous air circulation inside the oven. In a closed oven, the mushrooms will simmer and bake rather than dry out.
The main stage of drying mushrooms in the oven
As soon as the surface of the mushrooms dries and stops sticking to your hands, increase the temperature in the oven to 60–75 °C. But no more! Otherwise, the color, taste and aroma of the mushrooms will suffer.
The exact duration of drying cannot be determined immediately. Even specimens carefully selected in size and thickness will dry out at different rates. Therefore, from time to time you need to check the mushrooms by touch, turn them over and remove the dry ones, leaving the unready ones to dry.
In old stoves with primitive gas ovens, the process with periodic ventilation, heating and cooling can last for two days, but it will preserve the beautiful color of the mushroom pulp and protect the product from burning and overdrying.
Mushrooms can be strung on strings and dried first in the sun, and then dried in the oven. Or vice versa - first dry it in the oven, and then dry it in the sun.
If necessary, mushrooms from the oven can be dried in the air indoors.
How to determine the readiness of dried mushrooms?
The readiness of mushrooms is determined by touch and by breaking. Properly dried, they should be light, easy to bend, break, but not crumble.
How to store oven-dried mushrooms?
The finished dried mushrooms are completely cooled and only then placed in containers, metal or glass jars. Storage containers must be perfectly dry, with hermetically sealed lids. No moisture from the air should get into it. Only in this case will the mushrooms be stored for a long time without losing their taste and aroma.
If the room in which the mushrooms will be located is sufficiently dry and well ventilated, you can string them on a thread, wrap them in clean gauze and hang them. In this state, dried mushrooms can be stored for more than one year; however, over time they will still begin to lose their taste.
If during storage the mushrooms for some reason suddenly become wet, they should be immediately sorted and dried.
It is important to thoroughly clean the mushrooms immediately after picking. There is no need to wash them: just clean them with a brush and cut off the damaged areas with a knife.
How to dry boletus mushrooms in an electric dryer
Electric dryers for processing mushrooms are convenient because you can hardly monitor the process. They evaporate the moisture, leaving everything useful qualities and a delicate mushroom aroma. In addition, with this cooking method they do not darken.
How to properly harvest boletus mushrooms in an electric dryer:
- Cut the mushrooms into slices. The thinner they are, the faster the drying process will go.
- Place the slices on trays, place them on the appliance and cover with the lid.
- dry boletus should be kept at a temperature of 55 degrees. The process will take approximately five hours. Periodically, it is worth changing the trays so that all the mushrooms dry evenly.
Ideally dried boletus mushrooms are springy, but do not break. If they darken and become brittle, it means you have dried out the mushrooms. Such slices should be ground into powder for soups and sauces.
How to dry boletus mushrooms in the oven
Most apartments and houses have ovens, so this kind of drying can be called universal. It does not require any special costs or effort.
How to proceed:
- Cut the mushrooms into thin slices and place on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Heat the oven to 70 degrees and place the baking sheets with boletus mushrooms.
- After an hour, the slices must be turned over and then dried for the same amount of time.
If the mushrooms are still wet, they need to be kept in the oven longer, turning them over from time to time.
You can also try drying the fruits of the forest outdoors, if the weather permits. There are two ways to save energy on such home preparations. Sliced boletus mushrooms can be laid out on paper or strung on a thread and kept in a well-ventilated place. A fan heater will help speed up the process.
You should not choose old mushrooms for drying - they can be toxic. The thin legs of boletus mushrooms are also not very good for this type of workpiece.
Dried boletus mushrooms should be stored in canvas bags, paper bags, tightly sealed glass jars or vacuum containers. Before cooking, it is recommended to infuse the prepared boletus mushrooms in salted milk - they will be as fresh.
